Crossover sales drive American Honda Motor Company into the record books

Not only was December 2015 a record sales month for American Honda, the Torrance, California based automotive bellwether shattered a pre-recession sales record set in 2007.

In the words of Honda’s Mr. John Mendel: "What better way to celebrate the "Year of Honda" than with an all-time automobile sales record," said John Mendel, executive vice president of the Automobile Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "We are grateful to our customers who embraced our entire product lineup and are the true power behind the Honda brand."

With an uptick in the U.S. and world economy comes new car sales, that’s a given. What wasn’t calculated into the equation for many consumers was an unprecedented price drop in retail gasoline. In rolls record breaking SUV and crossover sales.

A top seller in the compact SUV crossover segment for the better part of a decade, and one of Honda’s core models, 2015, 2016 CRV SUV, set an all time sales record. And when combined with Civic and Accord sales, surpassed the 1 million units sold mark in North America for 2015.

Crossovers drive American Honda into record sales territory for 2015

2015 was a very exciting year for American Honda Motor Company and journalist like myself afforded the opportunity to participate in what many consider to be the renaissance of North America’s original import brand.

Riding the wave that is Honda’s unprecedented roll-out of new and ‘refreshed’ cars, SUVs and crossovers has been both exhilarating and exhausting. We look to the numbers.

1,586,651 Honda and Acura vehicles sold in 2015

That’s a big number, here’s a bullet point or two

Honda Division up 2.6% on sales with segment busting CR-V setting a new annual mark on a gain of 3.2% with 345,647 units sold in 2015.

Core models CR-V, Accord and Civic realize combined sales of over 1,000,000 units, 3rd year running.

Civic sales up 22% in December with the introduction of the 10th generation 2016 Civic Sedan.

Honda Pilot sales up 25.1% year over year, with the introduction of the all new 2016 Pilot Elite

Driven by MDX and RDX, Acura combined sales exceed 177,165 units for a year over year increase of 5.6%, topping pre-recession sales number.
Substantially refreshed 2016 RDX, or personal favorite crossover records record sales of 51,026

As Honda sales momentum continues into 2016

Honda’s Jeff Conrad is not resting on the success of 2015: "While we are excited about the all-time sales record, we continue to have incredible momentum driven by the relentless cadence of new and successful products we introduced in 2015 that will give the Honda brand tremendous energy going into the new year," said Jeff Conrad, senior vice president and general manager of the Honda Division. "With a similar pace of new products coming this year, we're anticipating a very robust 2016."

On a personal note, I look to 2016 as yet another exciting year for American Honda Motors and Acura Division, as the mark rolls out the all new 2017 Ridgeline Pickup Truck, 2016 Civic Coupe, the next generation CR-V, Odyssey minivan, 2017 Clarity FCEV and more.

There will be a handful of surprises along the way beginning in January with Acura’s reveal of their Precision Concept Car at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show.