Honda Not Benefiting From Toyota's Slide in Market Share

An industry maxim is that almost all U.S. consumers who consider buying a Toyota, cross-shop Honda, and vice versa.

However, despite Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.'s recent unintended-acceleration woes, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. has lost market share in the U.S. in 2010, signaling it is not benefitting as much as others from Toyota's share slide.

Toyota's slice of the U.S. light-vehicle pie stood at 15.4% through April, down from 16.1% in like-2009.

Including both Acura and Honda brands, Honda's U.S. share has slipped to 10.5% in the same period, down from 11.0% year-ago, Ward's data indicates.

The Honda brand is to blame for the 0.5-point drop, with luxury-brand Acura's share holding steady at 1.1%.