Honda Sales Down 25.2%

Honda’s press release puts the number at 28.4 percent, but that’s using Daily Selling Rate nonsense. In simple terms, Honda sold 25.2 percent fewer units in calendar October 2008 than in the same period last year; which puts them in the same boat as Toyota. Only two models showed sales upsides: the Honda Fit and Acura TL. The Fit has been capacity constrained forever and is still a relatively modest player at 6,478 units for the month. The TL is likewise a niche vehicle which jumped from 3,421 units last year to 4,340 this October thanks to the all new 2009 TL. But, Acura has two disaster products on it’s hands; the forever poor-selling RL range topper and the near luxury mini-ute RDX. RDX sales collapsed from last year’s already low 1,937 to an abysmal 647 units. Back over at the Honda brand, one surprise in the numbers is the collapse of Accord sales, down from 30,936 to only 19,783, a 36 percent drop in Honda’s #1 selling product. The Odyssey, Element and MDX also all posted larger than average declines. However, for some reason the Ridgeline’s fall was a little less than the average falloff. Cash on the hood effect? Year to date, Honda is still up slightly over 2007, but that record seems likely to fall over these next two months. During the first half of 2008 Honda seemed to be playing in a different ballpark than the rest of the US auto business. But from summer on they have regressed to the mean. But hey, there is one fun-fact buried in the numbers: Honda took sales credit for one unit of the FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. I wonder who the lucky customer is?