Acura Sales Down 15%; 10% for the Year

[TSX69]

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American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted sales of 126,419 Honda and Acura vehicles in April, down 1.6 percent on a daily-selling-rate basis*, the company announced today. American Honda light-truck sales rose 5.6 percent to 55,300 units. American Honda year-to-date sales totaled 480,627 units, up 1.6 percent.

Led by its most fuel-efficient models, Honda Division posted April sales of 111,226 cars and light trucks, up 0.6 percent on a daily-selling-rate basis* against last year's all-time best April. On sale now for one full year, the Fit set a new April record with 3,958 units sold, up 13.1 percent. Recording its fifth consecutive month of record sales, the all-new CR-V sold 17,379 units, up 39.4 percent. The Civic posted a 1.0 percent increase with 29,155 units sold. Honda Division year-to-date sales were up 3.4 percent with 421,773 units sold, on track for another record year.

"Fuel prices are again driving customers toward fuel-efficient vehicles," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda. "The strength of small cars and crossovers like Fit, Civic and CR-V underscores the prevailing consumer sentiment about fuel prices."

Acura Division posted 15,193 sales in April, off 15.0 percent from last April's record month. Strong sales of the redesigned MDX luxury SUV and RDX turbocharged SUV helped set an April sales record of 6,648 for total light-trucks, surpassing the previous record of 5,073 set in 2005.

* Based on 24 selling days in April 2007 versus 26 selling days in April 2006.


Honda needs to figure out what their plan is for Acura - is it a luxury brand? Is it a performance brand? Both?? Their lack of vision shows & I think that it is hurting sales. Once they decide what they are trying to do it & actually pursue it {a luxury brand w/ manual seats?? a performance brand w/ a 4 cylinder front wheel drive only configuration??} w/ products that satisfy the target audience, I think they will see competitive sales numbers.

The RL is dead in the water. The MDX is selling @ pretty much the same rate as the old model. The RDX sales are improving but still missing the target by like a 1k a month. RSX went bye bye. TL is getting older & lost its crown as the top seller for the segment - the MMC {Type S} appears to be too minor as I suspect many shoppers are choosing the stronger engines and/or the RWD vehicles. The TSX sales are starting to go down & now that it looks like the new model will come out in 2009 and not 2008, I doubt that they will improve.

Honda/Acura needs a game plan now. Their numbers may not be as bad as Jaguar but it has to @ least give them some concern.

[wylin]

AHM needs to continue working with RPA (their ad agency) to try to set up the acura brand with higher equity, right now they benchmarked BMW and are positioning ads to compare the mdx to the x5, rdx to the x3, TL to the 3 or 5, TSX to ?, TL to V8 5 series.

Personally i think the best way to do this would be to join the horsepower wars that toyota, bmw, Mbz, and nissan seem to engaged in. As well as add their SH-awd to next TL to give it atleast the illusion of sporty dynamcs and handling. Because right now customers can buy an accord v6 or even worse a Camry V6 and get 8/10-9/10ths of what the TL offers, especially since the accord shares the engine design and platform. The camry v6 is a rocket, and is relatively inexpensive.

The Tsx specifically needs to be updated but i think it would do better with a FF chassis to keep the price down and the model differentiated from the TL. Personally i think a TSX with an LSD, 10-15 more horsepower drawn out of the K24,& a more aggressive suspension would do well for the model to invigorate sales in the final year or 2 of the model before any revision. These LSD and suspension exist already in the euro-R and the k24 can make plenty more power as shown by simple bolt-ons and reflashes.

The RDX is position a bit too expensive, especially with the mazda C7 and C9 and toyota Rav 4 being nearly as nice and actually faster in the rav4's case. It should be positioned to compete yes with the X3 but at a lower price point. with looming competitors such as the Infiniti EX35 on the horizon.

[dina]

:(

[ChinchillaX]

around here I am starting to see more RDX on the roads. I think its because dealers are giving rebates and incentives of $3500-5000 just to get them off their lots. As for the RL, TL, and TSX....these models are getting old, people who wanted one got one. Hopefully, next year Acura will have something fresh and new in their sedan lineup. The MDX and RDX were the only new cars this year.

[narci]

They need a replacement for the RSX...RSX was a big seller for acura.

[wylin]

they already have an rsx replacement the civic Si, coupe and sedan, which slots perfectly where the integra was. In japan the civic type R sedan replaced the DC5 integra type R.

I think they need a mid sized coupe think the previous CL and current accord coupe weighing in around 3300-3600lb,lbut differentiated more from the already nice accord coupe v6. i'd suggest an AWD coupe with the 3.5l v6 from the RL, priced the same as the TL-S +2-3k (40k range) w/ a similar equipment load out to the TL-S. The reason for the pricing is the G37 coupe is roughly 35-40k and it would be a little under the Audi A5 3.2 and BMW 335 coupe (45-50k).