AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Honda Supersizes the Accord
2008 Redesigned Model is Unveiled Today

This morning Honda officially lifted the press embargo on pictures of the redesigned 2008 Honda Accord. Honda also issued its press release on the new model. The new Accord has grown to the point that it is now a "large" car, with 120 cubic feet of interior room. You can now undo that belt buckle a notch as you get behind the wheel. The new Accord is three inches longer, an inch taller and an inch wider than its predecessor. There are three new engines including two flavors of VTEC 4-cylinders at 180 and 200 horsepower, and a V-6 that matches the Camry's 268 horsepower.

Although Honda is looked upon as being the most environmentally friendly automaker, the new Accord does nothing to move forward the anti-global-warming cause. The best mileage ratings for the new Accord are 22-31 on the 2008 scale, equal to or worse than the outgoing models even when making adjustments to take into consideration the more optimistic 2007 EPA scale.

As far as styling is concerned, It appears that the sedan has gone luxoboat. The most distinctive thing to it is that it is pretty nondistinctive. The coupe is generic also, at least within its own idiom.

In summary, my first impression is that Honda left some room at the table for other makers to come in and attack the Accord from below. There should be opportunities to underprice the Accord and to sell smaller, more economical sedans. Ironically, the next big sedan introduction is set to be Chevrolet's new Malibu. The numbers on the Malibu should be almost identical to its platformmate, the Saturn Aura. In other words, instead of maintaining a niche a half a size smaller than the Accord, the Malibu will become more of a direct competitor, and it will become more of a badge-engineered twin to the Saturn Aura. The Aura's sales have been below GM's estimates. It's hard to see how General Motors will bring anything new to the table without competing fiercely on price.