Maryland Loves Cars But Which Brand Draws Most Excitement?

Fact Checked by Jim Tomlin

Every state has a food or vacation spot it’s known for and summer road trips are in full swing. So BetMaryland.com took a break from covering Maryland online sports betting topics to look into each state’s favorite brand of car.

The results? Maryland joined six other states in choosing Honda, one of the best-selling car brands in the country. There are more than 20 Honda dealerships in Maryland, none in Washington, D.C. Three Honda dealers surround Baltimore.

Here’s how each state breaks down, by what their favorite car brand is.

Favorite Car Brand By State

  • Honda (7 states): Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina 
  • Dodge (5 states): Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico
  • Audi (4 states): Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York
  • Ford (4 states): Michigan, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming
  • Buick (3 states): Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin
  • Chevrolet (3 states): Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma
  • Hyundai (3 states): Alabama, Arizona, Illinois
  • Mercedes-Benz (3 states): Florida, Georgia, Virginia
  • Mazda (3 states): Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington
  • Volkswagen (3 states): New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah

One state each: Alfa Romeo: Rhode Island; BMW: Nevada; Jeep: West Virginia; Kia: Ohio; Lamborghini: Texas; Land Rover: New Jersey; Lincoln: Nebraska; Nissan: Tennessee; Subaru: Vermont; Tesla: California; Toyota: Hawaii; Volvo: Maine.

More About Honda

Honda has been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, but the company started making 4-wheelers in 1963, trying to gain automobile traction against the more established Japanese carmakers, Toyota and Nissan. The company began selling cars to Marylanders in 1969 when the brand launched in America — the first model was the N600, with a very boxy style. Five years later, Honda became the first car manufacturer to meet the standards of the nation’s new Clean Air Act.

The energy crisis of the 1970s forced Americans to look for more fuel-efficient cars. Honda helped fill the gap and that launched the company as serious player in the U.S. market.

Honda, however, wasn’t just about fuel efficiency. The company also chose to compete with 4-wheel drive and new technologies, and it made features like anti-lock brakes and speed-controlled power steering standard features. The company was also an early seller of hybrids, offering the Honda Insight in 1999. A Civic Hybrid followed in 2001 and an Accord Hybrid in 2004.

The manufacturer ranks fourth on the list of CarLogos.org 50 most popular brands in America.

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Honda Has Foothold in America

Honda is headquartered in Tokyo with its American division based in Torrance, California. Unlike some foreign competitors, Honda builds cars in the United States, and more than 70% of the Hondas sold here are built in America. Back in 2014, Honda made its 20 millionth car in the U.S. After that, I stopped counting, but they’re probably approaching 30 million by now.

2022 was a weak year for auto sales, including for Honda. The company sold 327,512 cars in the U.S. that year and sold almost exactly twice as many trucks, with the most popular being the CR-V. Of the car sales, a little over 31,000 came from Honda’s more upscale Acura brand.

The Accord, introduced in 1976 as a hatchback, is now the best-selling Honda car model. Second is the smaller Civic, introduced in 1972, which makes it the second-longest continuing car model from Japan behind the Toyota Corolla. All-time, the Civic is the best-selling Honda model in the U.S. market, with more than 12 million sold. And since they last a long time, most of them are probably still on the road.

How We Determined This List

BetMaryland.com, your source for Maryland sportsbook promos, used the list of the Top 50 most popular car brands in the United States at CarLogos.org as a starting point for our research project. Then we referenced Google Trends to discover the highest level of interest of each state for the brand.

After computing those trends over a 12-month stretch from July 25, 2022, to July 25, 2023, we averaged out the results to rank top car manufacturers for each state.

Author

Howard Gensler is a veteran journalist who’s worked at the Philadelphia Daily News, TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a founding editor of bettorsinsider.com.

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