Did you recently rush to buy a new vehicle before tariff-related price hikes? A reporter is looking to speak with shoppers who felt pressure to act quickly due to expected cost increases; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com for more details by 4/24.
Honda Accord Changes through the Generations
fourteen14
Member Posts: 85
Having read all the hoopla about the bigger, stronger, better, prettier 2008 Accord, I thought that it may be fun to step back 32 years to recall how it all started - with the first Accord, the 1976!
I bought my shiny new Silver 5-speed in November 1975. Although the sticker price was $3,995 plus $50 Dealer Prep, I had to pay an extra $500 just to get on the waiting list. As it turned out, that was some of the best money I ever overspent!
The '76 only came as a two door hatchback in either Blue, Gold, or Silver. A 2-speed semi-automatic transmission was an option for $160, but certainly not on mine! You could also get a roof rack for $47, a tonneau cover for $28, a clock for $26, and bumper overriders (whatever they are!) for $52.
The SOHC 1.6L engine produced 68 HP! (Not 268 like the new Accord, or even 168, but 68 little Japanese ponies!!)
It sat on 13x4.5J steel wheels with 155 SR-13 radial tires on a 93.7” wheelbase, was 162.8" long, 63.1" wide, and 52.3" high, and weighed 2024# with it’s 13 gallon gas tank full.
Only 13 gallons, but EPA said that you could get 31 MPG in the City and 44 MPG on the Highway! (I used to commuted from Saginaw, MI to Rochester, NY at 80-90 MPH, non-stop, on one tank of gas!)
Comfortable cloth seats with 36.5" of headroom, manual choke, AM/FM radio, no standard A/C ($370 dealer installed!), no power steering, no ABS, no traction control system (in those days it was called ‘the accelerator’!), and no air bags (except for the occasional mother-in-law in the back seat!)!
Performance (Road & Track):
0-30 = 4.8
0-60 = 15.4
¼ Mile: = 19.5 at 66.5 (R&T: “Performance off the line isn’t exactly stunning, though the Accord will flat outrun a 1.6 Chevette.)
Top Speed = 101 (on a very long, very straight, very flat road!)
60-0 Braking = 156’
80-0 Braking = 257’
Overall Brake Rating = Very Good (!)
Lateral G = 0.737
All in all, the 1976 Accord was a great car at the time, and I would rank it as one of the best that I have ever owned! (R&T: “So what more can we say about the (new 1976) Accord? Simply that it is probably the best automotive buy in the U.S. today ) A lot has changed, but a lot has remained the same!!
I bought my shiny new Silver 5-speed in November 1975. Although the sticker price was $3,995 plus $50 Dealer Prep, I had to pay an extra $500 just to get on the waiting list. As it turned out, that was some of the best money I ever overspent!
The '76 only came as a two door hatchback in either Blue, Gold, or Silver. A 2-speed semi-automatic transmission was an option for $160, but certainly not on mine! You could also get a roof rack for $47, a tonneau cover for $28, a clock for $26, and bumper overriders (whatever they are!) for $52.
The SOHC 1.6L engine produced 68 HP! (Not 268 like the new Accord, or even 168, but 68 little Japanese ponies!!)
It sat on 13x4.5J steel wheels with 155 SR-13 radial tires on a 93.7” wheelbase, was 162.8" long, 63.1" wide, and 52.3" high, and weighed 2024# with it’s 13 gallon gas tank full.
Only 13 gallons, but EPA said that you could get 31 MPG in the City and 44 MPG on the Highway! (I used to commuted from Saginaw, MI to Rochester, NY at 80-90 MPH, non-stop, on one tank of gas!)
Comfortable cloth seats with 36.5" of headroom, manual choke, AM/FM radio, no standard A/C ($370 dealer installed!), no power steering, no ABS, no traction control system (in those days it was called ‘the accelerator’!), and no air bags (except for the occasional mother-in-law in the back seat!)!
Performance (Road & Track):
0-30 = 4.8
0-60 = 15.4
¼ Mile: = 19.5 at 66.5 (R&T: “Performance off the line isn’t exactly stunning, though the Accord will flat outrun a 1.6 Chevette.)
Top Speed = 101 (on a very long, very straight, very flat road!)
60-0 Braking = 156’
80-0 Braking = 257’
Overall Brake Rating = Very Good (!)
Lateral G = 0.737
All in all, the 1976 Accord was a great car at the time, and I would rank it as one of the best that I have ever owned! (R&T: “So what more can we say about the (new 1976) Accord? Simply that it is probably the best automotive buy in the U.S. today ) A lot has changed, but a lot has remained the same!!
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Neat performance info!
When I see a car that I like, or especially one that I buy, I collect all the info that I can on it. In the old days that meant ripping out road tests and collecting brochures. Today it's mostly online info. BTW, when I find something interesting today, I copy the pictures as JPGs, and copy the online brochures and road tests into MS WORD, since they don't stay available online for very long!
EBAY is a great source of real life pictures. I have 243 NSX pictures, for example.
I also have the paper Car & Driver '76 Accord road test in which they said: "It is one of the finest all-around combinations of size, comfort, handling, and performance that we have seen."
When I sell one of my cars, I always include an original brochure. Most new owners are thrilled to have one!
Did you ever own another Accord? If so, any chance of a report on that one?
PS: My '76 didn't seem slow to me at the time, and I passed a lot more cars than passed me! On my commute across Canada from Saginaw to Rochester, a few larger, more powerful, and faster cars would pass me, but later I would spot most of them at a gas pump in a rest area, and usually would never see them again!!
Fortunately, I never had to make an emergency stop and never had a collision with that car, so it would seem that ABS and SRS were not needed!!
That's the one which committed us to Honda we've had 7 others since, I think? Once thought about contacting Honda marketing as we have now three in the household and probably a 4th in a couple years when our son begins to drive.
I always get a little uncomfortable when someone contends that: "X is the best because that is the only one I ever use, and I only use X because it is the best!"
Honda makes very good products, but you owe it to yourself to shop around to confirm that X is indeed the best. When my wife wanted a new car, we, of course, looked at the new Acura TL since she liked the TL that she had. After checking out several other cars, we were amazed to find that this time our needs were best fulfilled by the Azera - an excellent car and a great value!
In 16 years I will most likely have had a half dozen subsequent cars! With the 10 year warranty I could keep the Azera a long time, but that's no fun! With the changes and improvements in cars that appear almost daily, I am currently looking forward to seeing such diverse new cars as the 2009 Hyundai Genesis, the 2008 Infiniti EX35, the 2008 Smart ForTwo, and the 2009 500 hp Magnum SRT!! For me a car is an emotional thing, not an appliance like a refrigerator that you keep as long as it cools your beer!
If you drove an Azera, I'm sure that you would be very pleasantly surprised, and it would keep your beer cool for as long as you want!
PS: Our other car is a 2005 (Hemi) Magnum.
So, if one really takes care of a vehicle, I suspect even Hyundai will still be running for a long time, as I'll wager that Hyundai is more reliable than a SAAB.
I, too, owned an early Accord - 1978. Great car, but eventually lost the battle with the Rust Monster. It was replaced with the '85 SAAB. Unfortunately, most early Hondas had rust problems here in the salt-laden winters of the midwest.
You can make just about any car last 10 or more years, but after that time will it still be a car you WANT to drive? My father has a 71 Impala, and my brother has a 79 Ford truck. They are both still rolling, but not something you enjoy driving at this point. My 12 year old Accord was still in great shape when I sold it, and everything worked just like it did when I bought it.
Link to Article
Now do they mean the Dodge Magnum WAGON or the Chrysler 300 SEDAN????
As time goes by, if it is the Magnum wagon, my '05 Red Magnum with every option should become ever more unique and desirable!! In the last half century I have owned many sharp and/or hot cars, but the Magnum has received more unsolicited praise than the rest have combined!
It's the Magnum that's being axed. Personally, I feel like the interior of that car should never have gotten past quality control.
Back to the Accord, shall we?
Well, you are comparing a compact sport-sedan to a full-size wagon!
I'm 6'4" 195 and haven't had a problem in any Accord, however, and I have REALLY long legs. The TL is actually a compact according to the EPA.
But, most important to me is that people really admire my car. In Chapel Hill, NC TL's are thicker than fleas. I could be driving the finest, most expensive TL ever built, and no one would give it a second, or maybe even a first, glance! (My son was interested in an Infiniti FX, so we went to look at one. I swear that the Infiniti salesman asked more questions about my Magnum than we asked about the FX. After a test drive of the V8 FX, we both left assured that the FX wasn't the answer! We saved a lot of money that day!!)
Don't be fooled into thinking that because a car has low sales numbers that that means that it isn't an excellent car! By that criteria, Ferraris and Lamborghinis would be terrible cars because there aren't many of them sold!
I am not much concerned about what 'class' a car falls into, but rather the comfort, performance, and value that it has to offer! It will take something truly spectacular to get me out of the Hemi!!
PS: According to the Acura website the TL is 'Mid-Size' and the Magnum is a 'Sport Utility'!
.
That is the title of this thread. What the H*** do the Magnum and TL have to do with it?
Which brings us to you jumping in with absolutely nothing positive or constructive to say about anything except that you don't like the direction that the thread has gone! This thread is open for comments, hopefully of a useful or informatative nature. However, if you only want to whine, please do it somewhere else!!
Anyone with interesting or humorous info about old Accords or related info, or even unrelated info, are more than welcome, but please keep your whining to yourself!!
I just read a review about the new Smart ForTwo, and that it does 0-60 in the 12s, and how that was so glacial! I wonder how many "76 Accords, which did 0-60 in the 15s, would be sold today if Honda was building them today!!?? As benjaminh pointed out, in those days anything below 12 was "considered almost sports car territory"!! Today's tiny ForTwo only weighs about 200# less than the '76 Accord! Does anyone have the weight and other specs for the '76 Civic??
We could increase MPG today by cutting weight, size, and horsepower, but would a light, small, slow car sell?? The new Accord is heavier and more powerful than my '95 Pontiac Gran Prix GTP, which was a big, high performance car only a few years ago!!
.
And yes, I realize that the topic was slightly altered from when you started this, but the point of that was to make the conversation more inclusive and more sustainable. So that's where we need to focus.
I'd think they'll eventually have just one version of the 2.4L. Either that, or up the power of the EX model when the new TSX is introduced, upping the EX to 205 or so, with the LX getting the 190hp version. If it is cost effective, it would be a likely change I believe.
I'd also like to see LEDs reintroduced to the Accord.
If I were to buy one, affording it is another story, but I'd take the taillights on the sedan and match them with the headlights on the coupe. My preferences are just that preferences, but other than that I'll be curious to know how mileage will be when they bring the diesels over here. Although diesels aren't really a good fit for the midwest, diesel tends to get up in the winter if you're not careful. Maybe that's changed can't be sure.
Anyway as for changes I'd like to see, other than those pointed out above, would perhaps be stupid, but I think they might get some sales out of it. Anyway my idea would be to do what Ford did and badge a crossover, as well as the car itself, with the Accord name, well Ford did it with the Taurus, but you know what I mean. The mechanical aspects should stay the same or similar, but I know that crossovers can get decent mileage. I've seen people in here talk about more versatility, what could be more versatile than a crossover, slightly larger than a CR-V, but smaller than the Pilot and not as weird as the Element.
Again I'm not trying to offend anyone, but ideas are ideas.