HONDA Motor Co.’s sales in China slumped for a fourth consecutive month in May, due to the lingering impact from quality issues associated with the automaker’s popular CR-V sport utility vehicle.

The Japanese automaker’s sales in China fell 15.3 percent in May from a year earlier to 99,263 vehicles, it said yesterday.

That brings Honda’s sales in the world’s biggest auto market for the first five months of the year to 501,116 vehicles, down 6.5 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The drop in its China sales this year stems from a cold-climate engine problem caused by an unusual amount of uncombusted petrol collecting in the engine’s lubricant oil pan.

In early March, Honda decided to halt new sales of its CR-V and noted the company might have to do the same with the Civic after a Chinese quality regulator rejected the automaker’s plan to recall 350,000 of the cars to fix the problem.

The issue has since been resolved, as the regulator last month allowed Honda to recall both vehicles. But Honda was not able to resume sales of the CR-V till around May 22.

(SD-Agencies)