11/12/07

2008 Honda Accord Coupe Appears at Dealerships

"Every night I hope and pray
A dream lover will come my way"

Bobby Darin, Dream lover, pop music hit 1959.

The restyled-for-2008 Honda Accord Coupe has begun staying long enough at Houston Honda dealerships for interested customers to get a look. Earlier deliveries have been pre-sold.

I was excited to learn that Honda planned to restyle the Accord, America's second-best-selling car, for 2008. Previous Accords, like main competitor Toyota Camry, were styled conservatively.

My dream car is sleek, with almost unnoticeable body panel gaps. Everybody agrees it is beautiful. Dreamcar makes pedestrians stop to admire their own good looks in the chrome-like finish.

It has a .24 coefficient of drag, allowing quick acceleration and 50 mpg highway fuel economy to co-exist. Dreamcar uses carbon-fiber, aluminum, fiberglass, and other technologically advanced materials to lower weight to, say 2600 pounds.

My perfect car doesn't cost $60K like the Corvette, it is mass produced for $24K.

My fellow Americans, We need such a car for our way of life to survive.

"Dream lover, until then,
I'll go to sleep and dream again"

Detroit automakers are hopelessly behind, I do not look to them for leadership.

Well, if anybody could make progress toward my goal, it would hafta be Honda.

Coupes have staged comeback lately, as the baby boom demographic moves into it's empty nest period. Other Honda Accord coupe competitors include Infiniti G37, Nissan Altima, Pontiac G6, and Ford Mustang.

With all the flashy new coupes on the market, expectations for a repeat of the 2006 Honda Civic Coupe styling home-run were high.

The production Coupe strongly resembles Honda's Accord show car concept, with a rising wedge beltline and rounded rump.The sharpened lines, long hood, fastback roofline, and angular front trim offer a sportier look than past Accords.

But I am disappointed at the Accord's overall styling integration: it lacks what I call coherence, a unified sense of direction. The car looks as if styling cues were borrowed from BMW in the front, and Infiniti G-coupe in the rear.

The new Accord coupe, following the inexorable trend of the auto business, has regrettably gained size and weight. A three-inch longer wheelbase and slight increase in size add up to a 300-pound addition to the weight printout.

I think that the ultra-low profile tires being mounted on tall rims are another automotive marketing fad, generating profits but not performance.

But even Honda is following the trend, offering 18-inch rims on V6 models.

Of course Honda's status symbol is still under the hood, not on it.


A combination of fuel efficiency and performance from the new 268 hp V-6 is the strongest aspect of the new 2008 Honda Coupe. Variable cylinder management technology transparently turns the engine into a 3, 4, or 6 cylinder depending on driver demands.


This arrangement allows the automatic transmission equipped 2008 Accord Coupe to achieve EPA ratings of 19/28 mpg.

Coefficient of drag fell by one point to .33, still too much fuel wasting drag.

Reviewers and new owners report average economy in the low twenties overall.

The V6 six-speed manual transmission coupe lacks the cylinder management feature, and looses 3 mpg.

Accord is not a sports car: 60 percent of its 3,400 lb. curb weight is over the front axle.

But V6 zero to 60 mph times are expected to be around 6.5 seconds, more than adequate for normal freeway use.

The 190-hp 2.4-liter inline-4 cylinder coupe is EPA rated 22/31 mpg with a manual transmission.

Plenty of safety equipment is standard: side curtain and front-side airbags, active front head restraints and electronic stability control.

The restyling has accentuated the typical coupe's wide c-pillar blind spot.

Early feedback suggests the navigation option could be skipped.

The '08 Accord has a small price increase over 2007.

Entry-level LX trim starts around $22,000 and EX-L V6 with leather and navigation, quickly reaches the low thirties.

There will be plenty of advertising money pushing demand in the hotly contested mid-size space. Few dealers are going much below MSRP until this contest cools.

With several different coupe driveline/trim/color combinations being built, early buyers are finding it difficult to get exactly the car they want.

The upside is that a few Honda dealers have begun dropping the additional dealer markups on new Civics.

Accord Coupe's combination of style, comfort, quality, performance, and resale value makes it a competitor to be considered by anyone who doesn't carry passengers in the back seat.

No doubt the 2008 is better than last year's Accord, but it's not the style and substance breakthrough I was hoping Honda could deliver.

"Please don't make me dream alone....."

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