Honda February Sales Slide 35 Percent
Honda took the industry-standard beating last month, emerging with “only” a 35.4 percent sales drop. Unsurprisingly, Honda’s hot Fit kept its head above water: sales increased 2.3 percent in February. Accord and Civic were both down over 30 points. In the SUV category, only the CR-V escaped 40 percent or higher year-on-year monthly sales loss numbers. Acura’s new TSX is up four percent. The rest of Honda’s luxury brand is way down. The attached Honda press release hopes against hope for a spring uptick in sales. The new Insight Hybrid could also revive sales. Meanwhile, Civic Hybrid sales tumbled 21 percent. But with bread and butter Accord and Civic sales down so sharply, Honda will be hurting until the mass market decides it wants new cars again.
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Acura: Go back and look at your products that got you invited to the dance in the first place. Better yet: copy Audi and make it better for less money. Honda: Build a CRX replacement on a beefed-up Fit platform. We all know your hybrid CR-Z is going to be overpriced. Bring back the affordable fun, bitches.
Both Honda and Toyota are in trouble (as TTAC pointed out about Honda some months back). I mean, as a commentator above said, you walk into a dealership, get the quotes on a Civic then you go home and think, "Jeez, how much cheaper is that Hyundai again? 4k? And the warranty? Or how about that other friend who just bought a Fusion...ain't it bigger? For the same price??". It's not like they're BMW or something that much more "special" and can command those higher prices. My prediction, with the new Fords and ever-improving GMs (big IF), ever-stronger competition from Hyundai and Kia, Toyonda will go down over the next couple of years.
Everytime I get into my daughter's '95 Civic, I can't help wondering about the quality of this vehicle compared to my recent Accords ('03 and current '07)---Sure, it suffers from the rear wheel-housing rust issue, but it still motors along after 240,000 km---I continue to be amazed at the durability of the interior in tan---complete with soft-touch vinyl and seats that still have retained their comfort---plus the fact that the body is as 'tight as ever', compared to my Accords that produce creaks from the engineered-in body flex.