With the unexpected but welcome boost in sales of the Honda Fit in the U.S. due to high gas prices, Honda is considering bringing other small cars over from its home market in Japan. The small hatchback’s sales leaped 73 percent in July from the same time period in 2007.
Such a decision would certainly mirror GM and Ford ’s plans to bring over smaller, more fuel efficient cars from its European markets, but specifics on Honda ’s plans are in short supply.
“There are a couple of things that we are looking at again, whether they make sense right now,” Honda’s U.S. vice president for corporate planning, Dan Bonawitz said in a Bloomberg report. The company has looked at the Japanese Stream wagon and a smaller Odyssey that would be considered a station wagon in the U.S. market, though it is deciding to take a wait-and-see approach to see if the current market trend continues.
“We’ve got a fairly long-term product plan laid out and we’re going to try to stick with that,”‘ Bonawitz said.
Thanks to its fuel-efficient line-up and record sales of the Fit and Civic, Honda’s U.S. sales have grown 3.2 percent this year while the overall industry slumped to the tune of 11 percent in the first seven months of 2008.
The Fit has been on sale in Japan and Europe, labeled as the Jazz, for more five years before it was launched in the U.S. in 2006, and an all-new model will come to showrooms for the 2009 model year.
