With cars especially, the division into “imports” and “domestic” is somewhat of a misnomer, as foreign cars are not necessarily made abroad and domestic cars at home. Owners of Fords might be surprised to learn how many of the parts of their cars come from Japan; and Toyota owners of today can visit the carmaker’s large manufacturing and test facility in the U.S. Among the first foreign car companies to begin to blur this distinction was Honda.

On this day, November 1, in 1982, the Honda company of Japan, who already had a wildly popular model of motorcycles selling in the U.S., adapted their assembly plant in Ohio to also produce Accords. They became the first foreign-owned company to make cars in the U.S.

Before Honda had their cars, they had a motorcycle. It did not even have a unique name — the Japanese version was called Super Cub, but that was taken by the Piper aircraft company — yet the Honda 50 was “thrifty and nifty,” as the advertisements called it, combining a practical motor with easy handling and a small price tag. The Honda 50 was the anti-Harley, which suited thousands of buyers just fine.