[Oberkanone]

Japanese automaker Honda Motor's U.S. sales fell 1.7% in January, compared to a year earlier, as the company failed to capitalize on the trend of consumers fleeing small cars for bigger vehicles.

Sales of the company's namesake Honda brand sold 50,812 cars in January, up 10.6%. But its sales of crossovers, sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks — which shoppers are coveting — fell 10.9% to 39,435.

But the CR-V crossover endured a 17.2% decline to 19,208 vehicles, and the Pilot SUV fell 30.5% to 8,561.

Why is Honda not riding the SUV and Truck sales wave? OK, so Honda currently has no truck at the moment but what is the problem with Pilot?

 

[larryr]

Why is Honda not riding the SUV and Truck sales wave? OK, so Honda currently has no truck at the moment but what is the problem with Pilot?

CR-V has serious vibration issues with the Earth Dreams and CVT. there are 3 fixes that are hit or miss. The fit and finish of the new Pilot leaves a lot to be desired and the new controls are not easily worked ( cannot work the touch screen with glove on ) and the HR-V is made in Mexico and has not had really good Quality Control - the dealers have to do a lot of fixing of little things on the HR-V.

I think Honda is the new GM. Do a quick design, don't test it and rush it out the door so the consumer has to figure out what is not working then Honda band-aids it. Don't do what the engineers say needs done - cut cost even if the quality is not there, the customer is really dumb and will buy Honda on past reputation.

My 1991 and 1994 Accords have original seats and looks great after 20 years. My Ridgeline, Pilot and CR-V seats look like crap after 6 weeks.

The former long term quality of the 1990's Honda seems to have gone the way of the 15 cent hamburger. ( I am old enough to remember the 15 cent hamburger and change back from a dollar for a big mac meal. )

The word is getting out that the 2015 and 2016 Honda's have issues. Not fast enough in my opinion.

 

[interpon]

I agree..especially the mx plant. Hell i would rather buy the gm china made vehicle

 

[Dnick]

I agree..especially the mx plant. Hell i would rather buy the gm china made vehicle

Ditto that ..... FIT problems too. That kind of word of mouth is a reputation killer. It won't even matter if they fix things once the perception is reached that they are no longer the co-king of quality (with Toyota). Times a passin'.

 

[Carsmak]

Dnick, What "FIT" problems, Our "Fitto Bandito" was made at the new plant in MX. Only problem I know of was getting train loads of vehicles out of Mexico without them being stolen or stripped on the train. 20k miles in 11 months and no issues what so ever, fuel and 2 oil changes.

 

[Dnick]

Dnick, What "FIT" problems, Our "Fitto Bandito" was made at the new plant in MX. Only problem I know of was getting train loads of vehicles out of Mexico without them being stolen or stripped on the train. 20k miles in 11 months and no issues what so ever, fuel and 2 oil changes.

Don't remember off-hand. You'd have to do a search. But the Mexico FIT issues seemed to be plentiful when I read about them. Maybe just start-up things that they got squared away??? Who knows.

 

[Oberkanone]

I stopped by local dealer the other day to check on a part and sitting in the service bay was a late 90's Honda Prelude. Black exterior with black interior and the car looked like it was brand new. Interior was simple, elegant and purposeful. Exterior the same.
This Honda Prelude really appeals to me in it's overall design and use of materials in a manner that current Honda's do not.
IMHO Honda was just better than nearly everyone else in a period of time that started in the 80's and continued to about 2005.
Today's Honda vehicles are quite good, they just don't have that Honda magic that they used to have.
To me it's kind of like the Chicago Bears of today compared to 1985 Bears.

 

[Dnick]

.............
Today's honda vehicles are quite good, they just don't have that honda magic that they used to have.
to me it's kind of like the chicago bears of today compared to 1985 bears.

ouch! ! ! ..............