Cars Still Matter: Honda Proves It

Yes, car sales are declining. But that isn’t the same as saying that car sales are becoming a trivial thing on the books of every OEM.

Honda Accord

The Honda Accord is the 2018 North American Car of the Year according to the judges of NACTOY. And there have been people who have noted that as good as the car is, its sales are down this year versus last. Which is true. So far this year they’ve sold 111,564 Accords compared with 130,300 during the same period in 2017. And the sales number for May 2018, 28,212, is up 29.3 percent compared with April 2018 sales, so things are moving in the right direction for Honda.

But that’s 28,212 units, a non-trivial number, one that any OEM would like to have on its ledger.

Honda Civic

The Accord’s sibling, the Civic is doing even better. In May there were 34,349 units sold. That’s more than were sold in May 2017 by 7.4 percent. For the year they’ve sold 144,897 Civics, which is about par with 2017’s sales (144,854).

Obviously, 34,349 is an even better number than that of the Accord.

Honda CR-V

Honda, of course, has its share of crossover vehicles, too. For example, there is the CR-V, which had sales of 35,905, which bests both of the cars.

Honda Pilot

And Honda’s larger crossover, the Pilot, had sales of 13,573 units in May 2018, which is an increase of 36.1 percent compared with May 2017, truly a percentage increase that is solid.

Let’s consider this another way.

The combined sales of the Accord and Civic in May were 60,561.

The combined sales of the CR-V and the Pilot in May were 49,478.

Yes, people are still buying cars.

And if an auto company has the right ones, they can undoubtedly do very well with them.