đź“° Auto News Japan says sayonara to the Honda Civic

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After this year, Japanese customers who want to cruise the streets in a Honda Civic will have to settle for a hand-me-down model.

Honda Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will cease selling the Civic brand car in Japan, ending domestic production of the hybrid-version for the home market in December amid sputtering demand for passenger sedans. (But the Civic still commands healthy sales traffic overseas, are the auto maker said it will continue to sell the model outside its home territory.)

The Japanese demise of the Civic, one of Honda’s long-running mainstay brands that lifted it from small-time maker to global player in the early 1970s, comes as Honda’s new compact, the Fit, enjoys strong demand. Japan’s third-largest vehicle manufacturer by sales volume said domestic sales of the Fit compact reached 1.5 million at the end of September.

The writing’s been on the wall for the Civic in Japan for some time, in fact. The Fit was quick to race past the soon-to-be-outmoded Civic when it debuted in June 2001. The hatchback was the sixth most sold passenger vehicle in Japan that year, while the increasingly less hip Civic struggled at No. 22, according to Japan Automobile Dealers Association. This year, the Fit has been consistently the second most-sold vehicle in Japan, trailing only Toyota Motor Corp.’s champion Prius.

Fit sales totaled 14,034 vehicles in October. Meanwhile, Honda sold a grand total of 182 Civics and 270 Civic Hybrids at home the same month. No wonder it’s been some time since the auto maker enlisted Hollywood celebrities such as the likes of fresh-faced Jodie Foster and Leonardo DiCaprio taking joyrides in the car in domestic advertisements in the 1990s.

In one respect, the Civic’s declining popularity is a testament to how much space is coveted in Japan, especially on its narrow roadway and snug garages. While it launched as a small car in Japan, it may have outgrown its convenience. A review of the car growing up through the years reveals the size of the car actually getting increasingly bigger. It is no longer a small car by Japan standards and, aside from a partially different body shape, is even on par with the size sold in the U.S. (Where the mantra is often still that bigger is better).

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11/16/hondas-civic-joyride-wheezes-to-close-in-japan/
 
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