January 2008: American Honda Sales

[Lamar]

SOURCE (includes sales table)

02.01.08

American Honda Reports January Sales

CR-V and Fit set monthly records, Civic up 14.2 percent

Feb. 1, 2008 - American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted January total vehicle sales of 98,511, a decline of 2.3 percent compared to January 2007 results.

Honda Division posted January sales of 87,343, a decline of 0.5 percent compared to January 2007. Models that broke monthly records include the CR-V, up 11.3 percent to 16,016; and the Fit, up 120.0 percent to 4,480. Civic sales increased 14.2 percent for the month to 20,993.

"We're seeing real strength in our compact and subcompact vehicles," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of sales for American Honda. "Honda products like the Civic, CR-V and Fit are proving to be solid performers in these turbulent economic times."

Honda total car sales of 49,642 increased by 7.1 percent for the month. Overall, the Honda Division's top five-selling vehicles include the Accord, 23,957; Civic, 20,993; CR-V, 16,016; Odyssey, 8,746; and Pilot, 8,375.

The Acura Division posted a sales volume of 11,168, a decrease of 14.2 percent compared to January 2007. The division's top-selling vehicles include the MDX, 3,982; TL, 3,246; TSX, 2,073; and RDX, 1,483.

Note: The daily selling rate is calculated with 25 days for January 2008 and 25 days for 2007.

For more information or downloadable high-resolution images of Honda and Acura vehicles, please visit www.hondanews.com. Consumer information is available at www.honda.com.

[Northstar]

Accord down? That's surprising. Perhaps the Malibu is stealing a few sales.

[regfootball]

Accord down? That's surprising. Perhaps the Malibu is stealing a few sales.

we'll let seigen explain that.

[SingleStylish]

Honda seems to be up here with more Accord sales than ever. Hard to believe they are down.

Edited February 1, 2008 by SingleStylish

[VenSeattle]

I know Honda dealers have been advertising $199 Accord lease specials all over the place here in the NW. It's very interesting to see sales down. However, more power/ less MPG doesn't work well with Honda customers.

Ridgeline and Element are sinking. I don't think the compensation of extra FIT sales provide the same profit margin.

Ford & GM have abandoned the minivan market yet Odyssey sales are still down??? by a lot?

RDX is DOA. RL's replacement is needed yesterday, but is this the right time for Acura to launch the "First Evar" V8 Acura? Lexus is even having trouble peddling its V8 vehicles at the moment (or as with the GS V8 models, always.)

[Z-06]

I know Honda dealers have been advertising $199 Accord lease specials all over the place here in the NW. It's very interesting to see sales down. However, more power/ less MPG doesn't work well with Honda customers.

Ridgeline and Element are sinking. I don't think the compensation of extra FIT sales provide the same profit margin.

RDX is DOA. RL's replacement is needed yesterday, but is this the right time for Acura to launch the "First Evar" V8 Acura? Lexus is even having trouble peddling its V8 vehicles at the moment (or as with the GS V8 models, always.)

GS has never been a forte for a V8. In this class only BMW and MB may be upto a certain extent the Audi command the V8 market.

Fridgeline and Element deserve the sinking. Element is now in its late model years. Nothing spectacular, and it is a ho-hum to be hippie vehicle.

Acura will have a sluggish first half, but after the new TSX and TL come in, and their rumored coupe, they should pick back up.

[regfootball]

vans are down all over. maybe GM was right to sit them out for awhile! the odyssey is the cream of the crop though.

Edited February 1, 2008 by regfootball

[siegen]

we'll let seigen explain that.

Too many dealers marking it up?

Malibu sales increase?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I don't work for Honda.

[Drew Dowdell]

I know Honda dealers have been advertising $199 Accord lease specials all over the place here in the NW. It's very interesting to see sales down. However, more power/ less MPG doesn't work well with Honda customers.

Ridgeline and Element are sinking. I don't think the compensation of extra FIT sales provide the same profit margin.

Ford & GM have abandoned the minivan market yet Odyssey sales are still down??? by a lot?

RDX is DOA. RL's replacement is needed yesterday, but is this the right time for Acura to launch the "First Evar" V8 Acura? Lexus is even having trouble peddling its V8 vehicles at the moment (or as with the GS V8 models, always.)

I've seen more new Accords than I have new Malibus.... but the Malibu definitely catches my attention more. The tail end has even grown on me.

Odyssey is being eaten by Sedona and Entourage I bet. Guy at work just bought an Entourage for his brood... said they beat the price/features of the Odyssey and Chryslers<old ones> by a lot.

RL was a mistake from day one. Sure it's a nice car, but it's not a 45k nice car. GS460 and 450h combined sold 325 units in December... definitely not the time for Acura to be getting in the V8 game. DTS sales were cut by 1/3, probably due to less fleeting.

[siegen]

Oh wait, I know why the Accord sales are low....

Production Capacity! Gotta be production capacity. Just can't get em out fast enough! That's all. Nothing to worry about.

The whole industry was pretty down this month though.

Here's a nice breakdown.

[Drew Dowdell]

I don't get paid by Honda.

fixed.

[regfootball]

Too many dealers marking it up?

Malibu sales increase?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I don't work for Honda.

YOU DON'T ????? lol

it would be very interesting if Malibu was making a dent in the accord sales....it would be a first.

a coworker got a new Aura yesterday. 4 cylinder, but they are Saturn bangers (i.e. nerds). I should have asked if he even looked at the new BU.

I think the Camry is still fending off the accord fairly well. Accord's styling I think has not been helping.

GM had lots of incentives (loyalty, GM top off) that could have swayed some buyers who were on the fence or motivated some buyers that would have sat in the weeds. I didn't see a big promo push on Hondas last month. The domestics have already said that they are going to incentiveize a lot this year to fight to keep sales up.

Edited February 1, 2008 by regfootball

[regfootball]

I've seen more new Accords than I have new Malibus.... but the Malibu definitely catches my attention more. The tail end has even grown on me.

Odyssey is being eaten by Sedona and Entourage I bet. Guy at work just bought an Entourage for his brood... said they beat the price/features of the Odyssey and Chryslers<old ones> by a lot.

RL was a mistake from day one. Sure it's a nice car, but it's not a 45k nice car. GS460 and 450h combined sold 325 units in December... definitely not the time for Acura to be getting in the V8 game. DTS sales were cut by 1/3, probably due to less fleeting.

New Kia vans start at 18 grand. Loaded with all the fixins its about the same price as a base odyssey.

[siegen]

RL was a mistake from day one.

Now exactly, the RL sold nearly 2000 per month for a while when it came out, then fell off into the mid one-thousands, then to around 1,000, and has declined to where it is now. The RL, regardless of how it's doing now, did pretty good its first couple years. Had they made some drastic changes to it in 2006, they could have prevented the downturn.

The old RL which sold into late 2004 was taking a sales dive similar to what's happening right now, down to the hundreds.

[VenSeattle]

Now exactly, the RL sold nearly 2000 per month for a while when it came out, then fell off into the mid one-thousands, then to around 1,000, and has declined to where it is now. The RL, regardless of how it's doing now, did pretty good its first couple years. Had they made some drastic changes to it in 2006, they could have prevented the downturn.

The old RL which sold into late 2004 was taking a sales dive similar to what's happening right now, down to the hundreds.

I didn't know you were a comedian!

The last RL was on sale with minor updates for about 11 years. The current one? Just over 3 years.

The current RL sold almost 2,000 a month for only a short period of time and never met Honda's annual sales expectations of 20,000 RL models a year. The best sales year was 2005 at 17,572... well short of Honda's goal. By 2006, sales were down 40%+. If Honda had created a competitive flagship to begin with, it wouldn't have needed to perform a major update in 2006 or 2007 (as they did.)

[siegen]

I didn't know you were a comedian!

The last RL was on sale with minor updates for about 11 years. The current one? Just over 3 years.

The current RL sold almost 2,000 a month for only a short period of time and never met Honda's annual sales expectations of 20,000 RL models a year. The best sales year was 2005 at 17,572... well short of Honda's goal. By 2006, sales were down 40%+. If Honda had created a competitive flagship to begin with, it wouldn't have needed to perform a major update in 2006 or 2007 (as they did.)

I was responding to the statement that it was a mistake from day one. I didn't say it wasn't a mistake by year 2. :AH-HA_wink:

Things could have gone very differently with the RL had the stying been classier and the marketing department did their job.

Edited February 2, 2008 by siegen

[turbo200]

you know, I have a theory on the Accord. that's it really not doing all that well. we can all flip to toyota's board and see what the camry did for this month, so I don't need to before I post this, but I'm sure the comparison will show toy way ahead here, and really the accord should be at the pace of the camry, or almost there. i guess the camry hybrid sales should be accounted as some of the reason the camry is ahead, though.

my theory has to do with this fact. honda has been advertising lease specials on the accord almost since the second or third month of intro. i didn't follow up and check what the sales were then, but obviously they were feeling the pressure from lease specials for the camry. honda just doesn't go around throwing incentives on every car... it took them two years to intro a lease incentive/rate special on the civic! I know cause I sold them, and for the time I worked for them there was never sales on them, it wasn't until i bought mine that the rate changed [i didn't qualify though because it's a hybrid].

the other reasoning for this is based purely on anecdotal evidence. i went to chicago over the holidays and saw none. exactly none. the malibu otoh i saw only 3 or 4. but that was no surprise as in late DEC they were still building up inventories, not the case with accord which honda being honda saw fit to supply plenty trim levels, etc. when i had left CA I was seeing almost none, in an area that obviously buys imports but also is big on new cars. now that i came back, mid jan, I've started seeing a lot more, but they're still not omni-present, like I felt the camry was just a few weeks after intro.

[Cory Wolfe]

Perhaps this years buyers already got their Accord fix. Sales were up greatly for 4 months or so.

[A Horse With No Name]

New Kia vans start at 18 grand. Loaded with all the fixins its about the same price as a base odyssey.

Anybody who drives the Kia van and buys it deserves what they get. We drove a new one several years ago when we bought our GMC Safari. Even though the Safari was a refreshed 1985 design it still seemed much better than the Kia.

Really not impressed with any of the Kia lineup.

Chris

[CARBIZ]

Not that I would want to defend the Kia vans, but the new ones are leagues ahead of the originals.

Honda has been advertising like mad up here and that reflects in their sales for January: up an astonishing 76%. They jumped a full 4 points in market share! Malibu is not going to eat Accord's lunch until GM figures out how to build more 3.6 LTs. Wheel excuses easide, why the powers that be would imagine GM buyers would go for the same 76:24 ratio of 4s to 6s like the imports is beyond me. Nobody can get 3.6 LTs. We are told it will be a 2 month wait. Until that happens, the Accord will do just fine.

[regfootball]

I was responding to the statement that it was a mistake from day one. I didn't say it wasn't a mistake by year 2. :AH-HA_wink:

Things could have gone very differently with the RL had the stying been classier and the marketing department did their job.

or, simply put a v8 and rwd chassis and style it like its desirable.

[A Horse With No Name]

Not that I would want to defend the Kia vans, but the new ones are leagues ahead of the originals.

Honda has been advertising like mad up here and that reflects in their sales for January: up an astonishing 76%. They jumped a full 4 points in market share! Malibu is not going to eat Accord's lunch until GM figures out how to build more 3.6 LTs. Wheel excuses easide, why the powers that be would imagine GM buyers would go for the same 76:24 ratio of 4s to 6s like the imports is beyond me. Nobody can get 3.6 LTs. We are told it will be a 2 month wait. Until that happens, the Accord will do just fine.

Off topic, but...

My son is looking at an automotive related trade school. We went to an open house and the local Chevy dealer had a nu bu there and I got to spend some serious time taking a look while Joel talked with the school's teachers. The nu bu is probably one of the hottest new cars in the last 5 years, maybe even the last ten.

And I ain't even a midsize sedan type of a guy. The dual cockpit feel of the interior is just perfect-it is similar to the cadillac CTS. Have always liked dual cokcpit feel interiors since the early Vettes and early Mustangs.

Nice to have GM back on top.

Chris

[regfootball]

parked next to a new bu at the gro store today. wow its a snazzy looking car in red with tan interior. bravo!