Father of the CITY Retires
A simple affair was held at Desa Sri Hartamas to celebrate the retirement of the creator of Honda City, Takashi Saito. He has been the driving force of the Large Project Leaders office in Honda R&D Co. in Japan. Organised by Honda Malaysia, the party was also attended by 100 members from TeamCity.
From left: Father of City, Takashi Saito, Honda Malaysia MD/CEO, Mr Atsushi Fujimoto
In a special media interview with Mr Saito, he said the response of the public on the City was tremendous over the years. He was truly excited about the fact that the creation of the City since the first edition back in the late 90s has been well received by Malaysian drivers. He also pointed out that his R&D team in Japan had put in huge amount of time and efforts to fine-tune the City, which was specifically designed for the Asian market. He had to thank the Malaysian customers and the media, especially, for being the ‘beacon of light’ in continuously improving the City for being the leader in fuel efficiency.
The reason for his retirement is that he wants to see fresh new blood in the R&D team spearheading the City model. He also said it was time for him to step down to make way for the younger generation to continue his legacy on the City.
The first generation Honda City was introduced in Malaysia in 1996 with a face-lifted model in 1999. This was followed by the second generation Honda City launched in 2003, followed by a face-lift model in 2005.
TeamCity’s president, Samz Lum gave a short speech, thanking Honda Malaysia for giving them the opportunity to have a face-to-face of the City’s creator. A short video presentation depicting the Team’s outings and activities along with various shots of the City in different modification were played. The background music that accompanied the video was very touching in the dimly-lit, open-air set up of the ceremony.
The man at the helm of the successful Honda City giving the thumbs up.
Mr Saito considered Malaysia to be his second home as he claimed to have travelled to this country more than 40 times since the launch of the 1st generation of the Honda City. He couldn’t thank enough to the Malaysian public on the achievements of the City garnered over the years.
