Honda Accord Is America's Best-Selling Car – With Retail Customers

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Although the Honda Accord finished second to the Toyota Camry in the official sales rankings, Honda is touting the Accord’s dominance in retail sales, which accounted for 98 percent of overall Accord sales. By contrast, Bloomberg reports that Toyota’s retail mix for the Camry was 84 percent, with 342,007 Camrys ending up in the hands of retail customers. The Accord sold 360,089 units at retail.

Retail sales are more profitable for auto makers, and contribute to better resale value, but many OEMs rely on fleet sales to move inventory. Many mainstream auto makers conduct significant fleet sales programs for government and daily rental fleets, with Honda being a notable exception. While Honda has dabbled in fleet sales before ( the much-maligned 2012 Civic being one example) the company still had no central fleet office.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • KixStart KixStart on Feb 22, 2014

    It would be interesting to see how other types of fleet affect the mix here. Some companies provide cars for their some of their people, for example, what cars to they favor? They have to make their selection partly to help make the job atractive for the employeee.

    • Pch101 Pch101 on Feb 22, 2014

      Passenger car fleet is dominated by rental. Those nameplates with very low fleet will generally have a higher proportion of corporate, but all of the fleet queens are rental-heavy. Pickup trucks do have more commercial sales as part of their mix, for reasons that you can guess.

  • Zykotec Zykotec on Feb 22, 2014

    SO, I guess, if the total of cars sold is a statement towards the car being good or not, the new Accord is roughyl 1/3rd the car that a 1964 Impala was ? And people think beige is bad? How many people here hate 1964 Impalas? (PS the number of Impala SS alone in '64 isn't too far from the total number of Impalas sold to retail customers last year)

  • Romanjetfighter Romanjetfighter on Feb 22, 2014

    Bought two 2013 Accords. There was absolutely no comparison to the Camry, which was the same price after discounts. You have to test drive it for yourself. The steering just feels secure, you can sort of estimate how close you are to the limits of grip in fast cornering, and the steering feels precise, i.e. there is no "see-sawing" the steering wheel when going through corners at speed. The dash of the Accord is urethane, so it feels slightly cheaper, but it's one solid piece so it will rattle less. The only big downside to the Accord is that the rear suspension is rough over big bumps (almost jarring) and the LX stereo is absolutely terrible. Sorry, but we've been a Toyota family since the 80's, but the 2009 we last bought had too many squeaks and rattles that couldn't be fixed by the dealer, and the steering is terrible, and emergency maneuvering is impossible because of the squishy handling. Honestly, though, I think the Accord is doing better because it is a new design and the prices are the same as the older Camry, which has increased in real (not MSRP) price since the 2009 years.

  • Ion Ion on Feb 22, 2014

    Here's the thing with fleets. Unless your using heavy incentives or selling cars to yourself (ala Hertz), a sales a sale. The domestics cut back on fleets Hyundai/KIA, Nissan, etc moved in. So retail sales or not the Camry still outsells the accord. Furthermore Honda doesn't have an official fleet department so their numbers are skewed.

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