Honda Wraps Up 2018 Down 3.1% - Acura Rings Out The Year Up 2.5%

Honda Wraps Up 2018 Down 3.1% - Acura Rings Out The Year Up 2.5%

Honda finished 2018 on a strong note with both cars and trucks gaining in December, overcoming over four months of lost production due to a flood that shut the Celaya, Mexico auto plant to narrowly miss a new annual sales mark.

  • Truck sales set new monthly and annual records led by CR-V which set an all-time monthly record, with 42,079 units in December, a gain of 13.8%. Pilot set a new annual mark, eclipsing its previous record by over 7,000.
  • Accord jumped a strong 29.4% on 28,627 in sales for the month.
  • Electrified vehicle sales set new monthly and annual sales records with 6,899 December sales, the 6th straight month above 5,000 units.

Acura was one of the few luxury brands to increase sales (+2.8%) in 2018, setting records for RDX and light trucks, leading to new market share and the brand’s first annual gain since 2014.

  • Acura trucks set a new monthly sales record, gaining 17.5% on 12,786 units
  • RDX gained 42.2% to set a new December mark on sales of 6,838 units, the model’s 7th consecutive monthly record and second best month in history.
  • MDX had December sales of 5,948 units, helping the model to its 7th straight year of 50,000+ annual sales.
  • ILX and RLX sedans gained in December, with ILX up 10.7% and RLX gaining 16.1% (its best month in 2018). 



cidflekkencidflekken - 1/3/2019 1:02:21 PM
+9 Boost
RDX really lifted Acura. They need two more SUVs in the lineup, a more premium 2 or 3 seater above the MDX and a compact below the RDX. That's their bread and butter.


ilovecar2015ilovecar2015 - 1/3/2019 3:26:42 PM
-2 Boost
RDX sure helped Acura, but in perspective, in the SUV world, it is not doing that exceptional compared to higher priced Q5, GLC, X3, and older NX.


cidflekkencidflekken - 1/4/2019 1:23:24 AM
+1 Boost
When the Germans offer incentives the way they do, “higher priced” is irrelevant. Plus the RDX is really only competing with their entry level trims in reality and not the SQ5, GLC43, or X3 M40i. And the NX is not that much older. Keep in mind also that the new RDX didn’t hit dealerships until June. Based on its sales since June I’ve almost no doubt the RDX would have come much closer to the Q5 and GLC in sales which were close to 70k unit each. And it would have had a greater gap from the X1 and NX who finished with 61k and 62k units respectively.


ilovecar2015ilovecar2015 - 1/4/2019 12:15:44 PM
-3 Boost
NX is in its 4th year, RDX just debuted. Majority of Q5, GLC, X3 are based models anyways.

RDX's December is not that impressive, it was ranked 5th.


cidflekkencidflekken - 1/4/2019 11:16:58 PM
+2 Boost
Ilovecar, lol you’re going to take the one month when cash it literally thrown at people to make the comparisons. What about the other 5 months? Had the RDX been released in December of 2017, based on their average of 6000 units sold per month from June to December it would have outsold every competitor in its class. Oh and what about June when it was #1 in the class?



ilovecar2015ilovecar2015 - 1/5/2019 1:37:57 PM
-1 Boost
Lol people, you cant have it both ways. If you want to claim RDX increase 42% (from a dismal December 2017) then you have to take it as the 5th finisher in Dec 2018 despite being only 6 months old.


TruthyTruthy - 1/3/2019 7:10:27 PM
+1 Boost
The new Cadillac XT4 is doing surprisingly well too. I agree Acura needs a model above the MDX and drop the RL. And who would buy an ILX over the Civic?
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