Did Honda make the Isuzu Rodeo?
No. The Isuzu Rodeo was developed and built by Isuzu for its own lineup, not by Honda. However, Honda did offer a badge-engineered variant of that vehicle for the North American market in the 1990s, known as the Honda Passport.
Understanding the Rodeo’s origins
The Isuzu Rodeo is a compact SUV introduced by Isuzu in the early 1990s. It was designed and produced by Isuzu and shared its platform with the Isuzu Amigo two-door model. The Rodeo spanned two generations, with production broadly from 1990 to the early 2000s, and it was marketed primarily under the Isuzu brand in North America and other regions. It was not manufactured under the Honda name or by Honda’s manufacturing facilities.
Badge engineering: Honda's Passport
During the 1990s, Honda leveraged the Rodeo platform to create a badge-engineered SUV for its own brand. Here are the key points:
- The Honda Passport was introduced for the North American market around the 1993 model year and was produced through the 1998 model year.
- It used the Isuzu Rodeo’s chassis and mechanicals, but wore Honda branding and styling cues to align with Honda's product lineup.
- Isuzu manufactured the Passport under contract for Honda, effectively making the Passport a rebadged Rodeo rather than a separate Honda design.
- After 1998, Honda discontinued the Passport; Honda later introduced its own fully Honda-developed SUVs (e.g., Pilot) that were not based on the Rodeo platform.
- In later years, the modern Honda Passport (introduced for the 2020 model year) is a distinct model developed on a different platform and not directly connected to the Rodeo lineage.
Taken together, the Rodeo remained an Isuzu product, and Honda's only involvement with it was the Passport badge‑engineering arrangement in the 1990s, not a case of Honda manufacturing the Rodeo itself.
Production timelines and market context
To place this in broader context:
- The Isuzu Rodeo launched in 1990 and ran through multiple generations into the early 2000s, often alongside the Isuzu Amigo in various markets.
- The Honda Passport existed from roughly 1993–1998 as a Rodeo-based model, reflecting a specific collaboration between Honda and Isuzu during that era.
- The modern Honda Passport (introduced for the 2020 model year) is built on a different platform from Honda’s own modern SUVs and has no direct connection to the old Rodeo lineage.
These distinctions help explain why some automotive history references note a connection between Honda and the Rodeo while clarifying that Honda did not produce the Rodeo itself.
Summary
In summary, Honda did not manufacture the Isuzu Rodeo. The Rodeo was an Isuzu product, but Honda did operate a badge-engineered variant—the Honda Passport—during the 1990s. Later Honda SUVs are independent of the Rodeo platform, and the contemporary Honda Passport released in 2020 bears no direct lineage to the old Rodeo model.
