That title is called a teaser. They might not. They're just seeking bidders now. Anyway, here's the edited story from autonews.com:

"LOS ANGELES -- American Honda Motor Co. Inc. is taking bids on parts for a proposed compact sport-utility similar to the Ford Explorer SportTrac, according to supplier sources. The vehicle is expected to have four doors and a short bed.

Given the early status of the bids, the project most likely is a concept vehicle.

If approved, vehicle production would begin in about three years, an industry consultant said.

Dan Bonawitz, American Honda vice president of planning and logistics, did not deny that a sport-utility with a pickup bed was coming.

"We're working on all sorts of things," Bonawitz said"



This idea intrigues me. They don't seem to be selling entirely well at all, and I don't see the sense of breaking into the pickup market with that. I suppose it'd be off the CR-V/Element's chassis, maybe the Accord/MDX's.Anyways, I can't imagine what this thing would look like and how it would sell. Anyone else have any opinions? This just confuses me further on Honda's intentions.

 

For some reason I think I heard about this before. Anyways, a truck without a V8 wont cut it. Theyll sell a decent amount to people who always wanted a Honda "truck", but the other 95% of truck buyers wont look at it twice.

 

Let's put it this way. I've been seriously thinking about getting one of the Ford SportTrac or a Dodge Dakata Quadcab (trading in the Saturn wagon for it). Owning a old house, I need a pickup truck for doing work around the house, but I can't stand not having a full rear passenger room for guest and my dogs. I think these 4dr shortbed pickup will be the next popular niche for people like me don't want to give up carrying around 4 passenger but needs a truck for part-time purposes. I say if Honda builds it, it will be a winner, but I hope they put a V6 in it. I need a little more towing capacity than the 1,500lbs in the CR-V.

 

the pilot can tow 3,500 lbs and costs 26k...a little more expensive than the explorer...there's also a waiting list for pilots and depending on the dealer can run up to 6 months

 

The Pilot can tow 4500lbs actually. There's two things I don't like about the Pilot. One is the steering wheel shifter and the second is the lack of sunroof. Other than that, I think its the best urban SUV on the market.

But I don't want a SUV, if possible. There are times when I had to call my friend up to help me carry a fridge, patio table, some patio bricks, lumbar, lawn rubbish, mulch, etc.... Things I would not carry inside the cargo area of a SUV (or my wagon for that matter).

 

They could introduce maybe a bigger V6 or an updated one which will allow the "truck" to tow more. I dont think anybody will buy it looking for a heavy duty truck.

It's actually a very smart move. Test the water with a product thats halfway there, and if it doesnt work out, you just saved yourself tons of money on R&D.

We could only help it does work out, and then they build a real truck. And I highly doubt theyll release a full size pickup without a V8.

 

If anything it'll be built on the Pilot/MDX platform, otherwise the platform wont be big enough for for 4 doors and a 6 foot bed.

 

Which would be Global Midsize, correct? The article said compact , which throws me off.

 

It might be compact compared to a Avalanche maybe. I dont know, I guess they arent going to go after the normal truck buyer.

Another thing, know GM's Inline-6 in their new mid-zive SUV's, the one that puts out 270hp and 275lb/ft of torque? Heres the catch, its a 4.2L engine, thats well into V8 territory. So in order for Honda to get "V8 like power" theyll need to upsize their V6's quite a bit.

 

V8 like torque, than yes, it needs to be big. 4.0+ liters. V8 like power, it doesn't need to big. Honda can easily build a 3.8L V6 with 250 foot pounds and 300-310 HP, that will only rev to about 6500-6800 RPMs.