Honda Post Record Breaking May Auto Sale


by Mike Bartley - Date: 2007-06-05 - Word Count: 533 Share This!

With the month of May over, car manufacturers are already reporting their sales output for the month. The American Honda Motor Co. reported that they have broken their May sales record previously set in 2004. For the past month, the company sold 145,367 cars and light trucks. Last year, for the month of May, Honda sold 141,810 vehicles.

The increase is boosted by good sales for the Honda division which sold 129,447 cars and light trucks. Last year, the division sold 125,639 cars and light trucks combined. Last month has more selling days than the previous year which resulted to a daily selling rate of a 1.4 percent drop for American Honda.

The additional selling day also resulted to a 0.9 percent decrease for the Honda division. For the first five months of the year, Honda has already sold 625,994 vehicles which represent a one percent increase as compared to the first five months of 2006.

Honda's increased sale is the effect of the all-time record sales for the compact Civic and the Honda Fit. The crossover SUV CR-V also posted its highest May sales record. Honda sold 39,993 units of the Civic last month, marking an increase of 32.6 percent as compared to May 2006 Civic sales. The previous record for the Civic sale was set on August of 2001. The hybrid version of the Civic also broke the all-time record set on August of 2005. Last month, 4,250 units of the Civic Hybrid were sold and that is an increase of 50.4 percent compared to May 2006.

Sales for the crossover CR-V increased by 35.9 percent compared to last year during the same month. The five-door hatchback Fit sets sales records when Honda sold 5,361 units of the award-winning auto model. Month to date sale shows a decrease of 1.8 percent due to the additional selling day. A 99.3 percent sales increase was also recorded for the first five months of the year for the Fit compared to the first five months of 2006.

The increased sale of the smaller Civic and Fit as well as the relatively small CR-V is pointed out as the trend in the US car market. "Small is big right now," Dick Colliver, the executive vice president of American Honda, said. "Smaller vehicles have become more attractive for multiple reasons and we expect this trend to continue for the time being."

Meanwhile, the Accord suffered from declining sale. Last month, American Honda sold 31,915 of the midsize sedan. Last year, during the same month, Honda sold 36,967 units of the Accord. That shows a decrease of 17 percent with the additional selling day worsening the sales reduction.

As for Honda's luxury division Acura, a 5.3 percent sales drop was reported. The vehicles across Acura's lineup excluding the MDX and the NSX posted sales decrease. The MDX which is known for its high performance even without aftermarket ACT parts posted a 27.2 percent sales increase. Last month, American Honda sold 4,623 units while for May 2006, Honda only sold 3,494 units of the midsize luxury crossover SUV. The Acura division posted a reduction in sales for the first five months of the year by 11.8 percent compared to last year's first five months.


Related Tags: auto parts, act

Mike Bartley, 49, is a professional automotive journalist domiciled in Irvine, CA. He travels from one state to another to cover the hottest auto shows, racing events and automotive revelations. His penned compositions cover press releases, reviews, and suggestions. Where the auto action is, that's exactly where you can find Mike.

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: