Half-Time Sales Rankings 2012: Honda Looks Just Fine
Tim Cain, our not-quite-in-house sales whiz, has cooked up a ranking of the top 260 best sellers year-to-date for 2012. I won’t spoil any surprises, but the Suzuki Forenza lost. And Honda might be the big winner.
The Ford F-Series and Toyota Camry are holding on to their #1 spots in the truck and car categories respectively. A look at the car rankings show the Civic in the second spot, unlikely to catch the Camry, but the Accord is just behind everyone’s favorite comeback kid, the Nissan Altima. Roughly 2,000 units separate the two, and before any of the fanboys try to sling mud at the rival product, remember that both cars are due to be replaced, and there’s lot of incentives out there to help clear out the remaining inventory.
The CR-V, maligned in some parts for being “boring” or lacking MyHondaSyncTouchLink infotechtainment systems, is also doing well. It’s the top-selling crossover in the land, ahead of the Ford Escape by a decent margin. I told anyone willing to listen that an easy-to-load cargo floor and one-touch folding seats would win out over turbo engines and touch screens, but not many were willing to accept that it was actually a good car. 146,682 people listened to me so far.
On the minivan front, less than 7,000 units separate the Dodge Grand Caravan from the second-place Honda Odyssey, while the Nissan Versa is handily winning the subcompact segment, outselling the Hyundai Accent nearly 2:1.
My takeaway for the weekend is this: does boring sell, or is Honda just a victim of a segment of people who can’t wait to watch it fail?
More by Derek Kreindler
Comments
Join the conversation
God, I hate fanboys!!
Honda really does need to do something about road and wind noise. I expect plenty of that in a B-class car like my Fit, but when I drive or ride in my soon to be mother-in-law's leased Accord I'm shocked at how noisy it is for a midsize car. I'd rule it right off my shopping list for that reason alone- if I wanted a midsize car I'd be looking for QUIET.
90% engineers in American companies in US are immigrants or children of immigrants. Got stats to back that up? They are discouraged to become engineers, scientists or go to vocational schools (I am not sure that they even exist in US). Yes they are called Community and Technical colleges. They are also taught to rely on parents and later on government for well being, that world revolves around them and they entitled to success. You've just insulted millions of Americans. Consider great American company like Kodak. Well they are bankrupt. No kidding, film media has been replaced by digital media. In contrary American children are brainwashed at school to choose liberal arts or areas like law, finances, journalism or acting as path to successful career. Again, do you have any proof of that. Just glad to see you don't have bias for engineering :p.
A liberal arts degree makes you use logic, correct spelling, and teaches you to write well. You have to play well with others in the corporate world; the I'm an engineer I don't have to write, spell, or communicate my ideas meme, won't fly in the real world. I'm my 40's, most of my friends with engineering degrees also have management degrees. Not masters of electrical/mechanical/civil engineering degrees but masters of management degrees and (gasp) masters of business administration. Yeah, they got the promotions and the nice offices. My major complaint on here is that things are spouted without any facts or even anecdotal data to support them. "90% engineers in American companies in US are immigrants or children of immigrants." Again, where's the data?