Honda September Sales Down 24%

Justin Berkowitz
by Justin Berkowitz

No, Honda isn’t immune from the sales tragedies of the month of September, declining 24 percent overall in contrast to September 2007. The Honda brand was down 23 percent, while the small Acura division dropped 30.4 percent. While Fit sales were up for Honda again (48 percent to 6,515), everything else was hurting. The Accord’s buyers skipped town to the tune of a 36.1 percent dive in sales, a stunning decrease of nearly 13,000 units. The Civic, which is probably cannibalizing some Accord sales (just as the Fit might be taking a little money out of the Civic’s pockets), dropped a relatively reasonable 12.8 percent versus last September. It should go without saying that the Odyssey, CR-V, Pilot, Ridgeline, and Element all saw huge numbers of sales evaporate, though the minivan had it worst with a 34 percentage point drop, declining from 16,464 last September to only 10,783 cars this month. Acura also took a beating, with huge declines for every single model they make. The usual volume models, the TL and MDX, fell 30 percent and 28.9 percent respectively. The RL and RDX sales imploded, while the TSX did fairly nicely at 2,144 units – a decrease of 16 percent – although considering the all-new TSX was introduced recently, this is somewhat less impressive. The bottom line is that even the American auto market’s golden boy can’t win all the time.

Justin Berkowitz
Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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  • Davejay Davejay on Oct 02, 2008

    People in this country like hatchbacks, in my experience, if they're good. Witness the Mini, the xB, the Vibe, the A3,the Golf, the Versa and the Fit. Heck, I passed on a new Civic (and bought a hatchback Versa instead) for three reasons: the Civic had no leather steering wheel, the most unpleasant beige interior I'd ever personally witnessed, and a trunk. And now when I look at my car at the curb, it makes me smile in a way my trunk-based transportation of the past (Jetta, Sentra, Regal(!)) never did -- probably because I used to own a Rabbit. Oh, and I skipped the Fit because the available worldwide crash test scores, esp. in side-impact, weren't up to those of the Versa (although both were beaten by the Civic.)

  • Toxicroach Toxicroach on Oct 02, 2008

    The fit has a quite a bit more utility than a sedan; the amount of cargo space you can get is pretty impressive for a car of that size.

  • Cgd Cgd on Oct 02, 2008

    I just bought an '08 Civic. I would have considered the Fit, but as y'all said, the MPG isn't that different. I wouldn't have minded a wagon too. The problem was that (1) they had maybe one in stock, (2) they dealt a little on the Civic but would not budge on the Fit, and (3) sticker on the only Fit on the lot was approaching $17K, and the Civic LX I bought only a few hundred more. I got slightly better MPG, a comfortable ride, and a bit more room. Granted, I have not looked at the 2009 Fits, and from what I understand, they made some changes. The 2009s were not available at the time I made the purchase.

  • AJ AJ on Nov 03, 2008

    I just read that October, 2008 sales are down 28% over 2007. However I tried to help with a 2009 Civic Coupe LX. What a great car! In it's class, I couldn't come up with a reason not to buy it.

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