Apparently, it’s not enough to simply make a great car
Earlier this month, we reported that even though the new Honda Accord is truly fantastic, dealers are having a hard time convincing people to buy it. Through the first two months of this year, not only has the new Toyota Camry outsold the Accord, so has the soon-to-be-replaced Nissan Altima. To fix this issue, dealers have reportedly turned to Honda for help.
Automotive News reports that executives from Honda North America plan to meet with dealers this weekend to talk about declining Accord sales. Cash incentives and better lease deals are expected to be the main topics of discussion, but there’s no guarantee that Honda will agree to offer either of those things. Still, at the beginning of this month, Honda had a 103-day supply of Accords, nearly 50 percent more than the industry average of about 70 days.
Traditionally, Honda has avoided offering incentives to help move cars, and when asked to comment on the Accord’s sales performance, Honda told us it’s “pleased with the growing market share and top transaction prices that the all-new 2018 Honda Accord is garnering in its segment,” but that it plans to “work collaboratively with [its] dealer partners…to ensure the overall value proposition with each of our products is competitive in the marketplace.”
At least one dealer is confident they’ll be able to work something out. “I’ll be surprised if we don’t see some help in April or May,” Dave Conant, a California Honda dealer, told Automotive News earlier this month. “They’re not going to let the car sit on the lot.”
Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)