Colin

I was of course joking, but I do hope that they stick to their guns and keep the design. Maybe refine it a little as mentioned. I think that the implementation on the TSX and ZDX are fine.

biker

In the detailed Honda report I didn't see any Crosstour sales - didn't that go on sale last month?

Belzebutt

One thing I find hard to believe is that the aging 3-series is still outselling the A4/A5 so much... the image is strong with this one.


Also that the GLK is outselling the Q5 quite a bit, despite no so great reviews.

Moog-Type-S

The RX and ES are bread n butter for Lexus.

jangkai

I thought the A5 was a low volume car. Most dealers had very few or none in stock earlier this year when I was looking at it.
GLK = Cheap Mercedes. I see many grannies driving it around town.

Edward'TLS

Fascinating. I wonder why the RX and ES can do it, but the MDX and TL can't.

Costco

probably sarcastic, but I'll give it a shot anyways:

DrewSRX

October 2009 - Luxury Car Sales

Entry CUV
1. GLK - 1,833
2. Q5 - 1,238
3. RDX - 952
4. XC60 - 900
5. EX - 560
6. X3 - 182

Pre-Entry-Level
1. TSX - 2,298
2. HS - 1,527
3. C30/S40/V50 - 1,357
4. 1-Series - 501
5. A3 - 254

Entry-Level
1. 3 - 8,239
2. ES - 4,413
3. A4/5 - 4,123
4. C - 4,122
5. G - 3,889
6. IS - 3,162
7. CTS - 2,921
8. TL - 2,512
9. MKZ - 1,661
10. 9-3 - 248
11. S60 - 26

Mid-Level
1. E - 6,071
2. 5 - 3,043
3. MKS - 1,609
4. A6 - 669
5. S80 - 541
6. M - 536
7. GS - 494
8. STS - 355
9. RL - 155
10. 9-5 - 51

Flagship
1. 7-Series - 1,209
2. S-Class - 1,114
3. LS - 804
4. A8/S8 - 208

(Cj)

Honda/Acura sales
http://sohc.vtec.net/news_files/861315/oct09sales.gif

LuvMyTSX

26 S60s? Wow.

biker

That link above is not working for Honda sales.

(Cj)

^ thats the July sales

biker

dom

Can we finally put to rest the notion that the Insight isn't selling well because gas isn't $4 a gallon. The Prius is doing just fine...

neuronbob

Wow! MDX and TSX were carrying Acura last month, and look at the RDX's year over year numbers! Wow. The TL OTOH....oh boy...not so good compared to last year.

(Cj)

The HS250h (which costs 2x as much as the Insight) almost matched the Insight in sales.

The MDX and RDX sales jumps were kinda surprising. I'm guessing the FWD model helped the RDX, but I'm surprised people were able to get around the new front end.

vybzkartel

check out the X3's #s lol!

fsttyms1

The CTS-V has probably sold more than the RL this year

charliemike

Why has the Fit taken it in the ass?

neuronbob

It's a close battle. There have been around 3500 CTS-Vs sold. Only 500 more to go to beat the RL, LOL!

Don't take this as bashing my precious RL...still the best Acura I ever owned.

F23A4

MDX sales does not surprise me as its one of the best SUVs on the market. With the TL, its sales decline does not surprise me rather, it's the size of the decline that's shocking. Acura had better do some serious work with the regard to the upcoming 4.5G TL.

black label

Because you can't sell what you don't have. We look at these numbers as a competition but we don't have all the info. RL's are practically sold out, this doesn't mean it is a top seller, it just means they were produced in very low numbers.

If Toyota makes 10000 prius' in a month and sells 3000 of them and Honda makes 3000 insights a month and sells 2000 of them, does that mean Toyota killed Honda? I would say matching your production to your sales is a better model. In that situation Honda has sold 2/3 of their available inventory and Toyota sold 1/3.

I'm not saying this is always the case but many times when I see us discussing how poorly a particular car sold we fail to look at how many may be available. If Nationwide there are 300 RL's available for sale, they simply can't sell 500 of them.

So to answer Charliemike's question about the Fit, the Fit took it in the ass because there aren't enough of them available for sale. The Honda dealer I just left had a 6 week + wait (depending on trim level and color) to get a new Fit. In reality when there is a month and a half wait to buy a Honda econo box and people are still laying their money down to secure a car, it's actually doing OK despite what the sales numbers look like.

I'd be willing to bet that the Insight absolutely killed the entire Lamborghini line up in sales last month, not because the insight is a better car, not because the Lambos are undesirable cars simply because there are far more insights for sale than Lamborghinis.

black label

I'm guessing that next month MDX sales will decline sharply, Acura is running out of them and the 2010 models aren't here yet.

dom

So Toyota sold 13K Prius', because they had so many of them to sell? It had nothing to do with people actually wanting them?

If there was more demand for the Insight they would simply make more of them. Stop with the excuses please. As it stands now the Insight won't come remotely close to reaching Honda's target of 100K per year which makes the car a colossal failure. At least on this side of the pond.

Not picking on you Black Label bit it just seems that every month when sales of a particular vehicle are in the tank at Honda its because inventory was low. Maybe its the case but its seems more and more like a convenient excuse.

dtc5

I think some of the TL's sales were taken away by the TSX since Honda made it bigger. Not all of it but some for sure. I'll admit when I was shopping for a new car couple months ago, I was considering the TSX most of the way before I test drove the TL.

mrdeeno

fixed.

black label

I'm not using it as a blanket excuse, all I'm saying is we criticize without having all the numbers. I know Fit's had been very difficult to get you hands on in the past month. So if there was a decline in sales numbers I would attribute it in part to lack of availability. To really get to the bottom of sales we need to know how many cars were sold and how many were actually available to be sold.

Honda may have targeted 100K per year in sales for the Insight, but they certainly aren't producing enough cars to hit that number.

In regards to the Prius, I'm not making any judgement on whether the vehicle is desirable or not but it is a fact that Toyota needs to sell more Prius' than Honda needs to sell Insights to keep their CAFE averages up. I'm not sure, but I believe Honda could drop the whole Insight project and still have their fleet average where it needs to be. I don't believe Toyota can say the same about the Prius.

F23A4

@ Deeno's fix


What shocks me most is E-class sales.

As far as Volvo and Saab go, I guess the masses are generally tired of cars that cost the same as BMW and Audi but depreciate faster than Hyundai and Kia.

Edward'TLS

Depreciation aside, Hyundai/Kia has been sailing against the current ill economy. While all auto makers are suffering losses in sales, Hyundai/Kia is the sole exception with ever increasing sales months after months during the recent few disastrous years.

dom

If they could sell more Insights they would make more Insights. It doesn't have to get more complicated than that. There's a reason they cut back production.

SpicyMikey

As far back as I can remember, it seems Honda has always been a company that believed in low inventory. That's just the way they run their business. And yes, it means less sales, but evidently they are ok with that. Inventory is very expensive and kills profit margins for dealers and the manufacturer. Old adage in business; Doesn't matter how much money you make, just how much you keep.

black label

You say that as if they only cut Insight production back, when in reality, they cut production across the board. The reason Honda cut back production (like most auto manufacturers did for 2009) was the global economy being in the shitter. It had nothing do do with whether they thought the vehicle would be desirable or not, it had to do with whether there would be as many consumers buying cars as there was in 2008. Porsche cut 911 production down for 2009 as well for the same reasons, it has nothing to do with whether it is desirable it was about gauging how many people would make a purchase in a bad economy.

dom

I don't disagree with that at all. I'm only focusing on the Insight here.

Lets not ignore the facts here.

- Honda targeting 100k per year. Its not low inventory that's keeping them from that goal, its lack of demand.

- Its not the economy or low gas prices either as the Prius easily outsells it while costing more.

The only reason inventory is low is because Honda dialed back production because there wasn't enough demand. was that a smart move? yes. But lets not sugar coat the sales flop that the Insight is at this point.

Low Inventory is caused by low demand in this case. I don't see how or why you guys are even arguing that point.

dom

To a degree I agree. But 1700 a month? Toyota sells 13K per month. Why can't they sell say half as many Insights? Production is down because no one wants the vehicle.

They can easily increase production to meet demand and always have in the past.

SpicyMikey

Yes, Insight is not competitive with the Prius. They will sell less regardless of how many they make. I agree

(Cj)

(Cj)

Top 10 sales - Japan

1. Toyota Prius - 31,728
2. Honda Fit - 17,241
3. Toyota Vitz - 12,731
4. Toyota Passo - 10,792
5. Honda Insight - 10,289
6. Honda Freed - 9,123
7. Nissan Note - 9,091
8. Nissan Serena - 8,827
9. Nissan Cube - 7,632
10. Toyota Wish - 7,468

VChron

Saabs and Volvos are generally thousands less than equivalent BMW and Audi models on an MSRP basis, and even moreso after incentives. Saab's sales have dropped precipitously because of a lack of new products, among other things. On the other hand, Volvo has had a year-over-year sales increase each of the last 5 months - up over 19% in October, for example.


Don't be fooled by the abysmally low S60 sales volume. It's because production ceased at the end of March and will not resume until next year with the new model.

Moog-Type-S

F23A4

Both brands have a loyal but fairly small following with little draw from buyers of other makes. Incentives notwithstanding, most car buyers would readily buy a 335xi (base MSRP $42,300) over the 9-3 Aero Sport Sedan AWD (base MSRP $43,605). (priced out with Navi and Leather: $48,425 and $48,025, respectively)*

I would need that same 9-3 to be obtainable at $37k (MAX MSRP) for it to be on my radar and even then the G37X will take out said bogey from forementioned radar.



* prices derived directly from BMWUSA and SAABUSA websites.