Honda introduced this Rubicon-branded ATV in 2000 as the TRX500FA FourTrax Rubicon, bringing the company’s Hondamatic/HFT automatic transmission technology into production on a North American utility ATV. It was positioned as a rugged work-focused machine for ranches, trails, and rough terrain, and it quickly became known for pairing Honda’s durable single-cylinder engine layout with a more user-friendly automatic driveline than the traditional sport-utility ATV formula of the time.
Over the years, the Rubicon name evolved into a broader TRX500 family with multiple trims and configurations, including manual-shift, automatic, and power-steering variants. The lineup kept the Rubicon’s core identity intact: a tough rec/utility ATV aimed at riders who wanted reliability, tractability, and real off-road capability rather than a lightweight sport machine. Honda continued to refine the chassis and feature set, but the nameplate remained closely tied to the 500-class Rubicon concept for nearly two decades.
By the late 2010s, Honda was still using TRX500 model designations for the Rubicon in its model-year literature. For 2020, however, Honda’s official ATV lineup shifted to the TRX520 Foreman Rubicon naming, and the TRX500-era badge ended with the 2019 model year. That makes the original TRX500 Rubicon a long-running first-generation nameplate that helped define Honda’s modern utility-ATV approach before the family was renamed and enlarged in the next era.