Honda Bucks the Trend; Sales Up 1.1%
As expected, Honda dodged the gravitational pull of Black Hole Tuesday. Automotive News [sub] reports Honda's sales rose 1.1 percent [unadjusted] in June, up 4.1% year-to-date. Needless to say (but what the Hell), every single Honda and Acura SUV, truck and van suffered a sales shock. Yup, even the big H couldn't scratch out a sales improvement; sales of the new big-nosed Pilot were down 21 percent for the month. Once again, the Honda Civic and [ Edmunds' AutoObserver's "future flop"] Accord narrowly beat Ford's F-series for the "most likely to get bought" sobriquet. Both Honda cars racked-up almost 40k sales apiece. Fit sales are up 100 percent– despite the model being on its last legs. It's a great time to be a maker of four-cylinder cars. It's an even better time not to be reliant on trucks and SUVs to make your nut.
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The chant for a v-8? Yup, and how many times have I heard "the CRV still has only four cylinders"? There's been a v-6 chant too. One article writer wanted a V-6 in the TSX.
The Fit is slated for production at Greensburg site in the future. Although, Honda will loose money on them unless they can sell 200K + Fits in N.A. TSX increase is customer retention, it does not get good MPG for a 4 cylinder.
The Accord doesn't get any better mileage than all it's competitors. A V-8 Acura is still needed. Panicky buyers don't make your lousy car suddenly better. Honda has plenty of incentives, they just don't advertise them. They have just as many as GM. Walk into a dealer and say you want to buy an Element or Ridgeline and it will magically ***plink*** be under invoice
kjc117: Where'd you get that about the Fit at Greensburg? I had been working on a research project on that plant and could get Honda to say NOTHING about NA production of Fit. Don't get me wrong, I'd lay money that the Fit starts production in NA by the end of '09 with about 60% chance of it going to Greensburg. The other likely location would be Alliston, Ontario , which has a new engine facility there to support it. What's with the article's author's comment on the Fit being on it's last legs? Are we talking a newly designed Fit, or altogether new model to replace it?