Funny thing, huh? For some reason, consumers grabbed onto trucks as The Big Thing To Have To Keep Up With The Joneses and the manufacturers responded. But a luxury minivan? Nah.
I wonder what would happen if Daimler put a Mercedes AWD drivetrain into a very well appointed Chrysler minivan and sold it at Mercedes dealers.
But, you hear it all the time: "I don't WANT to look like some mommy, driving some mom-mobile! That's why I bought this truck, which is less spacious and less suited to the task. Minivans just scream MOM!" Sure. Uh-huh. As if the three little trolls you're dragging with you everywhere don't scream MOMMY!
I've said it for months now: if there was a market for a luxury minivan, my 02 EXL-RES would have come from the Acura dealership.
It's plain to see that Honda didn't put leather and other goodies into the Ody from the beginning because all those goodies are really Acura goodies. And notice how even the EXL models full of RES and NAV and whatnot don't have the real Acura goodies--power seats on both sides, power seats and steering wheel that adjust based on whose remote unlocked the van, etc. In Honda's mind, at least for now, those types of goodies *will not* be put onto Honda-badged vehicles--never mind that there's no analog to that vehicle in the Acura line.
In fact, the Ody is the first time that kind of crossover should have happened but didn't, really. Civic? Cheap, and Honda's the cheap brand, so no crossover--obviously. Accord? Sure. TL and CL. Same platform, same hardpoints. Midrange Honda, midrange Acura. That's an easy one. RL? Sure, it's supposed to be the expensive one--and it's supposed to be an exclusive to Acura, because the Honda nameplate isn't supposed to have anything that expensive.
But now comes the Ody. Again, from the Accord platform. Mid priced. SHOULD have an Acura equivalent, like the Accord does--but it doesn't? Well, what do they do now?
The conservative Japanese just bit their tongues and kept it bare bones. Remember, this is the company that took FIFTEEN YEARS to get into the American minivan market. They don't move quickly. That we got leather is only because they had a track record selling Accords with leather. Trust me, if Honda had made the decision that leather would be Acura-only, the Ody wouldn't have leather to this day--the competition notwithstanding. That's how conservative Honda is.
So Honda keeps the cheap seats, and if there's no other manufacturer in the market segment--well, Honda's not going to be the first. Not ever.
And such is proof that the people who made Honda what it is in the US 25 years ago are long gone and their lessons are being ignore. If the people running Honda today were in charge in 1973, we would never have seen the Civic. There wasn't an existing market for it, after all.
I wonder what would happen if Daimler put a Mercedes AWD drivetrain into a very well appointed Chrysler minivan and sold it at Mercedes dealers.
But, you hear it all the time: "I don't WANT to look like some mommy, driving some mom-mobile! That's why I bought this truck, which is less spacious and less suited to the task. Minivans just scream MOM!" Sure. Uh-huh. As if the three little trolls you're dragging with you everywhere don't scream MOMMY!
I've said it for months now: if there was a market for a luxury minivan, my 02 EXL-RES would have come from the Acura dealership.
It's plain to see that Honda didn't put leather and other goodies into the Ody from the beginning because all those goodies are really Acura goodies. And notice how even the EXL models full of RES and NAV and whatnot don't have the real Acura goodies--power seats on both sides, power seats and steering wheel that adjust based on whose remote unlocked the van, etc. In Honda's mind, at least for now, those types of goodies *will not* be put onto Honda-badged vehicles--never mind that there's no analog to that vehicle in the Acura line.
In fact, the Ody is the first time that kind of crossover should have happened but didn't, really. Civic? Cheap, and Honda's the cheap brand, so no crossover--obviously. Accord? Sure. TL and CL. Same platform, same hardpoints. Midrange Honda, midrange Acura. That's an easy one. RL? Sure, it's supposed to be the expensive one--and it's supposed to be an exclusive to Acura, because the Honda nameplate isn't supposed to have anything that expensive.
But now comes the Ody. Again, from the Accord platform. Mid priced. SHOULD have an Acura equivalent, like the Accord does--but it doesn't? Well, what do they do now?
The conservative Japanese just bit their tongues and kept it bare bones. Remember, this is the company that took FIFTEEN YEARS to get into the American minivan market. They don't move quickly. That we got leather is only because they had a track record selling Accords with leather. Trust me, if Honda had made the decision that leather would be Acura-only, the Ody wouldn't have leather to this day--the competition notwithstanding. That's how conservative Honda is.
So Honda keeps the cheap seats, and if there's no other manufacturer in the market segment--well, Honda's not going to be the first. Not ever.
And such is proof that the people who made Honda what it is in the US 25 years ago are long gone and their lessons are being ignore. If the people running Honda today were in charge in 1973, we would never have seen the Civic. There wasn't an existing market for it, after all.
