From The Car Connection

Detroit Show Could Bare Honda Pickups

Honda will float the idea of pickup trucks wearing its badges at the Detroit auto show in January - but the company is already far along in developing a casual-use pickup for both Honda and Acura brands, according to one report. Honda Motor president and CEO Takeo Fukui disclosed the pickup truck approach in Automotive News (November 17), telling a Tokyo interviewer that the pickup will be offered in Honda and Acura editions with 50,000 to 60,000 units a year to be sold in the U.S. According to Fukui, 58, no decision has yet been made as to whether the pickup would be built in Alliston, Ontario, or the new Odyssey minivan plant in Lincoln, Alabama, but there will be a distinction between Honda and Acura models with Acura being the smaller of the two.

The pickup will mark a truck market entry for Honda, responding to steady growth of a segment it has not previously entered. Fukui, former chief of Honda's R&D section, said the pickup would "offer a comfortable ride like a passenger car, good fuel economy and space utility. We're not aiming it at buyers of Big Three pickups because we're not out to antagonize the Big Three," Fukui said. Future Acuras will look decidedly different than Hondas, according to Fukui, which would be "distinguished from other Japanese brands." -Mac Gordon

- the notion of an Acura pickup is news to me. Did anyone hear anything about or expect this?