Honda Accord Sales Reflect Big Changes Among Mid-Sizers
While July sales certainly showed plenty of surprises, perhaps some of the biggest came in the mid-size sedan segment. It's the key to sales on the car side nowadays, as U.S. buyers, especially those with families, have moved away from full-size sedans and remained leery of compacts. But July saw a number of factors combine to knock the segment for a bit of a loop last month. For example, the long-time segment leader Honda Accord had its sales numbers knocked down by 17.9 percent compared to July 2009.
The Accord has been living off its momentum for a while now, as new and/or improved entries from the other automakers have closed and/or eliminated the quality and/or fuel-efficiency gaps that used to exist between the Honda and its rivals. There's still a certain premium cachét to the Accord, thanks to its high levels of available content and sophisticated style, but it's not the most fuel-efficient vehicle in the segment, it's not the fastest and it's definitely not the least expensive'”although it's not the most expensive either.
In fact, here's an amazing stat: The Honda Accord's top EPA line of 22 mpg city/31 mpg highway/25 mpg combined now trails that of every one of its mainstream rivals, including the Chevrolet Malibu, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata and Toyota Camry. We're only talking a few mpg here, at most, but it's still a startling state of affairs for an automaker that considers itself a fuel-efficiency leader. And truth be told, the Accord's starting MSRP of $21,055, while it doesn't top the segment, is significantly higher than all other comers save the Malibu, reducing the Accord's value proposition even further. It's no wonder the Accord's sales have been slipping as well.
And I don't just mean the big drop off last month. After all, part of what's going on with July 2010 sales is that, for a change, they're being compared to a relatively strong baseline. Remember, July 2009 was when "Cash for Clunkers" was kicking in, and this is especially relevant to the Accord, as Honda was one of the big beneficiaries of the Clunker program. In other words, you'd expect the Accord to do worse this July than last.
But there's yet another effect that needs to be taken into account, and it works in the other direction: This year's Accord sales include those of the Honda Accord Crosstour. There are undoubtedly some Crosstour buyers who would have otherwise purchased an Accord, but those who are new to the Accord family represent bonus sales that no one is really paying attention to on a macro scale. The Crosstour has been regularly finding about 2,200 customers a month this year, and those numbers are all piled on top of the standard Accord figures, making it appear as if the Accord proper is doing that much better than it really is.
The July volumes in the mid-size segment were also worth looking at. Again, there's something to be said for the Clunker effect, let's look at the Sonata. Hyundai is claiming that it's literally building as many Sonatas as it can, running the plant on overtime and looking for ways to increase capacity. Yet here are the numbers from March on, when the 2011 model started gaining traction among buyers: That month, 18,935 customers purchased a Sonata; April saw a minor dip to 18,536, then sales soared to 21,195 in May; in June and July, Sonata volumes were under 18,000 units.
And this reflects more than Hyundai just changing the product mix at its U.S. manufacturing facility, where the Sonata and Hyundai Tucson are built, to favor the latter. Tucson volumes were also down noticeably in the past two months as compared to May.
So, what's going on here? Well, consider that the only mainstream mid-sizers to see percentage sales increases were the Sonata and the Malibu, while full-size sedans like the Buick LaCrosse, Ford Taurus and Toyota Avalon saw sales jump by 380 percent, 186.7 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively, I'd say it's further evidence that when gas prices are down, America's interest in big vehicles goes up.