For the fifth consecutive year, the Honda Accord finished behind the Ford Taurus for the title of the best-selling car in the 1996 model year ended Sept. 30.
You’d think finishing second to Taurus that many times after having held the crown between 1989 and 1991 would have Honda officials a bit piqued.
But Richard Colliver, senior vice president of American Honda, is all smiles.
“We could have sold more cars than we did but we ran out of Accord and Civic inventory,” said Colliver.
But what makes Colliver most proud of the 1996 sales record is that “we spent less on incentives for 1996 than we did for 1995.”
That not only means that the 1996 model year was more profitable than 1995, it also means Honda was able to lure buyers into showrooms without having to wave dollar bills in their faces.
Now that ’96 is history, Colliver has set his sights on 1997, and, while the Taurus versus Accord battle will be waged yet another 12 months, the Honda executive is looking at another vehicle for the sales war–the CR-V sport-utility.
The CR-V is another in the growing list of sport-utes entering the market, but one that is expected to make consumers sit up and take notice for a very important reason–it will start at less than $20,000.
When Colliver visited the Chicago Auto Show in February with a prototype of the CR-V, he said the target was a window sticker of $20,000. Now, after meeting with dealers, he says the target is less than $20,000–with dual air bags, automatic transmission, air conditioning, power door locks, AM/FM stereo and a folding table that pulls out of the cargo floor as standard equipment.
Anti-lock brakes were mentioned as standard in February, but now the talk is to make ABS an option, which may be why the goal has slipped “under” $20,000.
Honda put the CR-V on sale in Japan in January, a year before its U.S. launch. The automaker expected the CR-V to account for sales of about 3,000 units monthly there. But, sport-utility vehicles have become as in demand in Japan as they have in the U.S., and CR-V sales have averaged 8,000 units a month, a few times soaring to 15,000.
“It’s outselling the Toyota RAV-4 by 3 to 1 in Japan,” Colliver said. “We had the CR-V at the auto show to try and deflect some buyers away from the RAV-4.”
Toyota displayed its RAV-4, but got a bit carried away with four-wheel-drive versions loaded with options and carrying window stickers reading $24,000 and more. Those stickers made the CR-V look most attractive.
“We originally estimated sales of 30,000 CR-Vs in the U.S. for 1997, but we now are estimating double that,” Colliver said.
Since the show it is noteworthy that Toyota has been turning its promotion to the less-expensive front-wheel-drive RAV-4 from the pricey 4WD version, and Ford has been feverishly developing a lower-cost SUV built off the Ford Contour sedan platform.
Boasting of a CR-V for thousands less than a RAV-4 paid off for Honda. Starting with Chicago, Honda distributed post cards to auto-show visitors, inviting them to mail it back for details. Since February it has received more than 100,000 post cards.
“We consider those 100,000 to be prospects that we now are trying to qualify (as browsers or interested buyers). Those people are going to get preferential treatment and early delivery if they do decide to buy,” he said.
Colliver said Honda’s intent with the CR-V is “to broaden our owner base and get people into a Honda who haven’t been in one before, the same thing we did by bringing out the Passport.”
Passport is the compact sport-ute built by Isuzu off the Rodeo platform but with the Honda namebadge and a $20,000-plus price tag. Honda chose to buy an existing sport-ute to get in on the demand for the vehicles rather than spend the time and money to build an all-new vehicle from scratch.
There has been speculation that the CR-V, which is built off a Civic platform, eventually would be assembled in this country.
“It would be nice if we could control the price by building it here, but as of now there are no plans. With all the other vehicles we now build in the U.S., there’s little opportunity to add another model,” he said, meaning Honda doesn’t have the capacity to add more models now.
Colliver said Honda also has no plans to build its own SUV to replace the Passport it gets from Isuzu.
“We have no plans for another SUV other than the CR-V,” he said. “Isuzu will restyle the Rodeo for the 1998 model year and, at that time, we’ll get a redesigned Passport that will have more Honda features and more of a Honda feel to it than it does now.”
The other prototype Honda unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show was the SSM sports car, an open-top two-seater aimed at possibly competing against the likes of the BMW Z3, Mercedes-Benz SLK and Porsche Boxster.
“We still haven’t made a decision if or when we’d bring out the SSM,” Colliver said. “There’s been some talk about Honda’s 50th anniversary coming up and the SSM making a great anniversary model, but we haven’t decided.”
However, insiders say it is highly likely that the SSM will bow as a 1998 model to coincide with the anniversary. The only decision still to be made is whether it would be a Honda or an Acura, because the likely price would be in the $30,000 plus range, making it more Acura than Honda like.
Yet, insiders say it would make more sense to celebrate Honda’s anniversary with a Honda model than with an Acura.
Whatever the nameplate, it would be built in Japan.
Looking ahead, Honda will build a new front-wheel-drive mini-van for the 1999 model year based on the Accord platform at a plant under construction in
Canada.
Honda offers the Odyssey mini-van, which it supplies to Isuzu under the Oasis nameplate. Odyssey, which more closely resembles a four-door station wagon, is expected to be dropped after the new mini-van appears.
Colliver said Honda is undecided about Odyssey’s future.
“We’ll continue selling Odyssey for a while but we haven’t decided for how long. We’ll have capacity for about 120,000 new mini-vans at the plant in Canada,” he said.
Though willing to talk about the CR-V and SSM, Colliver refused to comment on rumors that Honda will return to Formula One racing in 1998. Honda left the Formula One circuit in 1992 and joined the Indy racing circuit in 1993.
He also wouldn’t comment about reports that a modestly restyled Acura NSX coupe will arrive in January with a 3.2-liter, 290-horsepower, V-6 replacing the current 3-liter, 270-h.p., V-6.
But he did squelch a rumor that Honda would like to add a pickup truck to its lineup.
“No plans for trucks,” he said.
