Honda developed an MPV for their home market and managed to accommodate seven people inside a small-segment-sized vehicle.
The Mobilio replaced the Capa, which was good only for five adults inside. But the customers started to ask for a bigger interior room either for passengers transportation or for cargo capacity. Then, Honda decided to build the Mobilio with a longer wheelbase than its predecessor and managed to provide room for seven or, with the second and third-row folded, a minivan-like cargo area.
Honda’s designers started from the kei-car segment solutions when they designed the Mobilio. They made the car with flat sides and rear area and a very short nose. A steep windshield and a tall greenhouse led to a tall, narrow, and short vehicle. The car was available in two trim levels: the Mobilio and the Mobilio Spike, with the latter being considered more upmarket. The flat front fascia with a short overhang and rectangular headlights looked similar to those installed on a kei-car.

Inside, the carmaker placed a short and wide dashboard, extended downwards with a center stack where it installed the infotainment unit and the climate control buttons. Its upright gear-selector for the automatic transmission was very close to the steering wheel. Honda didn’t install a center console, so the driver or the side passenger could have easily crossed the car from side to side. The sliding doors offered a very wide opening in the back, which made easier the ingress and egress from the car. The middle row could have slide forward and tilt for better access to the rear seats.

Under the hood, the carmaker installed a 1.5-liter, naturally aspirated engine paired to a CVT.

The 2001 Mobilio had a footprint of a full-size pickup bed, but it could still carry up to seven passengers inside and did that with a great fuel-efficiency.
Honda designed the little MPV with the Japanese market in mind. The customers asked for a vehicle easy to drive and park, good in tight parking spots, and safe. Bearing that in mind, the Japanese engineers came up with a vehicle bigger than a kei-car but with a similar cubic design. They pushed the crash-tests procedures far beyond the legal requirements by testing the car in a frontal crash against a two-ton vehicle.

With its tall front fascia and the short hood, the Mobilio didn’t look too different than other cars in its category. A pair of sliding doors were installed in the back, and that solved the problems with the tight parking lots.

But there was more about the car inside it than outside. The dual sliding rear doors provided easy access to a center row bench seat to hold three small people. Behind that, a pair of jump seats, which were only suitable for small children, could fold flat against the floor and hide under the center row. The instrument cluster was basic, with three dials. Besides the tachometer and speedometer, the third one featured the fuel and the coolant temp gauges.

Honda offered the Mobilio with a 1.5-liter engine available in two power outputs: a 90 hp and a 110 hp, paired with a 5-speed manual or a CVT. Power went to the front or all four wheels.