Honda Ballade

A Honda Ballade

The Honda Ballade was a subcompact automobile built by Honda of Japan. It began as a four-door version of the Civic in 1980. In the UK it was launched at the same time as a very similar Triumph Acclaim with which it shared a Honda built engine.

Of the original 1980 models, 1.3 L and 1.5 L engines were offered in Japan.

After 1984, the Ballade shared most of its body panels with the Civic, except for a sportier front end, and formed the basis of the CR-X sports car and the original Rover 200. Of this second generation Ballade the top model - EXI - featured a 1.5L naturally aspirated 12 valve all-aluminium engine with multi-point fuel injection (using Honda's PGM-FI system) developing 100 brake horsepower (75 kW), the same engine was used on the first generation Civic CRX. Other features of the EXI included electric windows all-round, electric and heated wing mirrors, metallic paint, vented front disc brakes and hydraulic power-assisted steering. Lower specification models featured the same 1.5L engine but with fuelling provided via a carburretor, giving 85 brake horsepower (63 kW).

The Ballade ceased to be offered in Japan after September 1987, replaced by the Honda Concerto.

However, the Ballade name continued to be used for a Civic-based model in South Africa, where it was used instead of Civic on locally produced versions, until 1999 and for imported versions until 2002. South African Ballades were assembled by the local subsidiary of Daimler-Benz, which wanted to market a smaller and cheaper car in addition to its Mercedes-Benz models. The Ballade name was adopted because it was perceived to have more luxury and upmarket connotations than the Civic name. This was important because the Ballade was sold through the Mercedes-Benz dealership channel.