My first thought is which Honda sales will still be open
Many reports here of dealers moving to other brands
That's my worry with the brand in the longer term.
I'm a big fan of what Honda does and their hybrid system is unbelievably brilliant, however the cars aren't quite European enough and the likes of Hyundai/Kia have got much better at giving people what they think they want at a competitive price.
I think now that they don't have a manufacturing plant in the UK, they have really pulled back on this market. The increase in price of the Civic between generations was huge, partly because the cars have to be imported from Japan whereas it was previously easier to oversupply and do discounts / pre-reg if they needed to keep Swindon busy.
The building where I bought my Civic is now a Kia franchise and the Honda franchise has been relocated to a smaller and less optimal location, where it shares its car park with broken MG's from the sister dealership. That says a lot about how the dealership group views the brand.
I don't know the ratio of Sportages sold vs CR-V's but it's a lot. I've had both as courtesy cars (I had a CR-V for three months!) and they're not even comparable. There is nothing Sporty about the way a Sportage drives, whereas the CR-V is good to drive, comfortable, refined and pulls like a train. But not enough people buy them.
I will probably buy another Honda as no-one else is really doing what I want, but for most people there are other brands that are a much easier sell.
Most people will look at a VW T-Cross or T-ROC and think how excellent it is, and superficially they actually are quite a strong product.... Just don't look under the bonnet or think too hard about the engineering quality.
