LOS ANGELES — American Honda Motor Co. is increasing its licensed pre-owned program to incorporate 10-year-old Honda and Acura automobiles.

The prolonged applications, known as HondaTrue Used and Acura Precision Used, are designed to attract youthful, budget-minded customers to dealership heaps.

“We needed to make it simple for brand new consumers to expertise our model,” Dan Rodriguez, supervisor of auto remarketing at American Honda instructed Automotive Information. “We actually have a look at this growth as a important means to usher in new clients to our model — type of a gateway product.”

The older Honda automobiles, which don’t have any mileage limitations, solely obtain a 100-day or 5,000-mile manufacturer-backed guarantee. That is considerably lower than the 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain protection supplied on HondaTrue Licensed+ and Licensed automobiles, which collectively cowl calmly used, present mannequin 12 months automobiles, in addition to 2- to 5-year-old Hondas.

On the Acura aspect, Precision Used automobiles obtain a 6-month/7,500-mile guarantee.

Acura Precision Licensed automobiles, that are as much as 6 years previous or 80,000 miles, get the identical 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain protection.

However the prolonged licensed applications are supposed to give consumers confidence on the entrance finish of the shopping for course of, understanding that their older automobile has been licensed by Honda technicians.

Every HondaTrue Used automobile goes by means of a 112-point guidelines that’s posted on-line for purchasers to evaluation.

“We’re going by means of an in depth guidelines to ensure that the automobile is introduced as much as a sure customary,” Rodriguez stated, citing brake pads for instance. “The technicians are required to notice the extent of damage on the brake pads, and if they don’t seem to be inside a sure customary, these brake pads can be changed.”

The brand new program may assist Honda compete towards the rising market penetration of used-vehicle marketplaces equivalent to CarMax, Carvana and Vroom, which promote closely to youthful consumers and conduct a lot of their enterprise in digital environments.

The automaker has been steadily increasing the scope of its CPO applications lately. Rodriguez stated Honda was a pioneer in placing its licensed used stock on-line. Now, he stated, “we’re the primary producer to digitize this course of,” referring to the corporate’s on-line entry to the certification checklists Honda offers.

The U.S. used-car market is bigger than the new-vehicle market, which is making it ripe for disruption. Final 12 months, consumers devoured up 40 million used automobiles, almost triple the 15 million new vehicles and vans bought in 2021.

“With all this noise on the market, all these new gamers out there are seeing this large 40 million quantity and pondering how they will seize their share,” Rodriguez stated. This 12 months the used-car market will even finish near 40 million gross sales and stay “fertile” due to new-car provide shortages, he stated.

The expanded program, Rodriguez stated, “is a means of bringing on this youthful shopper, then graduating them to our licensed pre-owned product, after which ultimately getting them into a brand new automobile.”

That cycle ought to assist Honda and Acura sellers replenish their used-car inventories.

“We actually need to maintain our clients inside our community,” he stated. “And we predict our greatest supply of stock would be the Honda Licensed vehicles that the shopper is trying to commerce in.”