Toyota, Honda October Sales Dip Despite Record Light-Truck Results

Despite an extra selling day last month, Toyota U.S. sales fell 2.5% on an adjusted basis in October, tallying 191,102 units. There were 26 selling days last month vs. 25 in October 2017.

Although seeing record light-truck volume at the Toyota brand, Toyota North America’s monthly total once again suffered because of falling car deliveries. Wards Intelligence data shows combined Toyota and Lexus car sales fell 10.8% on an adjusted basis to 66,928, while their light-truck sales rose 2.7% to 124,174.

Toyota brand car sales fell 12.1% on a daily-selling-rate basis with all nameplates save for the new Corolla hatchback in the red. The Corolla Hatch rose 3.5% on deliveries of 1,604 units.

Camry sales showed more resilience than other car nameplates, dipping just 1.4% on an adjusted basis to 29,914, making the midsize sedan Toyota’s No.2 seller in October.

The Corolla sedan was down 15.3% to 20,416 units, while the Avalon and Prius suffered losses in the 21% range; the Yaris iA posted a 60.4% decline on 1,102 sales.

Toyota Div. light trucks rose 4.2% on a DSR basis with 109,703 deliveries notched.

Despite suffering a 4.1% DSR loss, the RAV4 midsize CUV again was the brand’s No.1 seller in a month, with 34,004 sales.

Toyota says the Highlander midsize CUV and 4Runner midsize SUV had record October sales, of 20,548 and 12,624, respectively. Both models were up from year-ago on an adjusted basis.

Toyota’s Tacoma midsize and Tundra large pickups had mixed results. The Tacoma posted a hefty 24.9% DSR increase on 20,534 sales, while the Tundra fell 8.2% on 9,571 units.

Toyota light trucks posting losses on an adjusted basis include the C-HR small CUV (-3.0%), Sienna minivan (-9.2%) and Sequoia large SUV (-13.9%).

In total, the Toyota brand sold 168,385 vehicles in October, down 2.2% on a DSR basis.

At Lexus, sales fell 4.6% on 22,716 deliveries.

In a twist of the narrative for most brands this year, it was light trucks that upended the brand’s result, not cars. Lexus car deliveries were flat, up 0.6% on a DSR basis, but light trucks fell 7.0% due to losses at all nameplates.

The LX large SUV posted the biggest drop, down 40.5% on 377 deliveries, but the typically strong NX and RX CUVs also fell, down 11.5% and 1.2%, respectively.

Both models’ hybrid variants posted good results, however. The NX hybrid, with 656 deliveries, was up 232.0% from October 2017 and the RX hybrid, with 1,416 sold, rose 101.7%.

Among cars, only two models, the new ES midsize sedan and new LS flagship, posted increases. The ES achieved a 29.5% increase on an adjusted basis vs. year-ago, while the LS boosted that model’s results 144.8%.

Through October, Toyota’s U.S. vehicle sales were flat, down 0.2% on volume of 2.015 million. The Toyota brand was up 0.1% while Lexus was down 2.6%.

Meanwhile, American Honda also saw sales decline, down 7.8% on an adjusted basis vs. year-ago on 122,182 sales. Honda Div. sales fell 9.0% while Acura’s increased 3.2%.

Honda suffered a worse loss in cars than Acura, and not as strong an increase on the light-truck side.

Honda’s two top-selling cars, the Civic compact and Accord midsize, fell 28.8% and 14.5%, respectively, on a DSR basis.

The Fit subcompact hatch, which not only is part of a declining segment but also has been impacted by the effects of flooding at its Celaya, Mexico, assembly plant, fell 72.1%.

Honda points out its electrified-vehicle sales were a bright spot, with 6,315 in total sold last month. The Clarity and Insight nameplates each sold roughly 2,100 units.

Honda’s light trucks rose 1.1% on an adjusted basis, with the CR-V’s 27,825 units – although down 3.7% vs. year-ago – enough to overtake both the Accord (23,778) and Civic (22,450) as Honda’s No.1 selling model.

Other Honda light-truck nameplates seeing losses include the HR-V small CUV (also built in Celaya) and Ridgeline midsize pickup, while the Odyssey minivan and Pilot large CUV grew.

In total, 57,169 Honda light trucks were sold last month, which the automaker says is a best-ever October result.

Thanks to near-record sales of the RDX CUV, recently redesigned for ’19, Acura gained over year-ago. The RDX tallied 6,193 sales, up 68.6% on a DSR basis, which Acura says helped it achieve a best-ever October light-truck result (10,148), despite a 28.1% decline by the brand’s other utility, the MDX large CUV.

Total American Honda sales were down 2.2% through October to 1.329 million units, with a 2.5% loss for Honda and 1.0% increase at Acura.