Toyota July Sales Down 11 Percent, Honda Down 17 Percent

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: August 3rd, 2009

toyota july sales down 11 percent honda down 17 percent

Toyota‘s Yaris and Corolla models did not receive much in the way of a sales boost from the government’s cash for clunkers program, recording 36 percent and 14 percent declines respectively. Nor did Honda‘s Fit, which slid 28 percent to 8,876. Prius, however, did. America’s hybrid grew its sales by 30 percent compared to last July. It also creamed Honda’s competing Insight, 19,173 to 2,295. Prius alone now sells as well as Buick, Cadillac and Saturn combined. Hail to the king, baby.

But Toyota needs to nurse that feel-good, because it doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of its car results are still in shambles. Scion, in particular, could have won big from Cash for Clunkers, but Scions sell on individuality, not value. As a result, xB is down 44 percent to 2,838 units, the tC is down 60 percent to 1,939 and the xD is down three percent to 1,976. Camry is off about 20 percent, Venza is launching slowly (like almost all large CUVs) at 5,780 units and Avalon is down to just under 2,000 units.

RAV-4 has been leading Toyota’s trucks-n-utes, and was up 32.5 percent to 15,912 units. But in July the biggest story was probably the Highlander, which lept 39 percent to 9,40. Sienna survived with a 19 point drop, but everything else was off by between 26 percent (Land Cruiser) and 75 percent (FJ Cruiser).

Civic was the only Honda car to see a clunker-led rally, up 3.1 percent to 30,037. Accord is down 28 percent to 29,974. On the “truck” front, Honda’s CR-V continues to be the only reliable performer, up ten percent to 19,151. From there things go from bad (Pilot: 6,340, -15.3 percent) to worse (Odyssey: 6,785, -48 percent).

Lexus cars are in freefall, with even the usually-solid ES and IS dropping by 21 and 15 percent respectively. LS and GS barely register at 874 and 551 units each. RX is up ten percent to 7,811 units, but GX (587) and LX (215) are almost completely off the radar.

Acura is hardly any better off. TL dropped by a mere 16.5 percent, but TSX fell over 35 percent to just 2,232 units. RL inspired 131 sales. MDX fell “only” 29 percent to 2,471, but RDX is dead on its feet with only 519 sales.

Edward Niedermeyer

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Psarhjinian on Aug 04, 2009

I don't think the Accord is bloated per se, not when you consider that it's within an inch or so of most of the rest of the class. If you want the more svelte, feature-reduced Accord of yesteryear, Honda will happily sell you a Civic. Honda has simply moved the Accord up to a size class it never had an entrant in during previous years. I don't see this is a problem, unless we're hung up on the Accord nameplate. If it bothers you that it's gotten large, pry the nameplate off a Caprice and stick it on the bacl

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Kcflynn on Aug 04, 2009

Looks from these numbers that Acura is in trouble. I understand the 2010 MDX introduction has been delayed for several months because U.S. parts suppliers have been affected by the bankruptcy of GM. Seems like they share the same suppliers. So if Acura isn't getting a bounce from the C4C program...where will it be in October?

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