WhiteS2k

Sorry if this is a repost, but I came across this information kind of late. But here is what I saw:

Excerpted from 4/27/2004 Wall Street Journal:
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"TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. reported a 37% drop in net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended in March due to slumping sales and rising costs in North America, combined with the detrimental effects of a stronger yen."

"The company was unseated by rival Nissan Motor Co. as Japan's No. 2 car maker in terms of unit sales. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Honda said it sold 2.98 million cars globally, while Nissan's sales surpassed the three-million mark, placing it second after Toyota Motor Corp."

"In North America, a drop in sales of two key Honda products -- the Civic and the Accord -- caused overall sales for the region to fall 8.2% to 369,000 from 402,000 in the quarter. "
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Comments?

lig

I'd buy a V6 Altima before I bought an Accord. ZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Nissan is packing more sporty styling and dynamics into their bread and butter cars than Honda.

IMO Honda has been too conservative for too long. If the Element was their attempt to be cool... I would guess that for many it missed the mark.

my .02

Too bad they didn't make the Z lighter or better looking - I'd much rather have a G35 coupe.

s9000

I really think Honda makes higher quality vehicles than Nissan (luxury brands included), but I guess that doesn't always matter.

Also, the mention of the stronger yen seems irrelevant, since Nissan must also face that problem.

ttb

honda cars are still better designed the nissan cars. power is not everything, especially in cars like accords and civics.

SilverKnight

Its Charles Ghosn the new CEO who is behind the sucess, did this whole marketing paper on Nissan. Almost bankrupt in 99 but then they actually gasp* found out what consumers wanted and did their homework to design the right vehicle with the 5 marketing Ps. The plan now is called Nissan 180. It sure looks like it is working.

Honda was smoking crack for redesigning the civic. Is this the car that is supposed to compete against the Focus SVT, Neon, Sentra SER, Tiburon, for the young adult market and low income market. If so then it will fail. Wall street journal had an article where it discussed the reactions from people my age about the civic. Honda can hit a homerun if they release the Civic Type R andtalk to Acura to raise the price of the RSX which is biting into honda sales.

Dr. WOT

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lig IMO Honda has been too conservative for too long.

SilverKnight

yep conservatism is part of the 3 Cs of failure that led to Nissans almost bankruptcy.

y2ks2k

Considering the average nw owner of a Civic is still over 40 (and I think even 50), Honda is not doing anything wrong at all. The "young adult" market is just a pimple in the sales.

SilverKnight

Then why is the civic losing sales #s? Also I think the Accord is in the 40 category, the Civic is maybe late 20s or 30s.

y2ks2k

Civic is loosing sales numbers because its getting hit by multiple manufacturers in the same class, Mazda, Ford, Nissan, etc...

The Civic has simply not really been updated since 94 when it was king in its class. Everyone else has caught up or even passed it.

The Accord continues to change greatly.