This week it was announced that Honda and General Motors (GM) will jointly develop cars in the US. Although this forms a remarkable duo, the Japanese and the Americans have already entered into a partnership before. That already started in 1993.
The current love affair between Honda and GM in the US is going one step further. It started somewhat reluctantly in 2018, with a deal in the field of autonomous cars. Honda joined GM’s Cruise, an all-technology arm. This resulted in yet another partnership in this field.
That first step was followed by an agreement in the field of EVs, another gigantic cost item for which striking partnerships are often set up. In the third and most recent step, however, all restraint is thrown overboard. The Japanese and Americans are said to simply want to develop cars together for – initially – the American market.
Isuzu
The fact that it is precisely these car builders who are crawling back together on their lap, may be because they still had each other’s contact details on a post-it somewhere. In the 1990s there was already a fruitful cooperation between the two, which also had consequences for the American market at the time.
A key role for these previous collaborations has been played by Isuzu, which has been largely owned by GM since the 1970s. About thirty years ago, the SUV vibe in the US started to take off, and that resulted in a number of General Motors brands and Honda the sudden need to come up with such a high-legged model quickly. Both producers reached an agreement with Isuzu, which offered both the MU and the Trooper.
Jazz
In Europe, as a result of this deal, we know these models mainly under the names Opel Monterey (Trooper) and Opel Frontera (MU). The copies with a Honda logo were mainly sold in the US and Japan. Honda brought the MU as Passport and – yes – Jazz and supplied the slightly larger Trooper as Horizon, while luxury brand Acura put the latter in American showrooms as SLX. With a little more chrome and leather, a real Japanese luxury SUV was suddenly born. The Isuzus were certainly not only sold as Isuzu, Opel and Honda, but appeared on the market worldwide under a wide range and brand and type names. We previously explained in detail which names they were in two episodes of the column ‘De Tweeling’. You can find the Trooper’s here, everything about the MU can be read here.
Daewoo
In the history of De Tweeling, one more car has been discussed that at first glance brings General Motors and Honda together: the Daewoo Arcadia. However, this Honda Legend-based sedan appeared precisely in Daewoo’s short GM-less period, so there are some caveats to make. It doesn’t make the car any less interesting, of course, so don’t hesitate to read this Gemini.