The largest car manufactured by the company to that point, the front wheel drive 1300 was released as a sedan and coupé intended to compete primarily against Japanese automotive stalwarts such as the Toyota Corona, Mazda Capella, Mitsubishi Galant, and Nissan Bluebird.

An ambitious project spearheaded by Soichiro Honda, it was plagued by engineering delays and high price compared to its competition.

[3] It was reported at the time that launch was delayed by a couple of months because company president Soichiro Honda found the styling of the car as presented at the Tokyo Motor Show the previous year unacceptably bland and called for a redesign.

In European terms, the car's engine size and dimensions would have placed it in the competitive sector of small 1300 cc family sedans, although its 57-inch (1,400 mm) width, reported to have been selected in order to qualify for the lower tax class on the domestic (Japanese) market, was significantly below the European standard represented by cars such as the Ford Escort of the time.

The two-door coupé bodystyle, with a longer and sportier looking front end, was added to the lineup in February 1970.

Hideo Sugiura, then the head of the R&D Center, looked back upon the sentiment of the time: "We had a powerful company founder, Mr. Honda, who was on top of the engineering operation.

The initial prototype was completed in July 1968, after which dynamic performance testing, temperature measurements and other basic evaluations were conducted.

Initial skepticism was expressed among competitor manufacturers and in the trade press concerning Honda's power output claims for the car, but those who drove it reported an engine that would freely rev to an indicated 8,000 rpm and remarkable performance for a 1,300 cc engined car: the factory figure at launch for a standing quarter-mile acceleration test of 17.2 seconds was felt to be not unreasonable.

Next, in the 1969 Japan GP the similar Can-Am style Carman-Apache made its racing debut, with a Honda 1300 engine tuned to 135 PS (133 hp; 99 kW) at 7,000 rpm, mounted transversally in the middle.

[2] Suspension was independent, employing MacPherson struts at the front and an unusual combination of full-width swing axles and half-elliptic leaf springs at the rear.

Under the new system, Honda introduced the water-cooled Life and Civic models as its new mini automobile and small passenger cars.

The 145's body was little changed from the 1300, but it was powered now by a water-cooled 1,433 cc engine with fuel injection instead of carburetors,[10] the inspiration for the car's name.

The market was not impressed by the 145: only 9,736 were produced as the model quickly found itself overshadowed by Honda's new Civic, and the 145 ended production in October 1974.