01/05/2009 - TORRANCE, Calif. -

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., today reported 2008 annual vehicle sales of 1,428,765, a decrease of 8.2 percent compared to 2007 results on a daily selling-rate* basis. American Honda's December sales totaled 86,085, a decrease of 34.7 percent.

Honda Division's 2008 annual sales of 1,284,261 decreased 6.7 percent compared to 2007. Honda Division's December monthly sales of 75,405 represent a decrease of 34.0 percent compared to 2007. Annual total car sales of 794,421 for the Honda Division increased 1.0 percent and set a record for the fourth consecutive year. The division's truck sales decreased by 16.9 percent to 489,840.

Accord, the top-selling Honda model for 2008, achieved annual sales of 372,789, down 5.3 percent. December Accord sales decreased 28.5 percent, to 22,348. Civic sales totaled 339,289 for the year, up 2.1 percent. December Civic sales decreased to 17,302, down 36.4 percent. Annual Fit sales of 79,794, up 40.9 percent, set a record for the third consecutive year. December Fit sales decreased 1.5 percent, to 5,039.

"American Honda's sales mirror the industry's current condition," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "We believe Honda will be in a strong position when the market stabilizes."

The Acura Division's total year-end sales of 144,504 vehicles represented a decline of 20.0 percent. December Acura sales totaled 10,680, down 39.3 percent. The Acura TL led the division with annual sales of 46,766, followed closely by the Acura MDX with sales of 45,377 - the previous best-selling Acura in 2007.

*The annual Daily Selling Rate (DSR) is calculated with 308 days for 2008, versus 307 for 2007. Both December 2007 and 2008 included 26 selling days. All percentages in this release represent DSR.

Wow, just look at those Element numbers in 2008, even smaller than the hybrid numbers!

I feel two things. One, I don't like that the E doesn't sell like the other models that have been selling for years. I wonder about parts availability 20 years from now. I took a peek at the IH Scout forum to see what it was like over there. The Scout 80 having been out of production since the 60's, it can be very hard to find parts for them, and you tend to have to have good connections to get them.

Two, it just makes the vehicles relatively unique. There is just nothing like it. Period. In the last few days, I was driving to and from work, and I noticed most of the time on a street that handles hundreds of thousands of cars a day, I couldn't find a single E going with me in my direction during the entire 15-minute drive. On the smaller street going to work (where I can watch traffic in the opposite direction), same story.

Oh, I want to throw in that I found out that a coworker was a member about 3-4 years ago when she first bought her E. My store has 3 E owners, hopefully a 4th will be joining that small group.

Stephanie

I seriously think Honda doesn't care to sell many Elements. At least the dealers in my area don't seem to. Each time I'm in a show room, it is without an element. Elements are not in area's people can look at them out in the lot. Friends of mine that have ridden with me, think mine has a great deal of room and actually like the look. Honda does need to promote the models it has to move them. The main stream Civic, Accord, and CR-V are just some. Honda should be promoting HONDA. They also make a few other nice models. Maybe dealers should expand their show rooms to allow customers to look over all models, not just the high volume ones. The Element fits a need many of us have, and we here know full well how great the E is.

My dealer had one E in the showroom along with a Ridgeline and one of those little two seater "rocketing radish" type sports cars. They had 3 or 4 more E's parked right outside in front of the window flanked by Odysseys, Pilots and CRVs - quite a few of the CRVs. In fact, I was going in there to buy a CRV and there was my E, just waiting for me when I walked in the door. It was love at first sight.

I've said it before in here. I spent a good amount of time researching Honda's both in print and on their own website and had no idea that they even made such a vehicle. It's much more practical than the CRV so how come they don't advertise them as such instead of as Kid's toys?

To push Honda products should be even across all models, agreed. Dealers seem to differ quite a bit in this general idea. My local dealer which I won't buy from has never pushed the Element, and rarely is an E seen on the lot. Maybe 2 all year in 2008, and never up front, or on the showroom floor. The dealer that I will buy from is 80 miles from me, and they have turned over many Elements, and they DO offer all the models equally. Honda is REALLY missing the boat on marketing, and should see the simple fact that they missed the demographic mark on this rig as an opportunity to market to a much larger group.

Maybe a nice place to start would be to have the Honda executives take their next vacationing road trip in an E, instead of what they usually take. Still, rather drive the E on long trips than the new CRV!

Maybe we as a user group should come up with our own ad campaign to send to Honda as it might get their attention.

Wow it's really sad to see the Elements sales figures. After several months of researching (my wife mainly) we settled on our 2009 Element which we bought from Sand Dollar Honda in Galveston about 40 to 50 miles from our home on 13 January. This was in spite of there being a Honda dealer within 4 blocks from our house.

But having read a few of the comments on this site I can now understand why it is such a problem to find the right car and the right deal. It is such a perfect car for our situation that I can not understand why they have such a poor sales record. I know there have to be a lot of folks just like us that would appreciate it as much as we do. Maybe, we should buy some Honda stock so we could be represented at their next stock holders meeting and get them to push it more. We like it so much we are kind of sorry we didn't order it from the factory so that we could have specified all the features we prefer.

Earlier this week, I had two appointments in south Houston on two different days, and I only saw two E's the entire time, and they were in my area!

Stephanie

A friend told me today that Honda is going to stop making the E -- I am posting on this site to find out if anyone else has heard anything like that.

I seriously love Gandalf (my name for my atomic blue EX element) and even if they do quit making it I cannot seriously imagine ever getting rid of it (I bought it last March -- it has 4900 miles on it; ergo, it will take 20 years to put even 100k on it so I see no reason to ever get rid of it)!

I live in Omaha and everybody has one here but I think one of the reasons for that is b/c in the winter 4 wheel drive really makes a difference; and the fact that this vehicle stands out and makes a statement -- and why else would anyone want any kind of car (it's not just to get you from point A to point B anymore :-)!!!

So what I want to know is if anyone on this forum has heard anything abt the E being dropped.

Yahoo News just did a story on cars in danger of being dropped due to poor sales. The E was not on the list, the S2000 was only one from Honda. Other targets were the Hummer H3, Dodge Viper, Saturn Sky, Lexus SC and the PT Cruiser. I was surprized about the PT, I thought they were selling ok. Still, the numbers for the E shocked me, I thought they were closer to the CRV than they are. I see lots of E's but maybe it's because I drive one...

I spent last summer near Lake Chapalla south of Guadalajara, Mex. There are a lot of ex-pat Americans and Canadians there, and I swear every 3rd non-Mexican-plated car was a CRV! A few Elements, but nothing like the number of CRVs.

I had also heard that the cruiser was being dropped :-(. We were thinking abt buying one when we decided to buy a civic instead (much better gas mileage and reliability, but the cruiser is cute :-)! I am glad to hear that it sounds like the E will con't to be arnd 4 awhile.

Wolfess

Yahoo News just did a story on cars in danger of being dropped due to poor sales. The E was not on the list, the S2000 was only one from Honda. Other targets were the Hummer H3, Dodge Viper, Saturn Sky, Lexus SC and the PT Cruiser. I was surprized about the PT, I thought they were selling ok. Still, the numbers for the E shocked me, I thought they were closer to the CRV than they are. I see lots of E's but maybe it's because I drive one...

I used to work in the Hummer plant. H3 is definitely due for extinction. On the other hand, none of the civilian Hummers have much mechanically in common with the military version so it's been strictly a name recognition thing anyway.

I am surprised when I see the reports of the E lagging in sales. In this area it seems like I see more E’s on the road every week. I was on my way to an appointment this morning, during the morning rush. I counted 7 E’s in what was about a two mile trip. I have tagged a dozen or so in the last month. As I have noted before, many of the drivers were like me active and gray haired. I would like to see Honda try marketing to older active drivers who do not carry surf boards. But do carry lawn and garden equipment, furniture, grandkids bikes and so on. It is great if you do gauge sales or metal detecting. I use ours for all those things and more. I really think they (Honda) are missing the boat on this group of buyers. I have two friends that say they are going to get an E this year after seeing ours and all we can do with it.