Honda Lifts the Covers on the Accord
August 22, 2007

Old timers fondly recall the days when dealerships covered their showroom windows and tore the coverings away giving the crowds amassed outside their first look at that year’s new model.

The same thing happened this week in the virtual world as Honda lifted the covers, so to speak, on the popular Accord, redesigned for the 2008 model year. Edmunds.com’s forum visitors, in fact, waited up for the midnight lifting of the embargo Monday and provided instant feedback on the new model.

Honda had allowed journalists to test-drive the Accord weeks ago, but swore them to secrecy until after midnight Monday. Then the reviews, including that on Edmunds' enthusiast site, InsideLine.com, was posted.

And the feedback was quick and generally positive. Edmunds.com visitors like the looks, the power, the features. The only negative was over its size: the new Accord is bigger than the current one and pushes into the EPA's large-car category -- too Toyota Avalon like, some said.

On Tuesday, Honda executives were in Detroit to give the local press a look at the new car.

Gary Robinson, Honda senior product planner, said the automaker is aiming to sell 400,000 Accord coupes and sedans in 2008. That’s an ambitious increase considering the midsize-car segment has been shrinking due to competition of 40 nameplates in the class and the vast number of other choices, including crossovers. Further, Honda sold about 360,000 Accords last year, about the same that it expects to sell this year.

The new Accord offers better performance from its four- and six-cylinder engines with no sacrifice in fuel economy. Honda’s cylinder deactivation now allows the 3.5-liter V6 to run on all six cylinders, three or now four for improved fuel economy at a wider range of speeds.

Honda has dropped the hybrid Accord. Robinson said Honda had considered the Accord hybrid an experiment, one that would deliver performance as well as fuel economy to consumers. However, Honda found consumers prefer hybrids that are small and optimize fuel-efficiency not performance, which is the area in which Honda will focus its future efforts now, he said.

Robinson said the Accord models will cost between $20,000 and $30,000, with a “minimal increase.”

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