Honda U.S. Sales Rise Moderately in June

Friday, July 1st 2005, 1:26 pm

By: News On 6

TORRANCE, Calif., (AP) _ Honda Motor Co., the No. 3 Japanese automaker, said Friday that its U.S. auto sales grew moderately last month as a pickup in demand for sport-utility vehicles offset declining car volume.

The company's June sales rose to 126,416 vehicles from 116,101 the year before, a gain of 4.7 percent after adjusting to account for one additional selling day in the latest period. Overall car sales slipped 4.5 percent to 72,243 units, but truck sales surged 20.2 percent to reach 54,173, Honda said.

Sales of Honda-brand vehicles jumped 3.6 percent to 107,672 units, but car volume fell 6.5 percent to 59,296 as Honda sold 6.9 percent fewer Accords and 7.2 percent less Civics, the company's two best-selling vehicles.

But Honda truck sales advanced 19.4 percent to 48,376 units, helped by greater sales of its Pilot and CR-V SUVs and Odyssey minivans.

In its Acura division, overall sales grew 11.4 percent to 18,744. Acura car sales were up 5.6 percent to 12,947 vehicles on a more than threefold boost in demand for its RL model, while sales of its MDX SUV surged 26.8 percent to 5,797.

Year to date, Honda has sold 692,364 vehicles, an increase of 1.6 percent over last year. Car sales are down 6.6 percent to 397,027, but truck volume has grown 15.1 percent to 295,338.