With Toyota in the middle of a huge recall mess, 2010 was turning out to be a bright opportunity for Honda, however, it didn’t turn out that way. Instead of gaining on its competitors, Honda’s U.S. retail and market share are down in 2010. Sales of the Honda brand are up just 4 percent through November, in a market that’s up 11 percent.
While some of that has to do with timing – two crucial sellers including the Civic and CR-V, are in the final year of their product cycle, and the Accord is 18 months from a redesign – the other half has to do with sluggish sales.
The Toyota Prius is outselling Honda Insight hybrid 8 to 1. The Japanese automaker planned on selling 60,000 to 80,000 units in 2010 and through November it has only sold 19,325. The Toyota Venza competitor, the Honda Accord Crosstour, sold only 25,927 units. The Venza sold 43,325 units.
The new Honda CR-Z was expected to sell 15,000 units a year and in its first 5 months, the model only sold 4,373 units with 3,000 sitting in inventory.
On a brighter note, the 2011 Honda Odyssey minivan, which was introduced in Sept. is off to a strong start.
- By: Omar Rana
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)
