On February 13th, 1997 the Orthia went under a minor facelift with driver's and front passenger's SRS airbags installed as standard.

These included The 2.0GX-S Aero introduced for the 1998 model year included a special lip kit, carbon fiber patterned interior trim, special red and black pattern seats, a 3 spoke leather trimmed steering wheel, color matched fog light protectors, and was available in either front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive.

The facelift model has new front and rear bumpers, new patterned seat fabric, new taillights, and a double din radio bezel as standard.

[6] The Honda Orthia finds itself a increasingly popular platform for modification due to its low price and legality for import to the United States.

Anti-lock braking system was installed in January 1998 and the vehicle was brought into year 2000 emissions compliance along with a driver-side airbag as standard equipment.