Um, actually, when the Civic got notably larger, they simply brought over their now-old-Civic-sized Jazz from Europe and Japan and renamed it the “Fit”.
Most of Honda’s world business is *still* small cars, both here and in the US.
Also, IIRC, car weight has gone up as a result of more and more “mandatory safety equipment” regs. The current airbag and side intrusion regs add several hundred pounds to any car, for example.
That should have read “both over there and in the US.”
Honda is now the elite of the Japanese car companies, most models cost more than their equivalent competition. And her in America most of their business is not the small cars. It’s the coupes and sedans. They’ve, and Toyota and Nissan, have moved away from being an economy car company here, because when gas is cheap Americans don’t like economy cars. deny it if you want but the truth is the truth and the truth is the Rice Three haven’t been focused on econo-cars in the US for well over a decade, they smelled the change in our market and adjusted. Now with gas up they will bring the econo-cars back into a higher profile, of course they’ve got a leg up there as most of their vehicles get better millage than their American company counter parts, so they can be econo without flooding the market with tiny cars American won’t want in 5 years.