American Honda Reports Record September Sales (http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-03-2005/0004158380&EDATE=)

Interesting that sales of Pilots and CR-Vs were off so much last month. They are still up on the yearly totals from last year though. Perhaps it was because of the blip in gas prices - look at all the Insights that were sold!

I'm alot more impressed with the number of civics sold...maybe because of the new model? Goes to show most people realize a hybrid just won't be worth the money under the vehicle cost comes down....why buy a 50mpg hybrid when the 2006 civic gets 40 highway and costs 25% less?! :|

On another note, good to see the Element doing better (percentage wise) than the CRV or the Pilot!

yet the E is still the biggest loser of all their models from year ago sales figures. :neutral: all they would have to do to heat the market up is toss out some incentive money but i realize honda doesn't play those games.

Considering that there is virtually no advertising for the E, I am surprised that it did so well!!! Has to be word of mouth by owners, 'cause dealers don't push the E either, Tim

If I remember correctly, sales have declined since the middle of the first year.
I suspect that Element sales are slipping because the initial anticipation is gone and there are a lot of smaller SUVs avalable as competition. The side impact ratings and subsequent downgrading by CU also hurt.

It seems a pity that Honda has settled on simply changing paint schemes and rolling in optional features, instead of using the platform to it's potential. With the composite body components, it should have been very inexpensive to do styling changes, similar to what Toyota is planning for the psion. The seats, roof rack and skylight and the interior scratch-resistance should have been addresses n the 2006 release (Element 2003.3) Don't get me wrong - I like my E - but it is starting to seem a little stale. A 4 or 5 year product cycle is too long IMHO.

If I had a clean sheet of paper to do a 2007 Element, there are a lot of things that I'd tweak or do differently that wouldn't change the fudamental character and function of the vehicle - reducing the weight, increasing load capacity, increase fuel efficiency, and changing the gas tank to improve ground clearance and decrease underbody turbulence would be near the top of my list.

I think all the improvements you list are good ones, and about the same as what I would like to see changed. Somehow I get the feeling nobody is home at Honda when it comes to the E. Odd they create this great functional car, and then just let it sit with very little attention. Makes me wonder why they bothered at all... Or do they themselves not believe it is worth promoting?

As for the civic sales....I've always been a fan of the civic. My brother has a deep blue colored one he bought a couple of years ago, and I just love zipping around in it.

I work as a project manager in software engineering. I frequently have to make decisions on what products/services to sell. I can tell you that I don't concentrate my resources on the weakest seller - I spend my budget on what is already selling well. A lot of my products and services are allowed to whither on the vine. We keep them around as long as they make money. Eventually, they just sort of die off.

So, while we Element owners might not like it, from a business perspective they're doing what's smart. The Element is their second-weakest car in terms of sales. Why should they try to prop up the sales of it when they can concentrate their resources somewhere else?

I guess that's the same philosophy that Ford, Chevy and Dodge had about selling SUV's and trucks. Guess who's hurting now?

Nice to have a well-balanced offering would be my approach. But I'm not a salesperson.....only a bean counter.

I guess that's the same philosophy that Ford, Chevy and Dodge had about selling SUV's and trucks. Guess who's hurting now?

Nice to have a well-balanced offering would be my approach. But I'm not a salesperson.....only a bean counter.

I own a small business and I agree with dfreeze.

Your comment on Ford and Chrysler is unfounded, since Chrysler is actually doing very well, and the Big 3's problems are very complicated, not simply because they focused on SUV's and trucks.

There is also a difference between "promotion" and "development".

When you develop a new product, whether auto or software, you make your best judgement based on experience, market research and gut feeling, and hope it turns out to be a hitter. Once the product is out, the market will speak out and you will learn pretty soon whether it is a cow or dog, and it is smart business decision to promote the best sellers.

It is totally reasonable for Honda to focus the marketing effort on the current better performers. That doesn't mean that are giving up on Element. From what I see, they are doing marketing research (focus group) for the design of the next generation.

As a Element owner, my feeling about Element popularity is two-folded. On one hand, I like the uniqueness. It won't be as special if everyone's driving an E on the street. On the other hand, because of the small installed base, the third-party accessory market sucks. $300 on seat cover? Are you kidding me? Jeep owners enjoy much more variaty with better quality (most jeep after-market accessories are better than the OEM ones) and lower price.

If I had a clean sheet of paper to do a 2007 Element, there are a lot of things that I'd tweak or do differently that wouldn't change the fudamental character and function of the vehicle - reducing the weight, increasing load capacity, increase fuel efficiency, and changing the gas tank to improve ground clearance and decrease underbody turbulence would be near the top of my list.[/QUOTE]

If I had a clean sheet, I'd make sure the windshields didn't have to be replaced with every oil change!

Two windsheilds and less than 20K miles. Each crack same place, same configuration.