As of March 2018, Honda announced that the Honda Accord is not selling as well as anticipated.  Honda is asking dealers to help move their Sedans off the lot, and because of the slow sales- will also halt production in spurts over the next few months.

According to popular news source Automotive News, Honda is telling its workers at their Marysville, Ohio plant to take two days off per month from April to June. Honda will extend it’s summer shutdown in July by five days, making for a total of 11 days that production will idle for the Accord.  As an alternative to days off, employees can opt to work jobs not related to production on those 11 days instead. A Honda spokesman told Automotive News, “This is just really business as usual and we’re adjusting production down to match the market condition at this moment.”

The market shows that consumers are starting to favor crossovers over sedans, so it’s expected that the Accord is experiencing a drop in sales.  This February, Honda sold 50,178 copies of the CR-V crossover but just 37,430 Accords. On March 1, Honda had a 104-day supply of Accords, which is quite high compared to the industry average of about 70 days. And it’s particularly high by Honda’s standards.

Honda typically stays away from offering incentives to buyers, however time will tell if the automaker plans to move or cut down on inventory.  Earlier this month, Honda announced that they were “pleased with the growing market share and top transaction prices that the all-new 2018 Honda Accord is garnering in its segment.”  However, they plan to “work collaboratively with dealer partners to ensure the overall value proposition with each of our products is competitive in the marketplace.”