Sales, Accolades and Manufacturing History - The Honda Accord

The Honda Accord, currently in its eighth generation, is one of Honda's best-selling vehicles worldwide and remains one of the top-selling automobiles in the U.S. The Accord was launched in 1976 with subsequent major re-designs in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2008. More than 11 million Accords have been sold in the U.S. since 1976.

Since its introduction nearly 36 years ago, the Accord has been honored for its quality, reliability and superior drivability. Car and Driver magazine has awarded the Honda Accord its prestigious and highly competitive annual '10Best Cars' award a record 26 times. No other vehicle in the award's history has been honored as frequently as the Accord. The Accord was also recognized for the highest initial quality in the mid-size sedan segment in the 2011 J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey.

In 2012, Honda will celebrate 30 years of Accord production in the U.S. The first Accord Sedan rolled off the Marysville, Ohio assembly line on November 1, 1982 and was the first Japanese-nameplate car assembled in the U.S. Since then, more than eight million Accords have been produced5 at Honda's first U.S. auto plant in Marysville, Ohio. More about Honda in America is available at http://www.hondainamerica.com.

Want a Chance to Win-A-Corvette For a Year

Hendrickcars.com will be the primary sponsor for the HendrickMotorsports No.5 Chevrolet and  Kasey Kahne this Saturday night, August 24^th at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.  

Plus, the No. 5 will be promoting the just launched (yes, it’s live on the site today) Win-A-Corvette For a Year sweepstakes promotion. In addition, Hendrickcars.com will be the sponsor again next week for the Labor Day weekend race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 2.

Here's the TV schedule:

Bristol: Saturday, August 25 at 7:00 pm, ET on ABC

Atlanta: Sunday, September 2 at 6:30 pm, ET on ESPN

Sweepstakes entrants will attempt to correctly guess Kasey Kahne’s average lap speed on lap 163 (halfway point) of the Atlanta race. The entrant with the guess closest to the actual speed, without going over, will be declared the winner.

Official rules are provided on the “About Us” page of www.Hendrickcars.com.

Hendrickcars.com launched the HENDRICKCARS.COM’S 2012 CORVETTE YEAR-LONG TEST DRIVE PROMOTION. Hendrick Motorsports included the promotion in their weekly e-mail to media on Tuesday.  Driver Kasey Kahne will also be featured in a pre-race interview Saturday on SPEED’s “RaceDay.”

Kahne and Rick Hendrick will also be doing interviews throughout the week between the two races promoting the contest. Mr. Hendrick will be featured on SIRIUS Satellite Radio on Monday, August 27 and on SPEED’s “RaceDay” on Sunday, Sept. 2. Kahne will also be on SIRIUS Satellite Radio on Tuesday, August 28, as well as several radio stations in the Atlanta area that day. He’ll shoot a SPEED “RaceHub” feature in front of the Corvette from Hendrick Motorsports on Tuesday as well.

For the Atlanta race, the two Atlanta area Chevrolet dealerships Rick Hendrick Chevrolet in Duluth and Rick Hendrick Chevrolet in Buford, as well as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet in Tallahassee, are running radio ads around the promotion with a trailer from Kasey Kahne. Plus, the No. 5 show car will be at each Atlanta dealership leading up to race weekend in Atlanta. On race day, the two Atlanta Chevrolet stores, along with the new Dale Earnhardt Jr. dealerships and Gwinnett Place Honda, will have an employee event at Atlanta Motor Speedway with visits from Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Mr. Hendrick.

The actual 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, worth $58,000, that one lucky fan will win, will be on display at Atlanta Motor Speedway throughout the race weekend. There will also be two iPad kiosks available at the Corvette display for fans to make their guesses and register to win on site.

A Public debut at a hot-air balloon festival - 2013 Honda Accord

And we're waiting for the first to arrive.  September?  Maybe?  And while we wait....according to Car & Driver..

Honda has started unveiling the redesigned 2013 Accord sedan and coupe, the company’s duo of mid-size moneymakers, by releasing two photos of each and a skosh of info. We already know a fair amount about what to expect from the new Accord—including details on its conventional engines, hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, and infotainment technology—much of which we summarized when we spied both the coupe and sedan.

As for the new photos, you probably howled the same thing we did when you saw them: “They look the same!” Still, that’s hardly a surprise—the concept that dropped at this year’s Detroit auto show resembled a slightly tarted-up contemporary Accord coupe and the aforementioned spy shots revealed that the general shape of both the two- and four-door would carry over.

At least the new Accord eschews most of the current model’s clumsier detailing, including the sedan’s bustle tail and bulging lamps. A more upright grille and a hood with a slight bulge lend the front end a more purposeful look, while the sides are slightly more sculpted. Out back, the sedan’s taillights now extend to the trunklid, making the Accord’s hindquarters look wider and lower. Just as the outgoing coupe was easier on the eyes than the sedan, so is the new one. Although its front-end now more closely mimics the sedan’s, the rear styling remains quite a bit different. The new coupe’s taillights are slimmer than before, and work in concert with reflectors set wide in the bumper to perform an optical widening trick.

The headlights on both Accord variants are sleeker and a strip of LED daytime running lights will be available on more posh models, which also can be fitted with full-LED exterior lighting. (The rear view also shows that Honda will adopt the Touring name; it currently uses that badge on its top-spec Odyssey and Pilot models.) It’s worth mentioning that LED headlights aren’t currently available in the mid-size-sedan segment; the tech still is largely the province of luxury cars.

Honda did not release any hard figures along with these images, but claims the new Accord has more interior and trunk space than before despite being shorter in overall length. The company also says the car will be “sportier.” Ignoring its visual similarity to the current one—altered dimensions or no, the resemblance is so strong that it’s hard to call the new look even evolutionary—we’re keen to find out if Big H speaks the truth. Only the four-cylinder version of the once all-conquering Accord made our 2012 10Best Cars roster, and it’s suffered losses in recent comparison tests.

We’ll drive the new Accord—and probably see its interior, too!—in the near future, so watch this space for our impressions.View Photo Gallery

Thanks Car And Driver

Next Generation Cruise Control - Baseline Analysis

Having just taken a road trip, crossing the state of Florida in my 2010 Honda Insight I achieved my personal best for fuel economy on my return from Boca Raton to Bradenton.  At my first chance I enabled/set my cruise control. 

This is the scenic route, which lends itself to a diverse set of driving terrain and protocol.  Fuel economy as it turns out  is a multidimensional phenomenom.  So claims of high fuel economy can be affected by a myriad of factors.  For starters and for the purposes of this posts I'll keep it simple.  I won't bring in climatic factors, altitude, or grade...  as much as I'd like to do that, I will stick to the basic metrics and variables: time, distance, speed, fuel consumption.

This is one of those, 'here's what I learned on my most recent roadtrip' posts.

And this photo nearly says it all.  What is not shown is the average speed for this sample.  (by the way that figure is unknown)  Ha Ha....let's see, could it be 191.7 miles / hours driving?  Hmmmm...roughly 3 hours...64 mph?  Wow! 

So here's what I learned.  Cruise control may not be the best way to maximize fuel efficiency.  I found that I could do better managing my speed and adjusting according to all those factors mentioned earlier.  However....the convenience of cruise control has that advantage...it's convenient.  So I would use it when the was no grade and my instantaneous mpg hovered over 50 mpg.  When approaching a small town, like Indiantown and Arcadia, I'd go into manual mode...likewise I'd cancel cruise in fast moving traffic situations.  When I needed to accelerate I learned to avoid multiple taps on the ACC, that is, if I needed to increase my speed by 3 or 4 mph, I would tap 1 and go a mile before tapping for my next increment.  So to increase my speed 3 mph...I'd travel 2 miles. 

Unfortunately there's also a 'social' factor in maximizing fuel economy.  That is I found other drivers will tailgate, make gestures, flash their lights, honk their horns, until they had a safe window to pass me.  Even when I was going the speed limit or greater.  I felt a little guilty for slowing them down..but that may have to be the price one pays to acheive that 50 mpg milestone.

Now here's the exciting 'Eureka' moment I had.  I realized that I could outperform the cruise control when it comes to saving fuel.  AND you don't have to be a genius to do that...AND soon I'd bet we'll have a next-generation cruise control.  And with all the intrumentation and metrics that are available on the hybrids we have the technology to have an I-ECO mode for cruise control, or what I'd called an intelligent mode.  With sensors like those that enable Grade Logic Control, and conventional cruise control, to VSA, and ECO-Assist....this next generation cruise control MUST be in the works now....DON'T YOU THINK?

2013 Accord true to it's commitment to Fun!

The word about the 2013 Honda is trickling in.  We don't have the exact date yet, nonetheless we're expecting that the redesigned 2013 Honda Accord will go on sale this fall. 

We're expecting a shorter length,a new family of engines  and a continuously variable transmission(CVT) on select models.  These are indeed huge engineering changes for our signature car. 

Honda released the first images of the production version of the Accord sedan and coupe recently but provided few specific details about the cars. Here's what
the word is on the street. 
1) The 2013 sedan -- weighing less than the outgoing model, it will have
2)  more passenger and cargo room -- features nearly
3) flush windshield glass,
4) flush-mounted windshield wipers and
5)available LED daytime running lights,headlights and taillights.

These changes are solidly aimed at those U.S. Honda buyers that have been attracted to the current Hyundai Sonata,Kia Optima,Toyota Camry and 2013 Ford
Fusion.   This Accord is expected to be the "most sculpted and dynamic Accord ever."

From the photos one can glean the side flanking and rear-window kink at the C-pillar resemble the styling of BMW's 3 series. Yet the front and rear fascias clearly signal a Honda product. And it's not always just about style. It's about advancing the technology too.  With that, in addition to a new sportier styling,the 2013 Accord is being used to introduce several key pieces of Honda technology. The first generation of the automaker's "Earth Dreams" engines -- offering improved fuel economy and lower emissions -- debut featuring
direct injection and double overhead cams. A hallmark of the Accord since its 1976 U.S. debut as a hatchback -- leading fuel economy -- is under attack by rivals such as the Sonata and Camry. The base engine will be a 2.4-liter inline-four with more than 181 hp and 177 pound-feet of torque,Honda said in January. That would mean a slight horsepower increase but considerably more torque,with at least 10 percent better fuel economy. 

All four-cylinder versions of the Accord equipped with an automatic transmission -- a huge percentage of the model's sales mix-- will be equipped with a
continuously variable transmission. 

A revamped V-6 Honda has also re-engineered the Accord's 3.5-liter V-6 engine and paired it with a new six-speed automatic transmission or an available
six-speed manual gearbox. Honda has said the V-6 will produce more horsepower than the current model while targeting class-leading fuel economy and an
overall gain in fuel efficiency over the 2012 model.

Word has it that the 2013 Accord will also be offered with a two-motor plug-in hybrid system that features three modes –all-electric,gasoline-electric and
direct-drive. What inquiring minds still want to know is what the latest Accord looks like inside. Honda did not release images of the 2013 Accord's interior ,but
somewhat reliable sources say say the cabin is an upgrade from the current generation.

While the coupe will remain similarly sized,Honda says the sedan will feature a more compact exterior footprint. Both models will feature "increased passenger
and cargo space," Honda said in a statement. The automaker said previously the 2013 Accord would be offered with lane departure warning,forward collision
warning technology,blind spot detection,and a standard rearview back-up camera. In January,John Mendel,head of sales for American Honda,vowed the
ninth-generation Accord would "raise the bar again through a tour de force of new Honda powertrain and safety technologies,geared to ensure that Honda and
the Accord continue to lead in fuel economy,safety and fun-to-drive performance."