Surging Sales of Honda Civic Prove That Sedans Aren’t Dead Yet
Civic is fighting the good fight.
With everyone buying SUVs and automakers killing cars left and right nowadays, it's easy to believe that the sedan is dead in the United States. However, if we've learned something from our last two monthly sales roundups is that the Honda Civic is absolutely killing it in sales—and it appears to be the only anomaly in an otherwise SUV-ruled market.
According to Automotive News, Honda Motor America saw a hefty sales uptick in sales primarily due to Honda’s ability to push more and more crossovers and SUVs out the door—greatly aided by the all-new Passport and the always-hot CR-V. Unexpectedly, however, the Civic played a big role too.
Honda benefited from an increase in car sales in 2019 through the month of August, in which 47 percent of its overall sales came from cars, compared to the industry average of 29 percent during the first half of the year. The majority of Honda’s boost in car sales came from buyers scooping up new Civics, which made up half of August's total sales. In the month of August alone the company saw a 26-percent increase in Civic sales.
"Civic is just on fire, and when you consider it's at the farther end of its life cycle, to be achieving such sales volumes is absolutely incredible," said American Honda’s vice president of the auto sales division Steven Center told AN.
"Civic has successfully endured the market shift toward SUVs because there is still a strong demand for cheaper, basic transportation at a price point below small SUVs,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of industry analysis.
Reportedly, this is attributed to Honda’s latest "cars matter” campaign, in which the company is focusing the majority of its marketing efforts on its cars. The Civic isn’t the only model to see sales gains, as Honda also sold more Accords, Fits, and Insights, totaling up a 20-percent increase in car sales (including Acura) in August alone versus just a 16-percent gain in the light truck segment.
Rock on, Civic.