What Is Honda Thinking?
 

Here is a link to the Car & Driver "first drive" article.
Wow! It's about the same size as the Chrysler 300. My feeling is that they want to be a true American car company like Toyota. :rolleyes: Bigger and bigger and less and less fun. They're going in a different direction. A serious car and a lot of car. Serious power as well. The last sentence of the article says it all:
"You

That's why Liz and Andrew drive Civics and I drive a Civic Si. We saw it coming even in the last generation Accord. The Accord has gotten bigger and more like an American car. It's no longer the fun car it was. If the Camry is Toyota's Buick, than the Accord is Honda's Oldsmobile.
The Civic today is what the Accord used to be. I suspect that in a very short period of time the Civic will start to out sell the Accord. It isn't very far behind now.

I see a lot of CTS-like styling in the new Accord pictures; sounds like they have grown in size to match it as well.

You know, I was driving the 06 Accord on a company trip about a year ago. I recall thinking "it's what a Buick ought to be."

Sure its big. Civics now are bigger than the the first (2G) Accord I owned. It's also roomy, comfortable, ergonomically nearly perfect, well built, with plenty of power, pretty good ride, and nice handling. In other words its a great FAMILY CAR.

Haven't driven an 08 yet but the 98-2002 handled better than a Maxima or anything else in its segment from Japan or the US. (I put the TSX in the next class up even if it is a Euro market Accord.) The 03-07 handled better still.

Something else the Car and Driver article said is that the Accord is Honda's rice bowl. They are aiming for a certain market and I think they are still dead-on.

The coupe looks nice but it is bigger than the old coupe too.

Wow, that coupe is nasty looking. The sedan isnt so bad, a little bigger but I would consider it if I had kids.

The advertising campaign for the redesigned Honda Accord includes a new tag line: "Beyond the Road." Ads for the mid-sized car are scheduled to break Sept. 12, the day the 2008 Accord sedan and coupe go on sale.

Extremely disturbing...

http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/i...0904586400.jpg



I'll take the Altima any day of the week over that Accord
http://www.autocult.com.au/img/galle...geddon2676.jpghttp://crave.cnet.com/i/bto/20070821...ansmission.jpg
http://www.nissannews.com/images_kam...tima_coupe.jpghttp://www.caranddriver.com/assets/i...0904571969.jpg

The current Motor Trend issue has a comparo of the new Accord and the Camry, this year's MT Car of the Year. They indicate that the 08 Accord could well dethrone the Camry, based on their road tests.

http://www.motortrend.com/av/roadtests/112...ota_camry_video

As tof points out ^^ , the Civic is far larger than it was a few years ago, to say nothing of its tiny beginnings. In general it seems that models tend to expand in size and h power -- probably in a determined effort by their manufacturers to maintain their market position. The growth of the Accord is no doubt due in part to its perceived competition with Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, ...,

I think another reason for the increase in size of the Accord is that the Acura RL (Acura fflagship) is now built on the same platform as the Accord, and the RL itself needed to be larger to compete in its segment. It is interesting that the Accord does not get the RL all-wheel drive system, so that it could compete with all-wheel Fords in this class.

That would be fine with me, they more Accords they sell the better chance we will get some decent sporty cars from them.