Consumer Reports FINALLY Smiles On Honda, But Is The New Accord Too Little Too Late?

Look up “pressure” in the dictionary and somewhere, a few entries down, you’ll see this: “Redesigning the Honda Accord.”

Not only is the Accord Honda’s best-seller here, it also competes against an avalanche of rather competent family sedans. It doesn’t help that recent years have brought charges (including from us) that Honda has lost its mojo with a string of so-so redesigns, culminating in the decidedly lackluster 2012 Honda Civic. So saying that Honda has a lot riding on the redesigned 2013 Accord is an understatement.

The good news: Based on what we’ve seen so far from our experiences with two Accords borrowed from Honda, the new car is no Civic. The Accord should certainly hold its own in both the marketplace, and barring unforeseen surprises, in our Ratings.

 

cidflekken - 9/13/2012 3:01:05 PM

+9 Boost

What's with all the fabricated drama here? "Too little too late"??? WTF. Seriously. Have you seen Honda's sales numbers? Despite all the "harsh" criticism of Consumer Reports, Honda continues to outsell the majority of its competition. The Civic, after having almost now 2 years of bad reviews from CR, has outsold the Elantra by 80k units this year and is the 3rd highest selling car. The Accord is now very securely in 2nd place in car sales behind the Camry, despite having, BY FAR, the lowest fleet sales percentages (not to mention the residual effects of the tsunami from earlier this year). And Acura is outright trouncing Infiniti and Audi in sales.

lexworld - 9/13/2012 4:46:37 PM

+5 Boost

...Good point -cidchicken!

nguyenvuminh - 9/14/2012 4:52:32 AM

+5 Boost

Too little too late 009? Why don't you diary your calendar for Jan 2014 and see the 2013 sales result of Honda Accord against your beloved Hyundai Sonata. I'm not a Honda fan but certainly appreciate the tremendous job they (and Toyota, another company that I'm not a fan of) have done defending against onslaught after onslaught of competitors over the last 20 years.

Codeus - 9/14/2012 7:56:31 AM

-4 Boost

The accord and civic still look like muddled crap. I like to peak out of the rock from time to time Cid lol.

irishmike - 9/14/2012 12:31:06 PM

+6 Boost

After checking out the new Accord, I predict we'll see huge success. Honda has held the line on prices and added many features. It looks much better, inside and out. Nissan and Toyota better plan on offering huge incentives in order to keep up.

mini22 - 9/16/2012 9:25:55 PM

+1 Boost

ninteen-I agree with you. While the motoring press panned the new Civic (and in my opinion rightly so)What hurt Honda sales were the earthquakes. Once Honda was able to recover sales of the Civic shot back up(inferior engineering and all). There is no such thing as too late unless your about to go bankrupt or were in a position like the
"Saab Story". The Accord will do very well in the marketplace. It's certainly a better product than the previous one was.