Honda's CR-V is EATING Toyota Rav4's lunch...for now

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Happy June to everyone out there. And that means May's sales figures are officially out. Honda just came in.

[00:00:07]Mazda just came in. Subaru's in. I'll do Kia and Hyundai in a separate video.

[00:00:11]They're kicking butt in their own ways.

[00:00:14]But if we look, I mean Toyota is just hanging on. And it's mainly because their like their number their best player, their Michael Jordan, the RAV 4 is still recovering from switching over to this new model. As we look here, the month of May was up 4% so far. Now, this is just the brands reporting. Lexus is the only one that's negative. Again, brands reporting. We're not talk General Motors, Ford, Nissan, right? There are other brands out there that only report quarterly. But look at the brands that we're going to cover right here. We're going to cover Mazda in this video.

[00:00:49]We're going to cover Subaru. And we're going to start though with Honda's not on this list. So, where did Honda end up? Honda's up 10%.

[00:00:59]Like Subaru, Honda's up 10%. So, they're outperforming the market right now. Uh, and you know, Mazda is just crazy.

[00:01:06]Subaru and Maza have had tough years so far, but all of a sudden all of a sudden their numbers are exploding. Honda, you could I this is the best month of the year. Record May for Passport, new hybrid sales, record. Integra up 67% record sales of ADX. But again, last year it was just becoming on sale this time of year. Acura Gateway, I thought it said getaway for a second because this like Subaru getaway is still burned into my mind. Gateway SVU uh the the ADX post its be best month ever. Okay, so Civic led the way with its best sales since June 2021. Accord scored its best best month since May 2023 and the Prelude continued to Okay, then the Prelude is just always going to be a low volume. Let's get these cookies off my page. Geez. Yeah, the Prelude's always going to be a low volume model. And it's why would Honda bring it back? That's the question. If they if it's not going to be a money maker for them, I understand you need to have heartbeat models, but the Prelude, it's like half heartbeat, you know? It just kind of falls short in some ways.

[00:02:15]It does some things extraordinarily well. Watch my review on it. Um I I really love join driving the Prelude. It just needs 50 to 100 more horsepower.

[00:02:24]All-wheel drive would have been nice. I could keep going. Okay. Fuel economy is fantastic on it. All right. So, we're going to just skip all these these highlights and whatnot. There's a lot in there because well, again, we have other manufacturers to cover. So, let's get into the Accord. Honda up again 10%.

[00:02:41]This is not including Acura. So, Accord up 33% on the month. Sold almost se uh 19,000 units. If we compare to the Camry, the Camry sold 38 uh 36,000 units. 36,000 units. I mean, it had it's doubled. The the Camry sells double what the Accord does. Now there, if you guys want me to make a video, one of one of my followers, they sent me an article talking about how the Accord is likely to get a refresh. I mean, it needs one.

[00:03:12]It's needed one since it launched in my opinion. Okay, it's a good car, but it needs to be great to keep up with the Camry. That's just my opinion. So, let's see here. Civic up 5% on the month. And if you guys remember, I was talking a lot how Honda is sending a lot of cars to fleet for the first time ever, but they're doing it strategically through dealership loaner fleets. All right? So, they're not just sending them to rental companies. Some are going there like Accords. I've seen rental Accords in my area, but things like uh the Odyssey uh those are being sent to dealer fleets um as rental cars or you not rental cars, but loaner cars through the service loaner uh program. So that's where a lot of their fleet is going. Uh Civic up 4 and a.5% I want to say. Yeah, if we look at Civic Hybrid here, it's about neutral. I think they're about capped on how many Civic hybrids they can build.

[00:04:06]Accord total uh Accord sales. So CRV hybrid set a new May sales record. So 54% of CRVS are hybrid. Honda would be a-ok, okay, if they could find a way to make a 100% of their CRVS hybrid. Hopefully, they're planning for that with the next generation to keep up not only with Toyota, but the Koreans are likely to go fully hybrid with their next generation Tucson and Sportage. Okay, Accord is 50% hybrid mix. Civic again is like capped at around 30%. So, Honda's car division right now is is strong. It's it's up.

[00:04:42]Now, you got to keep in mind TLX is gone and that provides more production capacity for things like the Integra and the In the Accord in Mary'sville, Ohio.

[00:04:53]So, and more importantly, the Zero Series EVs are gone, which shores up a lot of production as well. Over in Ohio, we look at CRV. CRVS, I mean, pacing, I did the math here, about 450,000 units this year. I want to say the RAV 4 last year was at 475,000. The CRV is having a crazy comeback year. Not saying comeback because they didn't drop off.

[00:05:17]They they're just continuing to grow with the CRV. The CRV sold over 400,000 last year for the first time ever, I believe. And they're pacing an extra 40 to 50,000 this year at this rate. You know, they sold 45,141.

[00:05:30]If we look at Toyota's RAV 4 last year, um for the month of May, they sold 45,18 or sorry, 282. So they're about 140 units ahead of where Honda is this year with the CRV. But that's just crazy. The numbers are popping out with the CRV.

[00:05:48]Absolute bonkers. Um [snorts] HRV, it's about neutral on the year 7% or should I say neutral on the month. It's down on the year because they're producing so many in this plant down in Mexico as Acuras for the ADX. Most of you know the HRV and the ADX is like the same vehicle just slightly different styling and powertrains. All right. Honda Odyssey down 3%. Um, and again, a lot of these are being sold fleet production is down on it seemingly. Um, availability seems to be fine when last time I checked. I love the Odyssey. Just needs better fuel economy and then it would just be it would be slain. But minus 15% on the year, minus 3% on the month. Passport up 3%. So it's almost like a give and a take. They're okay with maybe selling less Odysseies because the Passport's going ham for them right now. U Passport's fantastic. Uh I should be getting it soon. I should be getting it again for 2026.

[00:06:47]It would be a 27 model year. I'm trying to get my model year straight at this point, but a Passport is doing well in the year and it's just uh it's it's a good car for Honda. Pilot uh minus 1% on the month minus 4%. I just reviewed the Pilot if you want to see my review. It's so vanilla. Even though they've actually made some changes to it that I thought would help it for 2026 refresh, the steering is a miss for me on it, but that's just me. All right. Everyone has different preferences. prologue minus 50% on the year. Well, why? Because the prologue's canceled. Actually had somewhat of a decent month, down 10%. Uh anyways, Ridgeline, um if you missed the the news update this week, the Ridgeline is getting a year and a half hiatus.

[00:07:34]It's going to end production at the end of this year. They'll bring it back in a year and a half after a giving it a substantial refresh. It's doubtful that it'll be able to get the hybrid system even with the refresh, but I'd love to be proven wrong. I want it needs to have that hybrid on it. All of Honda's large platform vehicles are a hybrid away from being right at the top of the class. And I could say that for Nissan, too. Okay, you look at the CRV, the Civic hybrid.

[00:08:00]The Accord hybrid is it's top of class on a lot of things. It's just really expensive compared to like a Camry and it's missing key features. Same thing with the CRV at this point. Anyways, it's missing key features that a RAV 4 has and it's it's expensive or even the Koreans have. Interesting. Okay, let's go on to Acura and then we'll move on to Mazda. Integra up 67%. They're cooking with fire with this thing. I don't know why the Integra is doing so well. Has not received any updates that I mean there's a paint match grill, right? I can't remember any of the other major updates uh for the Integra. Um it needs desperately needs a hybrid. All Acuras need a hybrid. We know that the RDX is getting two years of darkness, even longer than the darkness period of the Ridgeline. So two years of darkness of the RDX. So, these numbers falling on the RDX down 14%, it's eventually going to go down to zero sales. Yes, it will go down to zero sales in the coming uh months and maybe year because production is done on the RDX. It's over until they bring out a new one. And I've already talked about why there's a 2-year gap.

[00:09:05]I'm not going to get into it right now.

[00:09:07]All right, but it's down 25% on the year and it's just going to get worse. Okay, MDX is carrying as well. You could say I mean you got to make up for the lack of the ZDX not on there, but the ZDX is costing accurate money. So, it's it's actually a blessing that it's gone and those sales are gone. MDX is cruising.

[00:09:26]Okay, 4500 sales and the ADX has officially surpassed the RDX and we'll stay ahead of the RDX until new RDX comes out as a true uh luxury rival uh with a decent hybrid powertrain. So, it's just, man, ADX needs a hybrid. MDX needs a a hybrid, a V6 hybrid. RDX needs to stick around with a hybrid. Integra needs a hybrid. The the base Integra should be the hybrid. That's just me. I would rather get a Civic hybrid at like under 30K than spend my money on Integra unless I'm getting manual. But even then, you have this cannibalization between Honda and Acura. Okay. Yes. The the Integra A-Spec technology, I think is what it's called. called the Aspec tech package with the manual. It's the exact same thing as the SI except it has nicer features. It's like, man, this is Honda. This is Honda. Why can't we tune that engine or do something? Maybe a D-tuned 2 L to make the Integra just stand out a little bit more. And then you have the the the Civic Type R and the Integra Type S. There's like a 10 grand difference between the two, but in my eyes, there's not a 10 grand difference in car. So Acura unfortunately is too similar to Honda right now. Uh Honda sales doing great.

[00:10:42]Acura's still holding on. Acura holding on even though the RDX is diminishing.

[00:10:49]TLX is gone. Pro there are three car brand. They have to be shelling out uh a lot of incentives I would say on the Integra and ADX and MDX. All right. But I don't have evidence to prove that. Um, automotive news might be able to post more on incentives. Let's see here.

[00:11:10]Average incentives last month were 3,300 units. A 21% increase from a year earlier, guys. That is crazy. Kia has 0% financing uh on some models. We Well, I already talked about how Mazda's has 0% financing on some of their models for 72 months. None incentives rose about 25% last month. EV discounts were up 11% to $10,000.

[00:11:36]Crazy, crazy, crazy. All right, I think I'm done talking about Honda. There's just a lot to unpack there because it's two brands in one with Acura. Honda like the standouts. According Civic's doing well. It's just it says do I want to see Civic 27,000 sales. What is the the Corolla? Uh, the Corolla is 23,000 sales on the the month and then 111 for the year. All right. The Civic is at 109 for the year, but it's it's gaining momentum over the Corolla right now. And I already talked about my last video that the Corolla is not a great buy because it's so close to a base Camry right now with discounts on the LE Camry. So, yeah. Anyways, let's keep moving. Mazda reports May sales results.

[00:12:24]Mazda was up 35%.

[00:12:28]What is happening? Why is Mazda up so much? Well, let's look at purchase offers. Um, low lowish financing, not 0% on CX 5. Oh, I just reviewed the CX-5.

[00:12:41]Um, that's all I'm going to say. Just reviewed it. Watch my review on it. Uh, it's it's a mixed bag. And that's crazy because it used to be a home run.

[00:12:49]CX50.9%.

[00:12:51]Why would you buy Why would you buy the CX-5 when you get a CX50 with a less uh APR? I guess that's up to 60 36 months.

[00:13:02]Wow, these are not that great deals, honestly. Okay, CX50 hybrid, you can see. Okay, this is better. 1.9% up to 60 months. CX70.9% for 60 months, guys. I saw a better deal on TV yesterday. Was it for a 25 model or something? No, I saw it on TV. It was 0% for 72 months. Oh, if you see here, we have a CX70 at 0% on the plug-in hybrid. That's fascinating. Um or $5,000 customer cash.

[00:13:35]Ooh, that's that's some good incentives right there. Solid incentives right there on the CX70. What about the CX90?

[00:13:43]Plug-in hybrid. Again, here's that 0% APR for 72 months on the plug-in hybrid.

[00:13:48]The plug-in hybrid's fine. It needs about 15 more miles of electric range, but the hybrid uh the hybrid transmission is a little bit smoother.

[00:13:57]It's not very efficient on the highway.

[00:13:58]It's better as a city car, and this is better as an allrounder in some ways.

[00:14:02]Okay, I would probably just get the inline 6 because it's sweet, but at the same time, reliability is an issue with that CX90. That's why the incentives are so strong here, and the Koreans are just cranking on on the Tellide and stuff.

[00:14:14]Mazda 3 hatchback. Okay, incentives are are good there. 1.9%. So, let's get into the deal. So, Mazda has strong strong incentives compared to Honda or Acura that what I just looked up anyway. So, uh sales highlights right now. Best sales total since July 2025. Best ever month for the CX-50 hybrid deservedly.

[00:14:35]So, it's a good vehicle. Best sale month for uh May 2021 for this Mazda 3 combined with the sedan and hatchback.

[00:14:43]Uh let's see. Mazda Canada was up oh down sorry down 21%. Now they don't get the CX50. So that's a big problem. Mazda Mexico up uh 13%. So let's get into individual sales here. Mazda 3, what?

[00:15:00]Mazda 3 was up 75%.

[00:15:04]Sorry, that's a DSR. So we're going to focus on um year-over-year change. 68% for the Mazda 3. What kind of comeback is this? I just reviewed the Mazda 3 earlier. I want to say earlier this year. Did it make it on my spreadsheet?

[00:15:16]Yeah, right here. Yeah, definitely a tier. It's a good car. Good car. A little expensive, but really good car.

[00:15:22]The Mazda 3 overall, especially if you I mean, yeah, turbo is just fantastic.

[00:15:27]All-wheel drive. It's it's sick. Okay, so yeah, up up 68% up 10% on the year, but holy smokes, 68%. Where did this volume come from? What's doing well?

[00:15:38]It's both the hatchback and the sedan.

[00:15:42]Holy smokes. Where did this come from? I don't know. I don't know why the Mazda 3 sales are so good right now. So, we go back to incentives. I mentioned uh Mazda 3 sedan 1.9%.

[00:15:55]Uh let's see here. What are the lease deals? There might be some sick lease deals. I know I'm just looking at purchase offers. Okay, CX30. I mean, that's a lot due at signing, but 219 a month is dirty low. Okay. Lease offer on CX-5. Way too much down. Uh way too much down there. Mazda 3 hatchback here.

[00:16:13]Let's see here. Ah, you get lease cash.

[00:16:17]Let's see here. Uh $1.99 a month. So, this is better. And they give you $500 in lease cash. Yes. Yes. That's probably why the Mazda 3 is doing so well is that leasing is pretty pretty tasty on it. um 189 a month, but again, you get extra $500 lease cash on it. Anyways, regardless, I still don't think that explains why Mazda 3 is doing so well.

[00:16:42]Mazda MX5, love the love the little guy.

[00:16:45]One of my favorite vehicles on the market. S tier all the way. Uh up up 28%. Good, good, good, good. It needs to keep going. It needs to survive. We need the MX5 around forever and ever and ever. has a manual transmission, lightweight, fun to drive rear wheel drive roadster. Anyway, CX30. I've been saying for a long time that Mazda doesn't care about the CX30. Most of them are built in Mexico. Blah blah blah. Trade situations, tariffs, and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it's been down like 50 plus% this year, and all of a sudden it's up 21% on the month. What ma? What kind of magic is going on? If anyone is watching this that works at a Mazda dealer, let me know what the the the sales tactics are, what kind of tools you're using, um what has changed from earlier in the year to now with the CX30, CX-5. Now, you might be saying, Kirk, it's because I switched over the new model. No, I looked when I was reviewing the new model. It it had tons of availability. Like over I think there's like 1,200 CX-5s in my area.

[00:17:55]It's just that people don't care for it on at least on the same level as a previous generation. So the CX-5 took a massive step back overall as a vehicle.

[00:18:07]There are some things it does better.

[00:18:08]It's not just a paintbrush. It's worse in every way. No, it's worse in important ways. It's better in important ways, but it should have been better in every conceivable way when we're waiting a decade for a new redesign. And it wasn't. And it isn't better in every conceivable way. It's only better in ride quality in NVH. Really, now that I'm thinking about and space, it has more space if you need more space. Okay.

[00:18:32]Rest in peace CX-5. As we knew you, second gen is is peak gen CX-5. Mazda CX-50. And in my review of the CX-5, I said most people are better off just getting a CX50. And look at these numbers. Up 115% for the CX50. Look at this from 7,000 units to 15,000 units. They've doubled their numbers. More so, more than doubled. More than doubled. Upund sorry, 107%.

[00:19:04]Gosh, it's even worse because I keep looking at uh DSR, which is daily selling rate. the the actual volume number here is to the left. CX-5 down 18%.

[00:19:15]Where the CX50 is up 107%.

[00:19:20]Wow. It's up 36% on the year. So, we're at the point, guys, look at this. The way things are going next month, this is going to happen next month. Mark my word, when we revisit these sales, when June is all over and done, the CX50 will have passed the CX5 in sales volume.

[00:19:38]this is going to happen. Who would have thought that would have happened? I need to do these numbers real quick. Um, let's say it's 15,000 that they just made on the CX50. Okay, again, this number is out out more than what they can actually produce of the Huntsville, Alabama part plant, I should say. So, let's divide this by sorry divided by five times 12. So, they're running really hot. They're getting close to maximum production capacity in Huntsville, Alabama where they build the CX50 and it's going to surpass the CX-5 next month in terms of sales. It's less than a,000 behind it and this past month it outs sold it by 7,000 units. Crazy.

[00:20:22]CX70, I mean, this vehicle, yes, the sales are up, but incentives are strong on it. They need to they need massive incentives on their large platform vehicles uh because they're these these vehicles don't have a good reputation. I know people who own them. I don't think they've had bad experiences, but there are plenty of bad experiences with the CX70 and CX90 out there for engine transmission reliability things. Okay.

[00:20:48]So, hopefully that's improving because they are fun to drive. When I reviewed the CX90, it was like a tier because I can't review reliability. All right. I just reviewed the car of how it's priced uh priced on the market I should say more specifically and how what's it giving to me in terms of features etc. Okay so the CX90 I love driving it but maybe these are lease vehicles CX70 CX90 because they got things to iron out from what I hear with the reliability on them. So overall, Mazda is up 30%.

[00:21:23]For their cars, sorry, their their SUVs, their trucks. I can't talk. Their cars are up 84%. They have one Well, they have two cars, the Miata and the the Mazda 3. Mazda 3 is old as dirt, and it's doing it's doing wonders for them.

[00:21:40]Okay, so for this year, Mazda's had three less selling days. You know, this month helped them out tremendously.

[00:21:49]tremendously from a sales volume perspective. They're only down about 7% on the year. All right, so this 35, sorry, where am I at? Uh, they're up 35% total. There it is. Yes, I was on it.

[00:22:01]35% total. They need to keep this up.

[00:22:04]All right, incentives are helping them.

[00:22:06]Subaru, this is our last, this is our end cap of the day, the night cap.

[00:22:11]Subaru of America reports May 26 sales up 10%. Forester is remaining the top seller for the fifth consecutive months.

[00:22:20]Best May ever for Cross Track. Oh, the Forester even beat out the Cross Track when the Cross Track posted a best May.

[00:22:28]Best month ever for hybrid and electric vehicle sales. Well, they have so many freaking EVs now, so it doesn't come as a surprise. So, let's get into it.

[00:22:35]Subaru Ascent needs a redesign as soon as possible. All it is is I call it the Subaru Descent every single month. I mean, there are exceptions, but like the majority of months, it's it's easily posting massive losses. It's down 13% on the year, down 7% on the month. It's just not competitive. Not competitive. I would take a Honda Pilot, and I thought the Honda Pilot is like not it's it's like maybe middle of the class, maybe.

[00:23:04]Okay. Subaru scent is at the very bottom of the class. Um, probably. I mean, it might even be worse than a Traverse. Uh, so wow. Can't believe I'm saying that, but that's true. BRZ minus 21% again.

[00:23:18]Specialty car. Cross Track up 10%. Wow, lots of volume here. Forester up 27%.

[00:23:26]What are they doing with the Forester to get this sort of volume? The Forester's up 8%. Look at this guys. Look at this.

[00:23:34]If you look at year to date, year to date, including all the months, Forester's eight up 8%. Everything else is negative.

[00:23:44]Everything else is negative. Okay. But this month is a good sign for for Subaru as a Cross Track has rebound rebounded.

[00:23:52]Impress is just getting whooped. Legacy, rest in peace. Outback has it it's it's kind of clawed back to where it should be, you know, with the redesign. I haven't reviewed the redesign. Um it's very controversial. I think I might actually like it, but I haven't driven it yet. So, I need this car. I need to drive it. Uh, but I just don't I can't get what I want all the time when I want it for my press fleets.

[00:24:18]That's just the reality of the Sitch.

[00:24:20]Um, and so I really want to test the new Outback. Desperately needs a hybrid in my opinion. But yes, anyways, down 22% on the year for the Outback, which is such a big volume seller for them. All right. Uh, Sulttera down 7% on the year, down 40% on the month. Why? Well, Subaru has two other EVs. They have a Trail Seeker, uh, which is the wagon. This is like a wagon Outback. Okay. And it has boatloads of power. You have the Uncharted, which is um, kind of their entry level EV. I'm actually driving the rival to it, or should not even rival, the Toyota version of it, which is a rival if you think about it. It's like it's they were separated at birth um from the CHR. Where is is that that's made at I think I think the Motomachi plant. It's definitely a Toyota plant.

[00:25:15]Anyways, same thing the Sulttera and the Toyota BZ4X. Formerly the new name is Toyota BZ. Other markets still call the BZ4X. Anyway, Sulttera and Uncharted are built by Toyota and Trail Seeker is built by Subaru. Um, and those models are helping out on a volume standpoint.

[00:25:34]I'm curious. We got to look. Sulttera.

[00:25:36]Yeah. See, look the there's hardly any Sultteras in my area. Trail Seekers only eight. Uncharted seven. So, their EV volume's actually really low, at least in my area. Does that mean could mean a couple things. One, availability is not good uh from the factory. Or two, it could mean that demand for Subaru EVs are quite high. But let's see here. Am I if I'm seeing discounts on them? Yeah, I'm seeing uh 1,700 discounts on the Subaru Uncharted. Okay. What about I need to look up the Toyota counterpart CHR? I'm driving it right now. There's way more CHR availability than Subaru Uncharted. And the ironically, the Toyota is all-wheel drive standard. The Subaru has frontwheel drive standard. Um I would only buy the SE more than likely. I'm reviewing the XSSE this week and you can get this guys for 5 grand off 34K. Uh, does Subaru have good incentives? Ascent? Yeah. No. No. You almost have to pay me to drive an Ascent. This isn't bad. Sultterra, $400 for 36 months for a lease with barely any money down. That's not bad. Trail Seeker 0% financing up to 72 months.

[00:26:49]Uncharted 0% financing up to 72 months.

[00:26:53]Interesting. You know, EVs, they depreciate fast.

[00:26:57]So, uh, you might be underwater in just a few months, right, after taking a 0% financing loan on one of these things.

[00:27:05]So, yeah, financing has to be strong there. Um, did I even cover the the WRX?

[00:27:11]I didn't get to the WR WRX.

[00:27:14]Holy cow, it's it's hanging in there.

[00:27:16]Minus 3% on the month on the year, up 150% on the month. There's 50 WRXs in my area. I like the WRX. It's just not very fun compared to some other the other cars like a GR Curl. But look at this.

[00:27:29]If you can get a WRX for under 35K, that's a great deal. Really good deal in my opinion. Um WRX still like I think it's a decent looking car. Um paint match is an issue with the rear bumper, right? It looks best probably in black.

[00:27:45]That blue looks amazing, but again, just like non-p paint matched overarches make it look like a crossover. Uh, and that's not that's not doing favors for a a sedan. Guys, I got to shut it down. Uh, what do you think about today's sales recap? Honda, Subaru, and Mazda all having doubledigit months for the month of May. Wow. Like, that's all I can say. I don't have like incentives are ramping up. We just talked about how incentives are going up. Um, finance deals are getting better. Uh, and this summer is going to be probably the way things are going. If May was that hot, June, July, August, September, these brands could be burning red hot, uh, slinging cars out with really good incentives. You know, by the end of the year, we might get to a point where incentives are close to where they were at the beginning of the pandemic when the manufacturers didn't know what to do and that they just needed to get people in the doors. We could see that the way things are going. So, stay tuned. I'll catch you guys. Sorry, I just got a a text from Toyota Jeff. So, I gota I got to tend to Jeff and I'll catch you guys in the next one. Have a great day and peace.