Civic sales took a massive hit in July only managing to sell 26,311 Civics, a sure sign of the times for all cars.
Don’t get it twisted, the Civic is not a bad car, it’s actually arguably THE BEST “small” car. But struggling Civic sales are definitely a sign of things to come. According to Honda in their latest sales report, Civic’s month over month difference was a staggering -28.3 percent. Keep in mind, that’s in comparison to July 2017 sales which were particularly strong at 36,683 Civics sold.
Bright spots for Honda where its light truck sales which posted a 3.3 percent increase compared to last year. Leading the charge were the predictably strong sales from CR-V and the newly refreshed Honda Pilot.
It was the words of Kelly Blue Book executive Analyst Akshay Anand who shed some much-needed light on this situation,
“The Civic has been a shining star in an environment where cars are hurting immensely, but July appeared to buck that trend. In fact, with the disparity in SUV and car sales for all brands, it’s fair to wonder if the CR-V is the new poster child for Honda and all it has to offer. The Civic will be a big story in the coming months as a thermometer for car sales because if it continues to dip, it could be a sign the disparity between SUVs and cars could be bigger than we even expected.”
If this trend for smaller crossovers continues, sales for Civic will only go down as according to my source within Honda, there will be no mid-cycle refresh for the Civic in 2019. Believe it or not, the new Civic has been on sale since 2016.
And if you’re wondering, Corolla actually outsold Civic this time around with Corolla pulling slightly ahead with 26,754 Corollas although Civic is still ahead year to date by a small 14.337 Civics.
This is compelling news for manufacturers everywhere as if this trend continues at the rate it’s going, serious consideration to ramping down car production and increasing crossover production ASAP isn’t out of the question.
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