alien@gcc-opus.ARPA (Alien Wells) (01/24/85)
From Road and Track, February 1985 Honda Acura Revisions Plans for Honda's separate second distribution line in the U.S., known as Acura, have changed somewhat. Originally, the program called for Acura dealers to sell only upmarket cars, starting with the Executive sedan jointly developed with BL of England. Troubles with production of the Honda V-6 engine have set that car's debut back from early to mid 1986. There will also be a mid-engine V-6 sports car in the Acura line. The new plan is for the Acura dealers to start with the Quintet sedan, already on sale in Europe and Japan. This is a smaller and less expensive car that would probably be in the under $10,000 price range, whereas the Executive is expected to sell for more thatn $15,000. Honda has decided to broaden the scope of the Acura network so that it will not be strictly a high-dollar car line. Alien's Comments: A picture of the Quintet 'sedan' appeared with the article. It was a hatch. Presumably the Quintet will be offered in both, similar to the Accord and Civic. Their approach to the Acura line seems to be paralleling their time-honored approach to the Honda line in the US. The Quintet will be offered as the 'practical, starter' car with two upgrade paths into the more luxurious Executive sedan and the sporty mid-engine V-6. BTW, current Honda dealers are being offered first option on Acura dealerships, expect most of them to bite. Honda has been belly, belly good, to them. A note about the 'joint development' with BL. For those who are not aware, Honda has been dealing with BL for a while now. (BL used to be British Leyland until nationalization.) I read a rather lengthy, but good, article in the Wall Street Journal about it about 6 mo ago. It seems that BL has been producing really bad cars since nationalization (surprise, surprise), and the only reason that anyone buys them is that England has much worse import quotas than we do. When BL decided they needed a new car model, they also admitted that they were not competant to design it, and turned to Honda. I believe that the first car they worked on together was the same Quintet that Honda will be bringing to the US under the Acura name. Honda did all the design, parts specifications, assembly line design, etc. BL built them. BL saw this as a way to sell a car that someone would want to buy (and was very sucessful), Honda saw this as a way to crack the very protective Common Market (and was very sucessful). The 'joint venture' was Honda supplying the design and manufacturing know-how and BL supplying the legal loophole to allow Honda to sell in Europe. The joint venture on the Executive sedan is, no doubt, being done on the same basis. Honda is also doing a number of things to enable them to sell the extra cars in the US. The first is that they are doubling the capacity at their US plant, and I have heard that it will produce Civics as well as Accords. This frees Honda's import quota to import Acuras. The second thing I heard rumored is that they might not only use BL to crack Europe, but perhaps the US as well. A BL produced Executive would not be a Japanese car, and thus could be imported to the US without affecting Honda's quota. Honda has already passed Nissan as the #2 Japanese car in the US (if you include their American made cars) and either has passed or soon will pass both VW and AMC as the #4 American car manufacturer ... Still no plans to import the Honda City (smaller and higher mileage than the Civic, would make a great commuting car). Don't expect it unless import quotas come off ... Alien
preece@ccvaxa.UUCP (01/29/85)
> ... The second thing I heard rumored is > that they might not only use BL to crack Europe, but perhaps the US as > well. A BL produced Executive would not be a Japanese car, and thus > could be imported to the US without affecting Honda's quota. ---------- The current low value of the pound would also help make the car a strong contender.
haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (02/03/85)
In article <207@gcc-opus.ARPA> alien@gcc-opus.UUCP (Alien Wells) writes:
Honda has already passed Nissan as the #2 Japanese car in the US (if you include
their American made cars) and either has passed or soon will pass both VW and
AMC as the #4 American car manufacturer ...
-----
For your information, some production figures:
Jan 1-19, 1985 Jan 1-21, 1984
American Motors 7,865 8,924
Chrysler 68,103 62,581
Ford 107,023 84,287
General Motors 282,481 280,551
Honda 8,739 6,600
Volkswagen 5,213 6,585
Naturally, these don't quite qualify as valid as annual production
(e.g. the Golf production is not quite up to full speed etc.) but
gives you an idea of how things are going for Honda. All figures from
the January 21 issue of Automotive News.
\tom
watmath!watdcsu!haapanen