If I read this right (by all means please correct me/article, because I hope it isn't true) they say the Civic is longer going to be sold in Japan.

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11...close-in-japan/

 

They're only selling the Hybrid there. They have a ton of other small cars and vehicles that are more popular (cheaper, more fuel efficient, seat more people for similar money, etc, etc).

The Civic is a big seller in the USA and Europe.

 

Honda only sold like 500 Civics in Japan last year - it is shifting focus to its other small cars like the Fit, Insight, CR-Zzz, Freed, Zest, Life, etc... Honda sells a lot of small cars in Japan, and the Civic has grown so large, it doesn't really slot well between them and the Accord, Inspire, etc. Although, its still a bit odd to me that Honda is abandoning another market.

 

Abandoning a 500 vehicle market? That's practically a non-existent market. I have no clue about vehicle sales in Japan but I'm betting nothing in that class sells well. They have some amazing vehicles there that carry a lot of people or cargo in an envelope not that different than the Civic.

 

I think its a lot like the S2000 and NSX in USA - its sales numbers just dwindled down to nothing, and then poof, no more Civic. Honda sold 177k Civics in 1975, 9,000 in 2009, and 457 in 2010 so far. Demand shifted to smaller compacts or minivans. Introduced in 1972, it was Honda's oldest continuous model in Japan.

 

*sadface*

 

Since when was Honda downgraded to being the third-largest automaker (by sales) in Japan?

Did Nissan surpass it?

 

Maybe this should be an indicator that we need a sub-Civic Honda (no, not the Fit) in the US as well.

Yeah, the Civic sells in the US but there is still a market for "basic transportation", I recall when the Civic was truly minimalist (the N600 for that matter), if Honda does not supply that need the Koreans or someone else will.

 

nissan has always sold more than honda in japan.

 

i love how people are sadden by a model of a car being discontinued in a country they don't live in nor would ever buy a new car in.

like me being saddened about the traffic tax in London.