A hoosier-made Honda.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Indiana-made Honda Passport sport/utility vehicle - Made in Indiana

Hoosiers who want to drive off-road and help the state's economy at the same time now have another vehicle choice, this one from Honda.

The 1994 Honda Passport is now on the lot, and dealers hope the Honda nameplate will make it a strong contender in the sport/utility vehicle category. The Passport actually is a somewhat restyled version of the Isuzu Rodeo, and like the Rodeo, the Passport is made at the Subaru-Isuzu Automotive plant in Lafayette.

The Passport marks Honda's first entry into sport/utility vehicles, a response to the growing popularity of that segment of the business. Honda notes that some 900,000 sport/utility vehicles were sold in 1992, with sales expected to nearly double that by the turn of the century.

Honda and Isuzu began looking into a so-called "complementary-product agreement" in the early 1990s, and decided about the end of 1992 that such a deal would work. The agreement sets up a win-win situation for the two companies. It not only gives Honda fast entry into a new vehicle segment, but also provides Isuzu with Honda-made automobiles to sell in Japan under the Isuzu name.

It also helps boost production at the Indiana SIA plant, which will make about 20,000 Passports this year and as many as 30,000 annually in coming years. Partly as a result, SIA is adding new employees this year for the first time since 1992.

The Passport comes in three series: the DX, LX and EX lines. The DX is the most economical of the three, and comes with a 2.6-liter, 120-horsepower four-cylinder engine. It features a two-wheel-drive, five-speed manual transmission.

The LX and EX models feature a 3.2-liter, 175-horsepower V6, with either manual or automatic transmission. The LX can be ordered with or without part-time...