Accord hybrid - kiss it goodbye

San Jose Mercury News http://doiop.com/jukf3i

On Tuesday, Honda said it would drop the Accord hybrid
http://doiop.com/Accord_hybrid from its lineup after the 2007 model
year.

The decision wasn't a surprise, as sales of the Accord hybrid have been
tepid since it arrived in 2004. Most analysts blame the model's failure
on Honda's decision to pair electric components with a V-6 engine
instead of with a higher-mileage four-cylinder gasoline motor.

In the United States, Honda dealers sold just 5,598 Accord hybrids last
year, and just 439 last month. Rival Toyota sold 24,009 Prius hybrids
in May, the car's best sales month in history, and 106,971 in 2006...

Not only did the Accord not get the fuel economy of the Prius, it was
more expensive, too...

Honda dropped another hybrid, the two-seat Insight, in 2006.

That leaves it with just one hybrid, the Civic, http://doiop.com/Civic-
hybrid at a time when that market segment continues to bloom...

 

That's probably true.I think Honda was going for a performance hybrid,
which does make sense. But hybrid buyers just want mpg.

 

I think the MR-2 Hybrid will sell well, if it comes out. What hybrid
buyers *don't* look for is powerful, large-ish sedans that get only
decent MPG, at a premium price.

 

They should have made an Acura version instead of the Accord. That is what
Toyota is doing for Lexus.

 

The performance hybrid does make a lot of sense. Performance car
drivers are willing to pay a premium for increased performance. The
fact that you might save enough on gas (premium gas, no less) to
offset the cost is a bonus. The low rpm boost would complement the
high rpm horsepower of the performance engine. It adds a little to
the techno factor that appeals to some performance drivers.

To sum up, HEY HONDA, WHERE'S MY INTEGRA GS-R HYBRID???

 

Dear Mr. McGrew,

thank you for contacting Honda North America.
Heavy pigs we make come only in midsize front wheel drive packages.
we are trying hard not to bastardize too much the lightweight
platforms people like[d]. may we suggest that you consider a civic
hybrid and pimp it out to your liking? Unfortunately all the other
perverts are shopping at ToMoCo and we see not much demand
for the product you are requesting.

Yours faithfully,
Honda Motor Company PR department

 

there's hardly any room under the hood for the current GSR motor,where are
they going to put the electric motor/generator? (and how would you work on
it?)

I -do- wish Honda would bring back the Integra and Prelude,don't really
care about a hybrid electric.
Honda/Acura doesn't currently make any autos I would be interested in.

 

Honda/Acura doesn't currently make any autos I would be interested in.


Certainly not their supposed pickup, the Ridgeline.

 

Performance buyers want PERFORMANCE, not just a half-second off the
standard model's quarter mile time.

As done it was an interesting play by Honda, but it never made a lot
of sense or had much odds of success. I salute the effort, sort of.
Probably would sell more on the Accord 4, but better yet to keep it on
the Civic, and maybe move it up to the Acuras for laffs.

J.

 

Well, the GS-R has been out of production for about seven years so
obviously I am talking about a new car. I haven't checked under the
hood of the current Civic Si, but I am sure it is tight. Still, that
is the beauty of the Honda IMA, it is very compact adding only about 3
or 4 inches of width to the drive train. Seems like it would be
possible for the Honda team, especially if the next generation Civic
was designed with this in mind.

In this category, only the Civic Si is a contender. Not bad, but not
attractive enough to get me out of my '94 GS-R.

 

there's no reason why there can't be switchable modes;economy and
performance.With an indicator light on the dash,preferably color-coded.

 

With hybridization, the two come together. The essence of hybridization is
to separate engine power from acceleration performance; in a serial hybrid
(none in production today) fuel economy and engine power have nothing at all
to do with performance. If the engine is ripped out of the car the
performance improves because of the reduced weight, but the range suffers
badly.

Honda's IMA is a parallel system but the principle applies. That they can
make a car with spectacular performance and impressive economy is old news -
six years old in fact: http://world.honda.com/Tokyo2001/auto/DUALNOTE/ .
The Accord had just too little in the way of electric power to make a
difference in either economy or performance.

Mike

 

I thought it was a dumb idea from day 1 and I said so. Time has proved
me right.

 

I don't know about the concept, but the implementation failed. The
cost/benefit just wasn't there.