- Honda group sold 98K vehicles in January, up 1.9 percent overall.
- SUVs and hybrids continue to lead Honda and Acura’s results.
- Passport sales jumped 63.5 percent on TrailSport demand
North America has been dealing with severe winter weather recently, but Honda managed the storm just fine. In total, the group that includes both Honda and Acura brands delivered 98,594 vehicles in January, marking a 1.9 percent increase year over year and underscoring continued demand for its light trucks, passenger cars, and growing hybrid lineup.
Beneath that headline, though, one closely watched model still hasn’t quite found its footing.
Prelude Sales Still in First Gear
As the Prelude continues its nationwide rollout, Honda managed to shift just 216 of them during the first month of 2026. That’s certainly an improvement over December, the coupe’s first full month on sale, with 174 units delivered, but it’s still far short of what Honda wants to see which is 300 sales a month on average.
More: We Have A Honda Prelude Dealer Markup Record, Boys
Last month, Honda openly confirmed that the U.S. will get 4,000 Preludes annually. As we’ve pointed out, that would make it more popular than the Subaru BRZ if buyers materialize. For the time being, that isn’t happening just yet. While there’s no way to pinpoint one specific issue as the only factor, markups (and perhaps pricing outright) might just be the biggest issue in the Prelude’s way.
As we’ve pointed out several times, dealers nationwide are slapping gigantic markups on the car. In some cases, we’ve seen them try to sell the Prelude for over $65,000.
In one case, a dealer reduced their markup and tried to pass that off to customers as a discount, despite the fact that the car was still around $10,000 over MSRP. That’s not exactly the kind of customer care Honda probably hopes its dealers will provide.
Strong Month for Core Models and Hybrids
Elsewhere, Honda’s bread-and-butter models carried the month. The Honda brand delivered 89,575 vehicles in January, up 1.7 percent over January of 2025, led by strong SUV demand. The CR-V topped the charts with 27,019 sales (-1.0 percent), with hybrids accounting for more than 55 percent of the mix. Pilot and Civic both posted solid results, while Odyssey contributed 5,334 units.
The Passport stood out with record January sales, jumping 63.5 percent year over year to 4,320 units, thanks in large part to continued demand for TrailSport trims, which now make up more than 80 percent of the model’s sales. The Accord also saw its sales jump 31.8 percent to 12,739 units.
On the other hand, the HR-V fell 19.7 percent to 9,488 units.
Over at Acura, the brand posted a solid start to the year with 9,019 units sold, up nearly 4 percent from January 2025. Leading the way was the new ADX crossover, which moved 2,387 units, while the soon-to-be discontinued RDX saw its sales tumble 26.5 percent over the same month last year. The larger MDX held steady with just under 3,000 sales.
