Yahoo Autos When Honda Exported US-Made Cars Back to Japan
Honda opened its first US auto manufacturing plant in Marysville, Ohio back in 1982, becoming the first Japanese automaker to build cars here. In 1988, Honda started doing something a little bizarre, as a Hemmings story recounts-it began exporting certain vehicles it made in the US back to its home country of Japan.
Take a quick look at the Japanese-market 1988 Accord Coupe above, and you probably won't notice anything out of the ordinary. Now look closer. See the steering wheel on the left-hand side? Remember how cars sold in Japan normally have the steering wheel on the right? Yep, this is no ordinary JDM car.
It's a little hard to see in this picture, but there's a Honda of America badge on the B-pillar of this car, indicating its origins. For two years, Honda sold US-made, left-hand drive, but otherwise Japanese-spec Accord Coupes in Japan. Honda began building and exporting right-hand drive cars from its US facilities in 1990, but it seems to have continued selling left-hand drive Accords in Japan for some time after that. The video below features a left-hand drive, Japanese-market 1992 Accord Coupe-a vehicle that was built in the US, shipped to Japan and sold, then eventually brought back to the US last year.
It's unclear when Honda stopped sending US-built Accords to Japan, but the automaker still builds Japanese-market versions of certain models in its Ohio facility, the NSX among them. But perhaps none are as strange as a left-hand drive, imported JDM Accord coupe.
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