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Honda Will Add Small Car, Truck
by: Kathy Jackson

LOS ANGELES — American Honda Motor Co. Inc. will add a small car to the Honda lineup next year and give Acura a second light truck sometime in the next two years, Executive Vice President Thomas Elliott has disclosed. Conceding a need for Honda to lure younger buyers, Elliott said the new car will be “a true entry-level car, cheaper than the Civic.” He declined to elaborate. Jeff Schuster, director of product analysis for J.D. Power and Associates, said the Honda Fit is on his company’s latest forecast for sale in the United States. “I have it coming in mid to late ’05,” he said. The front-drive subcompact Honda Fit is sold in Japan as a four-door sedan, the Aria, and in Europe as the five-door Jazz. It is powered by gasoline engines ranging from 1.2 liters to 1.5 liters. The car is smaller than the Civic. A dealer source said that Honda executives had told him the U.S. car will be a version of the Fit. “It will be a car for young people in about the $12,000 range,” said the source. “Young people will be able to accessorize it like the Scion.” Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., which is rolling out its Scion youth brand nationwide this year, says Scion buyers typically add more than $1,000 worth of factory-authorized accessories to their vehicles at the dealership. Elliott would not give any details about the new Acura truck but said it will be smaller than the MDX and probably would not be built in the United States. “Our percentage of truck sales is not where the market is,” Elliott said. “If you want to compete, you must be comparable to the market.” Trucks represented 53.7 percent of total U.S. vehicle sales through April 30 but only 38.9 percent of American Honda’s sales, which were about flat through the first four months of the year. Copyright 2004 Crain Communications Inc

Last Edited: 2004-05-29

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