The Honda Ballade was a subcompact automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 built by Honda

Honda

is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It began as a four-door version of the Civic

Honda Civic

The Honda Civic is a line of subcompact and subsequently compact cars made and manufactured by Honda. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded...

 in 1980. The Ballade was developed at the same time the Honda Vigor appeared, which was a higher content Honda Accord

Honda Accord

The Honda Accord is a series of compact, mid-size and full-size automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, and sold in a majority of automotive markets throughout the world....

. The Ballade was essentially a higher content Civic, and was sold exclusively in Japan at Honda Verno dealerships alongside the Vigor, Prelude

Honda Prelude

The Honda Prelude was a sports coupe produced by Japanese automaker Honda from 1978 until 2001. It replaced the Honda S800, a front-engined, front wheel drive sports car...

, CR-X

Honda CR-X

This article is about the first and second generations of the CR-X. For the third generation, see Honda CR-X del Sol.The Honda CR-X, originally launched as the Honda Ballade Sports CR-X in Japan, was a front-wheel-drive sports compact car manufactured by Honda. The first generation CR-X was sold in...

, and Quint

Honda Quint

The Honda Quint is a subcompact car manufactured by Honda Motor Co. Ltd. of Japan. It was introduced in 1980 in Japan as an upscale Honda Civic 4-door hatchback, and joined the Honda Prelude, Honda Ballade, and Honda Vigor at the then newly established Japanese dealership sales channel called Honda...

. In the UK it was launched at the same time as the very similar Triumph Acclaim

Triumph Acclaim

The Triumph Acclaim was a front-wheel drive medium-sized family car made by British Leyland from 1981 to 1984. It was based on the Honda Ballade and used a Honda-designed engine, but met United Kingdom component-content requirements...

 with which it shared a Honda built engine.

The name of the car was taken from "ballade", a type of French poetry set to music.