It wasn’t so much about what Isuzu had to offer as what Honda DIDN’T…Originally Posted by Pghachey
Honda wanted to gain a foothold into the (then) ever-expanding SUV market, in the worst way - however, at the time they had nothing in the pipeline – or even on the drawing board for that matter. --- So they shopped around and struck a deal with Isuzu - a marriage of convenience if you will…
Isuzu profited by a nice increase in overall production numbers, and Honda was able to start cashing-in almost instantly on the skyrocketing SUV sales phenomenon, by offering the Honda Passport (a re-badged Isuzu Rodeo), and the Acura SLX (a re-badged Isuzu Trooper).
Not anymore, but at one point they did…
Part of the deal with Honda included a little bit of reciprocity, wherein Honda supplied their Odyssey mini-vans to Isuzu (who had no mini-van in their line-up), and Isuzu re-badged them and sold them as the Isuzu Oasis… although, they never sold very many of them – rather like the (Trailblazer/Envoy-derived) Ascender’s limp sales figures now.
On that one, I honestly don’t know.
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