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Honda Response to AAMA Remarks on Accord Imports

11 December 1997

Honda Response to AAMA Remarks on Accord Imports

    TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 11 -- The following statement was
issued today by American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in response to remarks by
Andrew H. Card on behalf of the American Automobile Manufacturer's
Association.
    "The AAMA statement regarding Honda Accord imports is misleading and a
complete distortion of the facts.  The decrease in '97 Accord production, and
the importation of less than 25,000 '97 Accords, was the result of Honda's
Marysville (Ohio) Assembly Plant preparing to build the all-new 1998 Accord.
The '97 Accord imports had absolutely nothing to do with the dollar - yen
situation.
    NO Accords were imported during the 1996 model year.  Hence the large
percentage increase in Accord imports.  There are currently NO Accords being
imported.  And there will be NO Accords imported during the 1998 model year.
In fact, the all-new '98 Accord for the American market is built only in
America.
    About 80 percent of all Honda's sold in North America are built in North
America. Honda also is nearing completion of a new plant in Ontario, Canada,
for production of a new minivan beginning in the fall of 1998."

SOURCE  American Honda Motor Company