Minneapolis Street Sighting: Honda Accord hatchback

While I wrote yesterday about how Honda did make fun-to-drive cars, economy-minded vehicles were--and still are--the forefront of the company--and the Accord is proof of this. In production since 1976, the Accord is Honda's most popular product, second only to the compact Civic sedan; like the Accord, the Accord has a history of being available in a vast array of bodystyles. The generation that really put Honda on the map was the third generation.

Inotruduced for America in the fall of 1985, this generation of Accord was available in coupe, hatcback, and sedan bodystyles, all with fliplights. As with the rest of the Honda line-up of this era, the third-generation of Honda's perennial best-seller still looks good today. It looks very sedate, and very Honda; its front end styling is shared with the Prelude I wrote about yesterday, as is its integrated trunk spoiler-ette.

While the Accord of old gets great gas mileage, even by today's standards, it doesn't even have half of the horsepower the new one. The top engine in this generation is a 2.0L four with 120 horsepower; granted the old car is roughly 2500 pounds tops, but still. Now, I don't even think you can buy a new Civic with only 120 horses. Man, how times have changed.

 On the surface, this poor old Accord looked fairly rough; flat paint, and obvious surface rust, and missing hubcaps. In all honesty, though, these are all common Honda problems, especially for this vintage. Upon closer inspection, I'd say this one has aged about as well as a Minnesota Honda can. I did note the quarter rust, and even in Kansas, these have rusted in that particular spot. Ditto the hubcaps; even when I was little, I remember seeing fliplight Accords with missing hubcaps quite a bit moreso than contemporary Nissans and Toyotas. Maybe Honda had a problem with cheapening the cars for the US-market?

I did quite like shooting this, as this is my favorite style Accord, and in one of my favorite period Honda colors; if I could have a fliplight Accord, it would be a hatch like this one, in this color, but perfectly restored. Yes, I did just put "Accord" and "restored" in the same sentence. Twice. Sue me.