(February 21, 2014) TORRANCE, Calif. — The Honda Accord was the best-selling car with individual American car buyers in 2013 and was joined by three other Honda models — the Civic, CR-V, and Odyssey — as retail sales leaders in their respective segments in 2013, according to new-vehicle registration data compiled by Polk, which was recently acquired by IHS.

Honda says it surpassed Toyota ’s Camry, the leader in total volume to retail and fleet buyers for a 12th consecutive year. Americans bought 360,089 Accords last year, Honda said in a statement. Camry's retail sales were 342,007 out of 408,484 total deliveries for the sedan, said Amanda Rice, a Toyota spokeswoman.

Honda’s strategy to concentrate on retail sales is paying off, as they aid resale values and typically are more profitable than those to fleets. Sales to individuals accounted for more than 98 percent of Accord’s U.S. volume last year, compared with about 84 percent for the Camry. U.S. automakers generally rely on fleets for a quarter or more of sales.

Honda said that cumulatively, the Accord, Civic, CR-V and Odyssey posted retail sales of more than 1.11 million units in 2013, each earning the business of more than 300,000 individual American car buyers. Excluding full-size pickups, only one other model across the entire industry posted retail sales of more than 300,000 units in 2013.

"Our focus on retail sales to individual buyers has a direct correlation to the high resale value of Honda products, which is a key factor in the value proposition for our customers," said John Mendel, executive vice president of automobile sales for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "We want to thank car buyers for making four Honda vehicles America's top choices, purchased one car at a time."

Additional highlights from the Polk /IHS Automotive data included:

    • Honda's 2013 retail sales rose 8.4 percent from year-ago totals to 1,332,576 Honda cars and light trucks

    • Individual sales to retail car buyers made up 98.1 percent of all American Honda sales in 2013, compared to an average of 81.7 percent for all other non-luxury vehicles

    • Accord retail sales in 2013 rose 12.2 percent to 360,089

    • In addition to being retail sales leaders, both the Civic and CR-V ranked as the overall best-selling models in their respective segments for the third consecutive year, and both saw retail sales and registrations jump 8.2 percent in 2013

    • The Odyssey also captured an impressive 32.2 percent of the U.S. retail registrations for minivans in 2013, selling nearly 25,000 more vehicles than the nearest competitor in the segment

Honda has been named the Most Trusted Brand by Kelley Blue Book for two consecutive years (2012 and 2013) and the Best Value Brand by Automotive Lease Guide for six years in a row (2008 through 2013), in part due to the consistently high resale value of its products.