Hondas at least used to (I haven’t kept up) have that great cheap/reliable car reputation… “the Honda of rockets” has a good ring to it I think, haha.
“Sure, your rocket’s reusable, but can it go 300k miles on the original engine?”
300k miles is only about 12 low earth orbits, so easily achievable by a second stage booster (though it’s going to be coasting for most of it). Not so easy for a booster though.
Really once the rocket is in space, the joke kinda falls apart; frictionless vacuum and all that.
Awaiting the rocket engine equivalent of the K20.
They still are, they're still references in durability/quality for motorcycles as well (together with the other Japanese manufacturers).