Honda is in the midst of totally revamping its crossover offerings, with the facelifted CR-V continuing to be a hot-seller and the all-new 2016 HR-V and redesigned Pilot launching soon. Even the Ridgeline pickup is getting a second chance. But there’s one member of the family left out of the picture.
The Honda Crosstour is still on sale, but it doesn’t look like most of you notice or care. And according to AutoNews, it’s about to get a lot tougher to move the Crosstour as Honda is basically giving up on marketing the vehicle. The coming 2016 Pilot means more incentives are being applied to the current model to clear it out. The CR-V is also the best-selling model in Honda’s lineup right now.
The Crosstour’s competition is pretty stiff at the moment, too. The Subaru Outback, redesigned for 2015, outsells the Crosstour by about 10 to 1. The Nissan Murano is new, and the redesigned Ford Edge is also going on sale soon. Last week, Toyota announced it would stop selling the Venza in the U.S., too.
Based on the previous-generation Accord, the Crosstour was released in 2009 and immediately got off on the wrong foot. Honda’s Facebook page was littered with comments about the car being ugly. At more than $30,000 to start, it was rather pricey. And it sold less than the projected 30,000 units per year Honda hoped for. Last year, sales were less than 12,000. And this is in a market where crossover sales continue to boom and traditional cars are flat.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but why won’t Honda build a Subaru Outback? An Accord Wagon would be more practical and solve the ugliness problem, and I think even the enthusiasts would be OK if it were only available with jacked-up suspension.
Honda is apparently not giving up on the Crosstour yet, and rumors persist about a new version coming soon. But if they try this again, being different for different’s sake, the sequel will probably go down about as well as this first Crosstour has.
Photo gallery
