1982 Honda Prelude on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda Civic overtakes Toyota Corolla as America's best-selling compact

The battle to claim October's best-selling compact sedan title has been won by the Honda Civic. The Japanese four-door sold 27,328 units, leaving the Toyota Corolla - September's title holder - in its wake with 23,637 units sold. In terms of year-to-date sales, the Civic sits at 280,899 units, with the Corolla trailing at 257,184 vehicles.
Sitting in third place, separated by a significant gap from the leaders, is the Chevrolet Cruze with 16,087 units sold. The Ford Focus earned fourth, with 15,108 units moved out of showrooms. (It is interesting to note that while the Civic and Corolla have both enjoyed double-digit sales increases year-over-year, the Cruze and Focus have seen significant decreases during the same period.)
Sales of the Hyundai Elantra hit 14,876 units, putting it in fifth place, with the Volkswagen Jetta earning sixth place with 11,710 units. Rounding out the ten top sellers were the Nissan Sentra (8,399 units), Mazda3 (7,647 units), Dodge Dart (5,617 units) and Subaru Impreza/WRX (4,923 units). The Kia Forte (4,706 units) and Volkswagen Golf (2,249 units), eleventh and twelfth respectively, have fallen behind.

Honda fielding 11 entrants at Pikes Peak, including 532-hp Odyssey

Is it possible for a minivan to be more exciting than an Acura NSX? Well, Honda is trying to find out by entering a 532-horsepower Odyssey into the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with IndyCar racer Simon Pagenaud behind the wheel.
Starting with a stock Odyssey, Honda dropped in a turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 producing an estimated 532 hp and 460 pound-feet of torque as well as racing suspension, tires and brakes and one of the biggest roll cages you're likely to ever see. If this van looks familiar to you, you aren't alone - it's a veteran of the Tire Rack One Lap of America.
In addition to this super minivan, Honda will also be entering a first-gen NSX, CR-Z hybrid, Fit EV and Acura TL into the competition as well as five motorcycles and an all-terrain vehicle. Scroll down for the full details on Honda's comprehensive assault on Pikes Peak.

Nissan Rogue gives brand rare monthly sales lead over Honda

The five top-selling brands in the automotive industry are usually Ford, Toyota, Chevy, Honda and Nissan, in that order. This lineup emerged intact when counting a year's worth of sales for 2013, and there was no reason to expect it would change at the beginning of 2014. But it did. Thanks to surging sales of its all-new Rogue, Nissan managed to pull ahead of Honda to become the fourth best-selling auto brand in January 2014, selling 81,472 units (an increase of 10.41 percent compared to January 2013) to Honda's 80,808 (a decrease of 3.96 percent).
The Rogue led the way for Nissan, contributing an additional 4,880 units in January compared to the same month last year - a 54.5-percent increase for a grand total of 13,831 units. But the Rogue had help, with the Frontier pickup adding an extra 2,307 units (an 87.9-percent increase), the Juke an extra 1,081 units (a 45.8-percent increase), the Altima an extra 1,051 units (a 4.9-percent increase) and the Maxima an additional 983 units (a 32.9-percent increase). Honda, meanwhile, was hurt by falling sales of the Accord (down 13.9 percent) and Pilot (down 7.6 percent), and stagnant sales of the Civic.
Honda, however, should take pride in the fact that it's luxury division, Acura, outsold Infiniti, Nissan's luxury division, last month - 10,823 units sold to 8,998. That margin of victory was large enough to keep the parent company of American Honda ahead of Nissan North America for the month of January.