HONDA is to axe its six/seven-seater Shuttle this summer but is keeping quiet on a replacement. The 2.3-litre petrol-engined MPV has been selling about 2,000 examples in the UK a year from the four-trim range, priced from £18,305 to £22,620 on-the-road, since its launch in 1996.

In 1997 Honda effectively slashed £3,000 from the Shuttle's price by adding a new entry level version, LS, designed to reposition its people carrier at the heart of the mainstream MPV market. A spokesman for Honda UK confirmed Shuttle was to be phased out later in the year but said he had not been informed whether there would be a replacement.