Honda to highlight light truck sales in U.S.

Reuters / January 07, 2003

DETROIT - Honda Motor Co., like many of its Japanese peers, is looking at another rosy year in the United States.

After increasing its U.S. sales volume by 3.3 percent in 2002, Japan's second-largest automaker is looking to boost sales by another 8 percent this year to 1.35 million vehicles, with almost all of that growth expected in the profitable light truck segment.

Even with its strong brand image and good track record in North America, that is no mean feat for an automaker with no new model launches in the United States this year, apart from the new TSX sedan in its Acura luxury division.

That, at a time when others are flooding the fast-growing light truck segment with brand new products, and in a market that is widely expected to shrink in 2003.

"It shouldn't be a problem growing our sales because we'll have a full contribution from all the models we launched last year," Koichi Amemiya, head of Honda's U.S. unit, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

Indeed, Honda has enjoyed brisk sales of the Pilot sport-utility launched in June, and has plans to double output capacity at its Alabama plant, which makes light trucks for the North American market, to 300,000 units by the spring of 2004.

While it's plain to everyone that not all automakers will meet their forecasts this year, Amemiya said Honda would have no difficulty since it was growing in a popular segment in which it has had a conspicuously low profile so far.

"I can't say we won't be completely unaffected by the entry of Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. into the light truck segment," said Amemiya, who celebrates 40 years with Honda this year.

"But I'd have to say Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors are the most likely to get hit."

Light trucks accounted for about a third of Honda's total sales last year, compared with more than half for the overall market.

And in contrast to what is in store for the Big 3, Honda is expecting sales incentives to stay low or even fall this year, boding well for its profits.

In 2002, Honda spent by far the least in sales incentives, amounting to roughly a third of what Ford spent, according to one industry study.

That has helped Honda's operating profit in North America rise to 9.6 percent last year from 7.9 percent the year before.

Amemiya said that with growth occurring mostly in the profitable light truck area, Honda's profit margin still had room to grow, although it would take some time to recover investment costs for boosting output capacity.

With Honda leading the industry in so many ways, Amemiya said one of the only challenges left was to become the number-one-rated automaker for customer satisfaction -- an enviable wish-list for its U.S. counterparts.

"Lexus still has the top spot in that arena. We need to get there as soon as possible."

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discuss...

 

The TL isn't a new model. What's to discuss?

 

Not sure what you're worried about.....

 

i was thinking that myself though..
new model or not, would it be smart for honda to market both the new TSX and the new TL in the same year?
plus, i was never sure if we ever received substantiated claims on the tl's 2004 release...

anyone have more info?

 

Why wouldn't they do both? Launches are going to be about 5-7 months apart and the TL isn't a new model. Plus, the TSX is 2 models below the TL... different market entirely. Price, HP, etc... all different categories. Not only that... but they're one year behind their competition already (Nissan), plus, they can't have the Accord better then the TL for too long of a time, otherwise Acura will lose buyers to Honda.

As for substantiated claims... there are none from Honda/Acura themselves.... just rumors from mags and based on the life cycle of the generations.

 

Alrite all these talk about the 04 TL how about the 04 CL, any changes there?

 

It's not due for any... but I'm sure there will be little things. No information either way though....

 

depends on the sales of the Accord Coupe. Rumors have been that the CL will go "buh bye" since sales aren't great. Hence, the reason for the 6spd introduction and the slight redesign (ie, headlights, door handles, titanium trim). Again, ONLY time will tell, and we'll have to wait.

 

It is? I thought it was between the RSX and the TL?

 

I think he meant two models below as in
TL
CL
TSX
RSX

 

Oh see, I've always thought that the TL and CL were equal, but one's got more doors.... I guess the CL is slightly below the TL if you were going by the pricing.

 

I read the article as stating no other new models this year. This year is the 2003 model year. That doesn't mean there won't be new models/redesigns for model year 2004.

 

honestly... i hope the '04 tl is ugly ... that way mine is prettier

 

New accord = new TL !

 

junior bean:
understood

oliverd:
i was doing a little thinking on this as well
The TSX obviously shares the same design as the domestic, euro, and JDM accords. If this is teh case, and the TL will continue being a model higher than the TSX, will teh TL and accord still share teh same platform? (Some text i read in the Japanese article recently posted on this forum may perhaps point to this conclusion.)

 

The TL model will for sure be redesigned for the 2004 model.
It all depends on what month ACURA puts out the car.
It may come out in August or September of this year.
The 2003 TL model makes the current run of the 2nd generation TL a 5year old design from 1999-2003. ACURA could even delay release date to October or November of 2003. I don't think ACURA will wait for later months to release it. I myself think ACURA will release a newly redesigned TL model & the new TSX model will be in the showroom also & a newly redesigned RL model all for 2004.

 

How much do you guys think the new RL is going to cost?

 

no idea dude..RL will prolly be launched after TL..so we wont know anything about it until after the TL is launched.

 

I'm assuming that the new Accord is built on a new chassis and the TL's are built on the same manufacturing line as the Accords. Since the TL's are on the now old chassis, wouldn't it make sense to move the TL to the newest design as fast as possible to keep the manufacturing cost down? Shouldn't we see the new TL sooner than later?
As a general question: How do car manufacturers keep their costs down? Don't they need to retool when they change models on their manufacturing lines?

 

Before TL comes out, I am pretty sure first we will see some spy pictures, then it will be displayed at a major auto show.

So far two major auto shows of the year came and went, and there is no news about TL.

There is one more major auto show left - Chicago in February. Is it going to be shown there? But Chicago show is coming up soon and there are no spy pictures yet.

The only big auto show after Chicago is New York. After NY, that's it for the year.

So if it is coming out as a 2004 model, when are they going to debut it?

 

Who else thinks that we will be disappointed when we finally see it?

For some reason I am not holding my breath after seeing what they did to the Accord.

 

Thats true for the accord but the TL always looks good.
Is there a year that the TL dosnt look good?
I dun like the accord design since 99

 

the accord is definately hinting at the upcoming crap that will happen to the TL. however, it is very unlikely the TL will be as ugly as the accord. oh well, lets wait and see........

 

"Honda gets XM Radio


By K.C. Crain
Automotive News / January 16, 2003

WASHINGTON — Starting this spring, American Honda Motor Co. customers will be able to get XM Satellite Radio in their vehicles.

The satellite radio service will be offered as a dealer-installed option this spring on the Honda Accord and Pilot. In addition to the cost of the hardware, XM Satellite Radio subscribers pay $9.99 a month for the service.

Also this spring, the 2004 Acura RL sedan goes on sale with the XM radio as standard equipment. Next fall, the 2004 TL sedan will also be equipped with the satellite radio as standard.

Honda expects to make XM Satellite Radio a factory-installed option on the Accord for the 2004 model year, and expand availability of the service in 2005."

- http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=4361