HONDA HOLDS #1 POSITION,11th YEAR STRAIGHT

Honda Australia has once again claimed the number one position in retail motorcycle sales for the end of the calendar year, according to official figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

Honda sold four of the ten top selling motorcycles overall including the CRF250R and CRF450R motocross bikes for the third year running, the CRF230F which proved to be one of the manufacturer’s strongest performing trail bikes for 2009, and the CT110 Postie bike.

Honda also continued to dominate the ATV sector, and experienced nearly 5% growth in that category in an otherwise stagnant national motorcycle market.

In fact, five out of the top ten selling models in the ATV market are made by Honda including the best selling TRX420FA and TRX420TM.

The humble Honda Lead 100 topped the list for scooters while the LAMS approved CB400 continued to perform strongly in the naked category.

“We’re very pleased to have finished up in the top spot,” said Honda’s General Manager, Motorcycles Tony Hinton.

“Since we became the number one retailer 11 years ago, over 300,000 customers have chosen our products, simply because it’s a Honda with a strong history of reliability, durability and value for money.”

“That is not to say it hasn’t been a challenging year for all of the manufacturers, but Honda has achieved a lot that we can be proud of these past twelve months.”

“In the area of rider education, we rolled out of our Honda Safety Advisor program to the majority of our Dealers. We also celebrated 10 years of operation at HART New South Wales, as well as HART Queensland’s first birthday and moved our Victorian HART operation to new premises in Somerton.”

“Our CBR1000RR Fireblade was once again declared the best motorcycle in the country for the second year in a row by Australian Motorcycle News’ (AMCN), and we introduced a couple of very interesting new models such as the LAMS approved VT400 cruiser, the SH300i scooter, ‘Big Red’ Multi Utility Vehicle and VT1300CX chopper."

“In terms of community involvement, Honda was very pleased to continue our association with the Snowy Ride and the Steven Walter Foundation, helping them reach the $2 million mark in support of children’s cancer research.”

“We look forward to a strong performance in 2010 including a number of exciting new products and initiatives,” Mr Hinton commented.