One of the most reliable names in the automobile market is Honda. Honda has developed popular looking cars that are also reliable and fuel efficient, but here are 7 Things You Don’t Know About: Honda.

1. Though Honda is not the largest car maker in the world, it is the largest engine maker in the world.

2. the Honda company, operating in war torn Japan following World War II, got its start attaching engines to bicycles and marketing them as cheap transportation.

3. Honda didn’t start developing prototype road cars until the 1960s.

4. The first production vehicle built by Honda was the 1963 T360 which was a small pickup truck that also had a panel van version.

5. The popular Honda Civic first came to the United States in 1972.

6. In 1986, the Acura line made Honda the first Japanese automaker to introduce and market a separate luxury line of cars.

7. Honda is also the maker of the first motorcycle equipped with an airbag (the 2006 Gold Wing).

With some of the more sought after car models on the market today, Honda is poised to stay at or near the top of the automobile world for years to come.

There are few companies that are more American than Harley-Davidson. But, here are 7 Things You Don’t Know About: Harley-Davidson.

1. Harley-Davidson considers 1903 as its first year in business.
2. The first Harley-Davidson made had trouble making it up hills without the assistance of the rider utilizing bicycle pedals.
3. In the 1970s, during a routine cleanup project at the factory, the original shed from the Davidson’s backyard where the first Harley-Davidson’s were built was inadvertently destroyed.
4. Founder William Harley graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1907, a full four years after founding the motorcycle company.
5. In 1921 a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was the first bike to win a race averaging over 100 miles per hour.
6. During World War II, Harley-Davidson produced over 90,000 military motorcycles.
7. Though it is an undeniably American company, the first British motorcycle riders club was the Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain.

Harley-Davidson has had good years and rough years but remains an American institution.