Acura to Build New Car in U.S.; Japan’s Auto Sales Plunge

In a pioneering move for a Japanese car company, Honda Motor Co.’s Acura division said Wednesday that it will build its next luxury car in the United States.

Honda said the new model--to premiere in 1996--will compete in the $23,000-to-$30,000 price segment of the luxury market, between its Acura Integra and Vigor models. The car will be built at Honda’s East Liberty, Ohio, assembly plant for sale only in the United States and Canada.

Richard Thomas, Acura executive vice president, said making the car in the United States “makes excellent business sense.” He cited the strong yen, which has made Japanese cars more expensive in the United States.

The yen’s surge has cut U.S. sales of Japanese imports, but Japanese domestic sales have also been off because of the country’s lingering recession.

The plight of Japanese manufacturers was underscored in a separate report Wednesday from the Japan Automobile Dealers Assn., which showed domestic sales for 1993 down for the third year in a row and at the lowest level in six years.

Domestic sales of cars, trucks and buses fell 8.4% to 4.9 million vehicles, hitting the lowest level since the 1987 total of 4.3 million.

The figures, which do not include “mini-cars” with engines smaller than 660 cubic centimeters, reflect the severity of Japan’s recession and the “uncertainty consumers feel about the future,” association spokesman Yoshio Kondo said.

Domestic sales have plunged 18.2% from the 1990 peak of 6 million vehicles, making this the industry’s most extended downturn since the years immediately after World War II.