Nissan is Catching up with Honda in Sales
For a long time now, two Japanese manufacturers have battled with each other for the top spot in North American vehicle sales. It has been dominated by Toyota, with Honda trailing close behind. However, Nissan is catching up with Honda in sales, and they don’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon. Even though there is still a long way to go, we believe that if Nissan continues this current trend they may be able to surpass Honda in sales and market share within the next few years.
There are a few special things that Nissan has done over the last few years that has helped them begin to close the gap and catch Honda in American sales. First of all, they have a wide variety of models available, so they truly have a vehicle available to suit the needs of every driver.
You can really see the differences between Nissan and Honda when it comes to the number of models each manufacturer offers. Honda only offers 16 vehicles in its entire lineup and its top three vehicles make up almost 70 percent of sales. On the other hand, Nissan has a much more diverse offering of vehicles with 27 different models. Also, their top three models only make up about 50 percent of their total sales.
However, they do more than just offer a wide selection of vehicles. Each and every vehicle in the new Nissan lineup is considered stylish, innovative and reliable. Year after year Nissan vehicles continue to rank among the top vehicles in their respective classes. Nissan executives have been quoted saying that they have a goal of controlling 10 percent of the US car market share by the year 2016. That seems like a very realistic goal because they already have 8.6% right now, which is up from 7.4 percent in 2009. However, Honda on the other hand currently is currently facing their lowest market share since 2006.
Honda used to be known as a trendsetter throughout the automotive community. For example, they were the first Japanese car company to start building and selling their cars right here in the United States. They used simple slogans and built high quality cars in order to achieve high levels of success in America. However, in recent years Honda appears to have become a lot more stagnant, while Nissan continues to innovate and push the envelope with their designs and features. They make big changes to popular vehicles like the Altima every year and that helps to get customers excited about buying a new car.
Finally, Nissan has also been offering much more incentive dollars to customers then Honda has been this year. Which is just one more reason why Nissan is continuing to make progress and gain more market share. Only time will tell if they will meet their goal of 10 percent market share by 2016. Remember to come down to Matt Castrucci Nissan the next time you are in the vehicle for a different new or used vehicle, or service.
