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Honda Sales Slip, Acura Sales Tumble in Shorter Month of May

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The 2016 Honda Civic sedan features a starting MSRP of $18,640

American Honda’s sales last month totaled 147,108, which represented a year-over-year decline of 4.8%. Honda blamed the sales decrease, in part, on having two fewer selling days this May versus a year ago, pointing out that year-to-date Honda sales are still up 5.7%.

The Honda brand specifically is up 7.1% in year-to-date sales, despite May sales being down 2.9% to 133,547 units. Among the highlights, however, was the new Civic, which continues to lead the compact segment, up 2.7% last month with 35,396 sales.

The HR-V also posted strong May sales of 7,392 units, a 15.8% gain over last year.

“We continue to see solid demand for Honda cars and light trucks, and all indicators point to a strong summer selling season for Honda,” said Honda executive Jeff Conrad. “With our balanced lineup and an all-new Ridgeline pickup and restyled and reengineered 2017 Accord Hybrid launching this summer, we remain bullish on our prospects for a third consecutive yearly sales record for the Honda brand.”

Things were much more bleak for Acura, which suffered a 20.4% decline in May results, with only a paltry 13,561 units moved. The luxury auto brand attributed the slump to the sell-down of the outgoing 2016 RDX SUV, as well as regional shortfalls in inventories of the MDX seven-passenger SUV.

“Inventory issues and a challenging market for luxury sedan sales took the wind out of our sails in May, but with the excitement of the NSX now coming to market and the restyled and significantly refreshed 2017 MDX arriving later this month we look to continue our growth this summer,” said Acura exec Jon Ikeda.