Honda Cars : Honda considering bringing Japanese models to the U.S. | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., encouraged by U.S. demand for Fit subcompacts, is reviewing its Japanese lineup for other possible imports as near-record fuel prices spark interest in cars once viewed as too small or quirky.

"There are a couple of things that we are looking at again, whether they make sense right now,'' Dan Bonawitz, Honda's U.S. vice president for corporate planning, said in an interview yesterday, without naming specific models.

The U.S. introduction of the Fit in 2006, five years after its Japan debut, is helping Honda post gains in 2008 even as a slowing economy and gasoline that topped $4 a gallon erode industrywide demand. U.S. sales of the hatchback, rated at 30 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, jumped 73 percent through last month.

Those gains contributed to making Honda the only major automaker to expand U.S. sales this year. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are now also considering bringing in small cars designed for overseas markets.

Honda has studied the compact Stream wagon and a Japanese version of the Odyssey minivan that would be categorized as a station wagon in the U.S., Bonawitz said in an interview in Malibu, California. He declined to say whether either would be added to Honda's U.S. lineup.

The automaker is also benefiting from demand for fuel- efficient Civic small cars and four-cylinder Accords. Honda's U.S. sales have grown 3.2 percent this year, compared with an 11 percent industrywide decline through the first seven months.

The company won't rush any Japan market models to the U.S. until it's confident current U.S. patterns are likely to continue, said Bonawitz, who manages a team of U.S. product planners.
"We've got a fairly long-term product plan laid out and we're going to try to stick with that,'' Bonawitz said.

The company's U.S. headquarters are in Torrance, California.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net.