The original Aska was developed as a part of GM's J-car program and was a replacement for Isuzu's dated Florian.

[1] The car was launched in March 1983 with carburetted 1.8 and 2.0 litre gasoline engines and a diesel, going on sale a month later.

In October 1983, a turbocharged and fuel injected version of the 2.0 litre engine, which developed 150 PS, joined the lineup as the LJ Turbo.

The Aska underwent a very subtle facelift in July 1985, which was also when the "Florian" portion of the car's name was dropped.

Chilean Askas came in three equipment levels (LT, Limited, and Deluxe), with two engines and either automatic or five-speed manual transmissions.

General Motors New Zealand switched back to the updated Australian version (JE) in 1987 due to the strengthening of Japanese Yen.

In Indonesia, the two-liter version with 74 kW (101 PS) was briefly sold as the "Holden Aska" alongside the 1.6-liter Camira.

The engine has either single or double overhead camshaft architecture and pent-roof, cross flow cylinder firing chambers.

This model was presented in March 1994, after stock of the Legacy-based, previous generation Aska had been sold out.

One additional change was that the engine head cover had the Honda logo removed, with only "VTEC" remaining.