Honda Says Bye-Bye to Crosstour for 2016

Yesterday we looked one of the most successful Honda/Acura models of the past decade up for auction in Japan. In a fitting contrast, today we learned that Honda plans to get rid of one of their worst-sellers for the 2016MY. That car is the Honda Crosstour, and it will be officially axed from the lineup for 2016.

Note, this is NOT the same car as the Honda Accord Tourer which is available in some markets.

The Honda Crosstour, previously known as the Honda Accord Crosstour, is an awkward fusion of sedan, station wagon and crossover. It’s designed to have the looks of a sedan, the space of a station wagon and the underpinnings of a crossover. It’s a little unfair, but you can see how the car earned itself the nickname “The hunchback of Honda”… People perceive the Crosstour as bulky and unattractive without any of the perks that normally come with bulky and unattractive cars.

The result of this awkwardly implemented design concept is a remarkably slow-selling model. The Honda Crosstour debuted in 2010, and its monthly sales only ever peaked at 2,900 units during that year. According to Good Car Bad Car, the Honda Crosstour has yet to sell more than 750 units in one month since the start of 2015. It’s been a full year since the car managed to consistently sell over 1,000 units a month.

According to Honda’s official statement on the Crosstour’s cessation, they believe that the Honda HR-V launching any day now is the right direction for their crossover lineup:

“The crossover segment has evolved and we believe the all-new 2016 Honda HR-V launching later this spring will create new value for crossover shoppers and play a more significant role as a gateway model for the Honda brand to drive light truck sales growth. This move will allow the East Liberty Plant to focus on meeting demand for the CR-V and a refreshed 2016 Acura RDX and, as announced last month, expand light truck production in early 2017 with the Acura MDX,”

The statement reveals another core reason behind the Crosstour’s demise, which is that it will allow them to optimize manufacturing capacity. The Crosstour is currently manufactured at Honda’s East Liberty, Ohio plant… Getting rid of the low-selling model in 2016 will allow this plant to focus solely on other crossover models like the Honda CR-V and Acura RDX.

Honestly, we don’t think that the Crosstour had to be doomed from the start. After all, the BMW X6 does just fine and it’s really not too far off from the current Crosstour.

2015 BMW X6

However, the Crosstour was one of the first cars that Honda promoted primarily on social media, and they did NOT do a very good job. The photos they shared were ugly, and the original “Accord Crosstour” naming scheme was confusing. The result was a flood of negative comments and shares… Not exactly a great start. In fact, it was so bad that the Crosstour never took off, despite dealerships offering rock-bottom prices in recent years to try and clear out their stocks.

So long, Crosstour. Honestly, you won’t be missed.