Honda has risen from a company that was best known for its motorcycles 40 years ago to a company that is one of the top automotive manufacturers in the world today. In 2008, Honda supplanted Chrysler as the fourth best selling automaker in the U.S. and they were in sixth place in global auto sales.
Their story is truly impressive. But lately the automaker has faced numerous challenges, including declining sales. We look at four reasons why Honda is in decline.
1. Not Improving Quality.
What is surprising about Honda is that despite spending billions of dollars a year on research and development, their new models and new generation models have not raised the bar. In fact, recently some of their models have faced scrutiny for cheaper interiors and being inferior to their predecessors.
The Civic, which when its last generation debuted, was named Motor Trend Magazine’s 2006 Car of the Year, is all-new for 2012. But Consumer Reports Magazine, a consumer products review magazine, ranked the 2012 Civic near the bottom of the compact class, behind other models such as the Hyundai Elantra. The Civic received a rating of 61, a 17-point drop from the 2011 models.
The Civic is not alone in Honda models with declining Consumer Reports ratings. The 2011 Odyssey minivan dropped to an 83 from 91 the prior year. The Pilot SUV has also dropped from 79 to 74. And new Honda models fared terribly. The Insight hybrid model scored just a 54 while the CR-Z came in at a lowly 57 and neither has been well-received by the public.
2. Transmissions.
While several of their key competitors have six-speed automatic or continuously variable transmissions throughout their model lineup, Honda does not. Comment
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