What Honda Needs to Do To Keep A Strong Position in the US Market

#1, install reliable automatic transmission in their vehicles and extend
the automatic transmission warranty to at least 100,000 miles for all
years, all models.

#2, Make good looking vehicles. The Ridgeline is plug ugly. Most
other current Honda models are in the barely acceptable category.
Honda seems to have no workable design language for it's current US
lineup and is loosing sales as a result.

Honda was up 4% in the US last year. Toyota was up 10%. Nissan was up
9%. Hyundai was up 9% on the year and 16% in December. Honda's December
sales were down 3%. Toyota December sales were up 9%. Trend wise,
Honda is falling off the pace while Toyota and Hyundai are pulling
strong. I see Toyota and Hyundai as the real competition for Honda in
the US market today. Hyundai has pulled itself up by the bootstraps
into the first tier of auto manufacturers in historically record time.

All data is from:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_bi_ge/auto_sales

Honda management seems to be loosing it's way in recent years on certain
quality control issues and on styling. An insular culture and
corporate arrogance are what brought GM down in the long haul. Honda
had better watch out for the same problem.

John

 

Try driving a Oddesey or new Civic hybrid and report back.

 

I like almost all of the Honda's looks. Yeah, Ridgeline's kind of ugly.
Reminds me of GM's half pickups. Do you include Acuras in the list?
Acuras look pretty nice too. The new Civic looks great.

On the other hand, I dislike almost all of Toyota's car looks: Corolla,
Camry, Solara, Prius.

 

Why they stopped using amber rear turn signals is beyond me....

I was behind a new Accord that had its turn signal flashing -- but I had to
look two or three times to be sure that's what was happening. Of course, for
those who don't USE turn signals, well.... never mind. ;-)

 

Make a new CRX and a new Prelude,at reasonable prices,with reasonable
horsepower.
Also,Mazda makes their very popular Miata,and Honda's S2000 is far higher
in price.

Honda needs to look at what the "tuners" are doing with older Hondas and
other makes of autos;that's what the younger crowd wants to buy.

Instead,their products keep getting bigger and bigger,heavier,more and more
"same as everybody else".

 

the new MX5 (aka miata) is even better than the old one. shold be
comming stateside in a year or two.

 

What are they, white now? I think that's just the trend in the auto
industry.

 

"Bucky" wrote

No, they're red, and far less visible than they ever were before. *I* need
to see what drivers' intentions are. "Foreign" manufacturers were the leader
in this important safety issue; apparently some, like Honda, don't give a
rat's ass anymore. Besides, design-wise, the new taillights look awful. I
know, there's no accounting for taste.

 

They would lose me as a customer since I wouldn't buy a small/sporty
car with an AT.

Don't care much what they look like. Agree Ridgeline is butt ugly but
I think the whole concept is stupid.

I suspect that part of the reason Honda sales were down in December
was because they sold out of '05s earlier than in '04.

 

What I would like is a station wagon the size of a Volvo 240 with
performance suspension and drive train.

 

The present Acura line is pretty decent looking. Hondas, however, are
all over the place. The new Civic is alright and the Accord is decent,
but the Ridgeline, Pilot and Element are all certainly nothing to write
home about.

John

 

I thought it was funny that Honda redesigned the rear of the Accord for
'06. Personally i think that the rear of my '03 is better looking than
is the front!

John

 

Indeed, Honda is a complete non-starter in the sporty coupe market.
Even the new Saturn Sky blows away Honda in that category. Who would
have thought that Saturn could do a better job than Honda on something ????

John

 

Sign me up for that one! It really ticks me off that there are so few
good mid-sized wagon available on the US market. For overall
versatility, comfort, performance and economy nothing beats a mid-sized
wagon.

John

 

Obviously I am not advocating getting rid of the manual tranmission
offereings, but for the majority of customers who buy automatic
transmissions the darn things should work!

Appealing styling is very important to the majority of car buyers, so
even if it doesn't matter to you it does matter to the success of the
company.

I don't believe that at all. By December most of the '05s of all brands
were long gone. I spent several weeks helping a friend car shop and
there were very few '05s of any sort on any dealer lot for any brand.
She did end up choosing an '06 Accord, which was in plentiful supply.

The excuse does not hold water.

 

The Civic SI is an impressive drive in my opinion -- as is the Acura RSX S.
And, I will take my 01 Prelude over anything Saturn. BTW local Pontiac
dealers are asking close to 30k for 177hp Ecotek Soltice, of which the the
Sky is a badge engineered copy

 

well said that man!!!

similar has been said in the financial press - the day honda abandoned
front wishbone suspension in the reasonably priced civic was the day
subaru got handed the tuner market on a plate. bring back wishbones!
bring back the prelude & crx!!!

 

On the other hand, Toyota market share soars despite primitive suspensions
and handling.

 

V70?

the T5 and R not 'performance' enough?

 

I've driven Honda's since my first Civic back in the early '80s, and I
still love the product, but Hyundai is going to give the Japanese
manufacturers some serious competition in the future. One thing that
is most impressive on all of the new Hyundai's is their fit and finish,
and apparent build-quality. On the surface, and after some significant
scrutiny, it appears every bit as good as a Honda or Toyota. Now,
mechanically . . . I don't know, as I've never owned one before.

I'm old enough (59) to remember the yearly progression of quality and
market penetration of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, et. al., and I can't help
but think Hyundai is mirroring the past Japanese experience. Sort of
"deja vu all over again." Only time will tell . . .