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Well as it is said, ‘the market has spoken,’ and the market is bullish on Honda, and Acura Division.
In the midst of the greatest tech-driven refresh in Honda’s history, American Honda Motors (AHM) Acura Division, reports yet another record month. Light truck sales are good, but that’s just a small part of what is the Honda renaissance in North America.
Certainly Honda is no longer the least expensive automotive brand in North America, that’s a given. So what’s driving Honda and Acura sales?
As reported in June by Honda -Torque News, American Honda Motors is head and shoulders into the total refresh and reinvention of the first Japanese owned motorcycle, automotive brand to land on U.S. shores; that was way back in 1959. Today, Honda and Acura to most North Americans, is as ‘Made in America’ as Chevrolet. And actually, most American Honda products sold in North America contain a higher domestic manufactured parts % then the domestics do.
With 3 generations of Americans driving the mark, Honda is fully entrenched in North America, and is in fact the largest employer in more than one region of Canada and the U.S..It's not unusual to find this car on the road with 200,000 miles on the odometer.
With the economic turnaround comes purchase momentum
Honda’s off and running full-tilt for several reasons; progressive standard-feature-packed well priced cars and light trucks is but a part of Honda, Acura’s current success story.
With Nissan,Toyota, BMW and Lexus knocking at the back door of SUV, CUV and performance sedan sales, Acura’s RDX, with a dash of ILX A-SPEC and TLX premium road performance, takes the sales lead in the premium segments (+20%); with the segment leading MDX off a bit in July,(-20.8%) due to manufacturing facility transitions, resulting in low dealer inventories.
2015 Honda CR-V remains best selling SUV in North America +11.4%
For Honda’s Light trucks, the bellwether 2015 Honda CR-V, the all new 2016 HR-V, and the nation’s best selling family minivan Odyssey, pushes mainstream sales to record levels for July; with the totally redesigned Pilot positioned for an August sales uptick.
Despite Takata, a vibration issue or two, and the teething pains of bringing North America’s newest Honda manufacturing plant online, American Honda Motors, Acura Division is experience its best sales year in a decade.
According Honda division senior vice president and general manager Jeff Conrad
"This is not only the strongest lineup of Honda light trucks in our history, from top to bottom it is one of the hottest lineups in the industry's hottest segment—trucks," said Jeff Conrad, Honda Division senior vice president and general manager. "What feels really good is that Honda automobiles are also showing considerable strength, even with the new 2016 Accord and all-new Civic on the horizon."
As to Acura Division
"With Acura sedan sales continuing to strengthen, the Acura brand is on its strongest footing in years," said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda. "With both sedans and trucks clicking with luxury buyers Acura is on pace for our best sales year in nearly a decade."
A few final thoughts
As it is said in the automotive business, when someone builds the ‘perfect’ car, automotive reviewers like myself will be out of a job. While that hasn’t happened as of this posting, a handful of Honda, Acura offerings are dangerously close to closing in on perfection. A huge factor of closing in on consumer perceived perfection is bringing to market a visually pleasing, standard feature-packed car or light truck; exhibiting exceptional person to auto ease of connectivity, exceptional safety, and a comfortable, configurable drive and ride environment.
Honda and Acura Division consistently breaches the price boundaries of a not too distant past premium class automobile; by producing entry-level compacts, midsize sedans and light trucks with exceptional standard features, at an attainable price-point. When measured against a wide field of competing brands, dollar for dollar, Honda, Acura may present the greatest overall automotive purchase value. You may read the Honda July sales report here.
Honda quality?, yes, that’s a generational thing. With 30 million+ vehicles driving the roads of North America, Honda has the presence as well as the brand loyalty to drive new and return customer sales. What’s happening here is the convergence of a decent drive-ride experience, meets price-point, exceptional future forward engineering, style and more than adequate road performance.
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