April 25, 2013
The recovery at American Honda continues, as a top U.S. official says sales this month should climb by a double-digit rate.
The auto maker, which includes the Honda and Acura brands, likely will exceed year-ago daily deliveries by 10%-11% in April, nearly repeating its March performance, Mike Accavitti, senior vice president-automobile operations, tells reporters in a conference call.
Last month, combined Honda and Acura deliveries rose 11.1%, hiking its first-quarter total 5.5% to 337,651 units, WardsAuto data shows.
Honda is benefiting from fresh versions of its highest-volume models, which have helped keep car buyers streaming into dealer showrooms.
Accavitti points to the popularity of the all-new midsize Honda Accord sedan and CR-V cross/utility vehicle, as well as refreshed versions of the Civic compact car and Odyssey minivan, as keys reasons for Honda’s 2013 gains.
The Civic should post an 8% rise in April over a strong year-ago, based on daily sales, as availability of updated models increases, Accavitti says. Honda released the refreshed ’13 Civic in December after being stung by widespread media criticism of the 2-year-old car and its interior.
“We’re (selling the Civic) without throwing huge incentives on its hood or resorting to fleet, like many of our competitors,” he says.
Honda’s top U.S. marketer also notes the auto maker’s longstanding aversion to fleet sales, saying just 1% of American Honda’s sales this year have been to bulk buyers.
“We don’t throw a lot of cars or dump a lot of cars into fleet at the end of the month in order to make a number,” he says. In the midsize sedan segment where the Accord competes, it’s not unusual models to have fleet ratios as high as 30%.
Talk of who is leading the midsize segment is “almost laughable,” given the Accord’s retail-dominant 36,504 units in March, Accavitti says.
The former Chrysler executive, who joined the auto maker in 2011, says he is excited about Honda and Acura’s futures, in which he will play a big role.
Acura has suffered from a fuzzy identity over its 27 years of existence, and Accavitti says righting the ship will take time and patience.
“We are in the process of tuning up the Acura brand (and) it’s not an easy task,” he says, adding it takes collaboration on the product and marketing side to attract buyers to Acura’s “smart luxury” models.
Accavitti will be a key player in that collaboration, due to his additional new role as head of product planning for the U.S. As such he is now responsible for working with engineers in planning and pricing new models, determining trim levels and features and marketing and distributing the vehicles.
That should result in “better-coordinated products and marketing campaigns,” he says.
Advertising for the upcoming new MDX CUV will launch in early June and will be the first look at what new Acura agency Mullen has planned for the brand.
After an agency review was finalized earlier this year, Acura ad work was handed off to Mullen from RPA, American Honda’s long-time agency, which continues to oversee Honda-brand messaging in the U.S.
Read more about:
2013You May Also Like
