Topic: Honda Ridgeline sales somewhat disappointing

[davidm]

From www.autoblog.com
 
"Despite its innovative use of what was basically a discarded minivan assembly line that led to an extremely small tooling investment, the Ridgeline’s selling price remains a problem when compared to other compact trucks in the market. The average transaction price was nearly $32K last month, and the vehicle only sold 3,585 units in the month of June. To be honest, that’s not far off Honda’s stated goal of 50,000 units/year, but “negative buzz” is a strong factor in the current market, and we’ve got to wonder if the Ridgeline stands a chance at its current selling price. Then again, maybe Honda’s small investment means that they’re making a killing on each unit, and maybe they don’t want to play the high-volume-low-margin game. We can here the “I told you so!” chorus from both sides already, because the Ridgeline has been a vehicle that has polarized our readership."

Flamesuit and firehose at the ready!

[S60]

Maybe if Honda would get rid of the verandah railing styled grill work, that would help a tad.

Good point in your post "Then again, maybe Honda’s small investment means that they’re making a killing on each unit, and maybe they don’t want to play the high-volume-low-margin game. "

[Snowman]

Hmmmmm. Maybe I should hold off for a bit and see what kind of price I can get in the fall. Wiffy has finally made up her mind and wants a blue Ridgeline to replace the Highlander…she wants it before winter.

[A4_tom]

But all the dealers don't have enough to sold here.

[AVToller]

Let's see: 3585 X 12= 43,020 or 86% of the sales goal. This is the figure for June which, I believe is usually a fairly slow month, nicht wahr? It was also during the domestic's fire sales. I don't think that should be considered a major failure.

[hondasalesguy]

Ridgeline sales in Ontario started fast, dipped a bit in May, and rebounded strongly in June. Honda has already upped production capacity from 45,000 to 65,000 and I doubt they would do that unless they expected to sell them all. It takes a while for an entirely new type of vehicle from any manufacturer to catch on and become known. Nobody I know is worried about Ridgeline sales in this part of the country. And we're not having to give them away for skinny ass gross profits either.

[articsteve]

The first batch of Ridgelines were loaded with Navi pushing the price too high for what you get.  The stocker has some good value and I don't even know if those are being shipped yet.

[Brigitte]

Not saying a word.

[barrie1]

Me Neither.

[mrthompson]

"The first batch of Ridgelines were loaded with Navi pushing the price too high for what you get."

Navi?  lolz

[initial_D]

The Big 3 offered hugh discounts in June & July, since would be compact truck shopping would look very closely at cheaper prices, that would cut into the sales of the Ridgeline. No?

[tenpenny]

I like the fence sitting of the article:  maybe yes, but maybe no, and then again, you never know, could be, depends, possibly yes, but could be no....

Whoever wrote that needs to go to a journalism school.

That said, I see our local dealer has two of the four Ridgelines still on the lot.

[Mr_meow]

hard to love that design - honda build cars that are nice to look at - but what about a truck???
.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

The problem is pricing. American Honda released pricing on the RidgeLine before Canada did, and it was and is pretty damned high. If you note the price of a Nissan Titan Crew Cab, Tundra Double Cab LIMITED, F-150 Crew etc etc you'll notice the RidgeLine is priced right alongside them. Even I'd be more into a true crew cab V8 than the Ridgey at the same price.  

I expected the same in Canada, but this didn't happen. Here RidgeLine enjoys quite a price advantage over all of the 4WD trucks at MSRP. Thousands less. I don't expect Honda to have any trouble selling the RidgeLines in Canada versus the US.

[davidm]

Tenpenny, we could debate whether blogs are journalism (living this one all the time these days), I tend to think of it more as "OpEd" kind of stuff.

I think SirA has nailed it - differences between CDN and US markets.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Approx in the US / Canada:

RidgeLine 4WD:  
RT $27,7 / LX $34,8
RTS $30,1 / EX-L $39,2
RTL $31,5
RTL Loaded NAVI $34,6 / EX-L NAVI $43,9

Tundra Double Cab:
SR5 V8 4X2 $26,2 / $36,9
SR5 V8 4X4 $29,5 / $40,4
Limited V8 4X4 $33,1 / $48,0

Titan Crew:
XE 4X2 $25,8 / N/A
XE 4X4 $29,7 / $38,8
SE 4X4 $31,3 / $44,3
LE 4X4 $36,0 / $46,8
LE NAVI 4X4 $38,0 / $50,9

F-150 Super Crew:
XLT 4X2 $31,2 / $36,2
XLT 4X4 $34,4  / $40,2
Lariat 4X4 $37,8 / $46,7

The difference in Canada vs US pricing isn't quite as much as I thought, but a few thousand is a few thousand. To get into a FS interior'd truck with 4WD, the RidgeLine is $4,000 less than the competitive examples above at MSRP in Canada vs under $1,800 in the US.

[Snowman]

The Ridgelines are moving well here in Redneck infested Sudbury. At $34k plus dealer fees it is prices very well…..can’t wait for Wiffy to get hers.

[Shnak]

Siraqua, I don't think the Ridgeline is priced very agressively in Canada like you seem to think... I thinks it's more that the other companies price their trucks a bit more in Canada vs. the states.

[Snowman]

I don't think Truer words were never spoken.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Yes Shnak, Toyota and Nissan price super high in Canada, but that doesn't take away from the fact RidgeLine is priced less than them in our market.  

Honda could have done the same.

Chev Avalanche in Canada:
4X2 $40,5
4X4 $44,1

I know with incentives the Chev is $16,000 , but still.

(Message edited by sirAQUAMAN64 on August 03, 2005)