California is a stronghold for Honda

The executives at Honda’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance must be really thankful for California consumers.

Through the first half of this year, Honda sold a little more than 600,000 cars in the United States, up 2.3% from a year earlier while the overall market was growing in the low double digits. But the company is rocking in California. Sales are up more than 15% to slightly more than 80,000, according to the California New Car Dealers Assn. But the overall California market is up only 11%.

Honda sells the best in some of the biggest segments of the California market.

The automaker’s Accord is the top-selling mid-size sedan, accounting for nearly 26% of the market and easily outpacing the No. 2 Toyota Camry. The Civic tops the compact car market, and the Fit is the top seller in the small, entry-level car segment.

When it comes to sport utility vehicles, Honda’s CRV makes up almost 24% of the compact SUV market and has a huge lead over Toyota’s RAV4, which is second at 15% of sales. And Honda’s Pilot is narrowly ahead of Toyota’s Highlander in the mid-size SUV segment.

The only segment in which Honda isn’t the sales leader is minivans; its Odyssey trails the Toyota Sienna.

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