As a car guy from the capital of American cars, I unfortunately have less experience with Hondas than do many of CC’s readers; however, that didn’t stop me from ogling a bevy of pictures of this great-looking 1988 or 1989 Honda Accord DX Coupe, which Hyperpack recently posted on the CC Cohort.
When I was a kid of nine or ten, I remember my dad taking me on an outing to a Honda dealership in the next town over, an unusual treat. Honestly, I don’t remember if he or I instigated the trip; it truly could have gone either way, but I remember poring over the brochures for the third-generation Honda Accord, memorizing the differences in trim between models and basically falling in love for the day. I have to admit that I spent an hour of my Labor Day searching my basement for the brochure without success. It’s got to be down there somewhere, and I certainly hope this isn’t one of those memories with a little spin on it.
The 1986 and 1987 Accords (in the United States) were available in a handsome sedan and this trim hatchback, both of which had aerodynamically angular styling that seems to look better every year. I’ll come right out and say it; I think the third-generation Accord is the best-looking Honda ever, and I’m not sure you could change a line on it without somehow mucking it up. Like many Hondas, it was also a great car. In its compendium on the new 1986 models, Auto ’86, Consumer Guide listed a car’s attributes as “for” or “against.” The Accord rated highly in performance, mileage, roadability, ride, workmanship, and comfort. The one gripe? Road noise. I could live with that.
I kind of want to buy one just to drive and enjoy for a couple months, but I can’t have everything.
For 1988, Honda freshened the front and rear of the Accord and introduced the new Coupe, available in DX or LXi trim levels, and to me, it’s the ultimate third-gen.
The DX shown here had a 98-horsepower 1955cc four cylinder with a single-overhead camshaft and a two-barrel carburetor(!). The LXi got a 120-horsepower fuel injected variant of the same engine, in addition to bigger tires/wheels and more features.
There’s a little glare on the dashboard of this DX, but don’t you wish that interiors were this simple and functional? This car has the optional four-speed automatic, which provided fuel mileage of 24 city and 30 highway, according to the EPA. The bucket seats look a little flat, but the upholstery looks as tough as nails and I’ll bet you could figure out all the controls within a few minutes of sitting down in the driver’s seat.
The steering wheel even looks cool.
Here’s a top-of-the-line Accord LXi coupe for comparison, a 27,000-mile example which recently sold on Bring a Trailer for $8,000. The upholstery is a bit more plush, but the general layout of the dashboard and controls are the same. Coincidentally, the 1988 Accord Coupe measures in at just under 180 inches in length, or in other words, within a few inches (depending on model) of a 2026 Honda Civic. Therefore, the buyer of this 1988 Accord got a new-Civic sized car with 27,000 miles on it for eight grand. I’d be sorely tempted to make it my daily driver.
This particular Accord that Hyperpack captured in Pennsylvania is showing some of the rust that is so prevalent up north, but it’s far from a lost cause considering that this Accord is approaching 40 years of age. Would a little sympathetic touching up and paint matching be worth the effort? The serious rust seems to be limited to the rear quarter panel wheel arches, but there’s always something hiding underneath.
Kind of like those cool pop-up headlights, which are just another reason to choose this Honda Accord Coupe as the best-looking Honda ever. The only Honda experience I’ve had aside from that trip to the dealer with Dad is working as a Honda salesman for a grand total of four hours during a “lost year” of my early 20s. I knew right then that I didn’t want to be a salesman, but I still got to drive a 2000 Civic Si and, yes, an Accord Coupe. Nice cars both, but I don’t think they measured up to the simple elegance of this one.
Related Reading
My 1986 Honda Accord – First Taste Of Freedom In The Tan Sedan (by Tyler Schild)
Curbside Classic: 1986-1989 Honda Accord – Ignoring The Future In Favor Of The Present (by Perry Shoar)
COAL: 1988 Honda Accord LX – Chapter 13, How I Married A Keeper Twice In One Day (by JP Cavanaugh)
Our second new Honda -ever- was our ’86 DX hatchback. Traded it in at 220K miles and it was still running great. New cam belt every (approx) 80K), on schedule and only one (!) new clutch at 180K miles. Best quality car we have ever owned — we always figured that it was a “Wednesday” car and that the workers sung the company song with vigor each morning, and had very fresh pressed white uniforms on during the build!! That hatchback would absorb a lot of cargo and was SO handy. About 30+ mpg on the road. Thanks for the memories. 🙂
It would be a shame to purchase one of these with the automatic! The manual transmission in almost any Honda of this era is a joy to use. As the owner of various Civics and Fits from the 80’s to today, I speak from personal experience. Also, the simple dashboard and intuitive controls meant that you really did not need to bother reading the owner’s manual, everything literally was self-explanatory. And yes, the simple but elegant Honda styling from this era is hard to beat.
“Simple but Elegant” — Jeff really nailed it!
The way I put it is that getting an automatic on a Honda was like getting the chicken at a seafood restaurant. You know it’s not the house specialty so be meh at best and is only on the menu because people keep asking, so why bother when the Colonel (or the General) is just down the street?
Admittedly, their manual gearboxes remain today precise, but modern fuel-injection mapping—designed to meet emissions standards—causes the engine speed to rev-hang annoyingly during gear changes, spoiling the pleasure of shifting gears. A “KTuner” reflash would be the first step toward enjoying their cars again though it means giving up the warranty.
I had the LXI coupe with a 5-speed, which I kept for 15 years and close to 200,000 miles. It was good-looking and fun to drive. The interior was efficient, comfortable and solid as a rock. Only had a few mechanical problems. Modern Hondas just don’t appeal to me in the same way, and the company seems to have lost the formula that worked for me then. The Accord and Civic got bigger, and the styling strikes me as kind of ugly or meh these days.
A co-worker had one of these but a four door automatic. I got to drive it once. It was a lovely car. Nice and light. The cabin was quite airy. His was a bit of low mileage cherry.
When these came out I was a giant fan of the hatchback and still consider it to be a looker. Unfortunately tastes were shifting and I swear 75% of the Accords I saw were the sedan.
I remember thinking the coupe was a step in the wrong direction, what was needed was a 5-door hatchback, or indeed the wagon that came with the next generation and itself was something of a glorified 5-door hatch since it had the cargo space of a smaller, cheaper Escort or Corolla wagon while the Camry and Taurus wagons offered third rows and in the Taurus’ case 4×8 capability.
This was a real breakthrough car, for Honda and the market. I was very enamored of this coupe and would have readily bought one for my commute if I didn’t have a company car.
As soon as I saw that picture, a not so good memory came back to me. Back in 1988, I started selling (my first auto sales job) at a Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda dealership. Back then, that dealership still offered demo cars to sales people which was a great perk plus 10 gallons of gas a week. As a young 19 year old, I thought that was everything. It also gave me the chance to sell my personal car (I wish I never would have done that!!) and eliminate that monthly expense. So my first ever demo was a 1988 Buick Skylark in Ruby Red. That car surprised me and I really liked it. But as demos go, when they sell, you get another car to drive and so I did. But instead of putting me back into another Buick, the manager decided to put me in a light blue 1988 Honda Accord DX coupe. These were very basic with no A/C, no radio, crank windows, etc. So coming from a more fancy Buick to that was interesting for sure. They agreed to install a radio and speakers and A/C thankfully because the car wouldn’t have sold without them. But what stood out to me was how noisy that car was. In fact, the wind noise around the side windows was beyond bad to the point that I thought something was wrong or weatherstripping was missing. It was so bad that my girlfriend accused me of having the driver’s window down at highway speed. The service dept ended up checking the entire car and all the mechanic could tell me is that’s how they all are!! I was not happy. Thankfully, that car sold a few months later and I begged to get another Buick. But nope, the manager wanted me in a Honda. This time I got a 1989 Accord sedan LX with more features. Being a 4 door and LX with more insulation, it was more quiet than the blue DX, but by now I had experienced the violent shaking of the steering wheel when in gear (automatic) at a stop and the other shortcomings of those cars. So I bit my lip and drove it and did everything I could to sell that car fast.
After that one sold, it was only Buick’s for me from that point on.
I agree – these were my favorite Hondas. The 4th generation Accords were also great, but lost some of the visual excitement of these.
I drove several of these Accords, since I knew quite a few people who had them as used cars in the 1990s. I think all of the examples I drove were manuals – I agree with Jeff D. above that it would be a shame to have once of these with the automatic.
It’s odd that for decades, Hondas have rusted in that one spot above the rear well. We have a 2010 Odyssey (so, 20 years newer than this Accord), and this year it started showing rust in that very spot. Since we plan on keeping the Odyssey for a few more years, we actually had the rust repaired at a body shop.
I wonder if there’s some noise canceling sound deadener in the quarter panels of Hondas. I had some rust repaired on one of my dad’s Ford Escapes years ago, and they all rusted in the same place, around the rear wheelwells. When the metal was cut out, there was a bunch of sprayed-in sound deadener in there that must have held the moisture in like a sponge.
I think it has to do with there being a space where body panels come together, and water/salt collect. I can understand how that could be a design flaw in a car, but I’m surprised that a company as meticulous as Honda would have the same flaw on different models over about 30 years.
Would be somewhat amusing, though, if it were a sound-deadener issue with these Accords, since “noise” was Consumer Guide’s single complaint.
My Prelude and Legend both were made in Saitama and got a zit about there too.
That ‘s consistency for you!
Funny, I’d totally forgotten this generation even came in a coupe variant, until just recently that was mentioned in comments on a CC post about the demise of 2-door sedans and the distinction between those vs. coupes (the upshot: coupes have at least a reduced wheelbase and/or roofline vs. their sedan counterparts, and don’t necessarily always have just 2 doors). Then one for sale appeared on BarnFinds a couple weeks ago, and now this new CC post.
This was mine from July 2021 until June of this year. ’86 DX automatic, only put about 1700 miles on it. Rockauto probably has an award board with my name on it with how many parts I purchased from them to install on that car. Thanks to the city of Attleboro Massachusetts not even being able to maintain basic infrastructure (traffic signal) the car was obliterated in an accident. I now have an ’89 Camry DX with only 87k on the odometer. Never going through that intersection ever again.
I still have the little 13 inch steelies, hubcaps and tires in the garage and a few other odds and ends – never getting rid of them.
Ouch! Sorry about your Accord!
I think I cried more after wrecking that car than I did when I lost my 16 year old cat. Might be tied, though. Oldest bodyshop I could find wouldn’t touch it even when offered 10k plus. I can attest to the automatic transmission causing vibrations in the wheel when stopped in gear, seemed to randomly go away and then come back. The Keihin feedback carb was weird as hell, it would almost always have trouble with warm restarts if the fuel level was below about 60-70 percent. The 3S-FE in the V20 Camry with dead simple early EFI is much less complicated.
Here’s another pic from happier times, before I put the Enkeis on it.
Did this site eat my comment? God damn it.
I think I cried more after wrecking that car than I did when my 16 year old cat died. Might be tied, though. Oldest bodyshop around wouldn’t touch it even when offered 10k plus. I can attest to the automatic transmission causing vibrations in the steering wheel when stopped. Seemed to randomly go away and come back. It would make the driver’s side mirror and the rearview mirror move, that’s how bad they were. The Keihin feedback carb was weird as hell, it would have trouble with warm restarts if you had less than 60-70 percent of a tank of gas.
The 3S-FE in the Camry is much much simpler and easy to work on with it’s early EFI.
Here’s another pic of it from happier times before I had the Enkeis on it.
An ’89 5 speed LXi coupe was the first Honda that I purchased, and it was also the first car that I bought with over 100k on the odometer! It was one of my favorite cars, and I still own it with some 215k+ on it. The only problem that I had with it, was that 5th gear went out on the transmission, necessitating a replacement. I put ROH Snyper wheels on it, which (IMO) only added to its good looks!! 🙂
I always found those pop up headlights ugly.
Test, test, site keeps eating my comments.
Of the almost 20 Hondas and Acuras we’ve had over the years, the ’86 and ’89 Accords were favorites. A great model run. Both LX’s, both 5 speeds, both 4 doors. So much to like. Loved the dash storage space, the simple controls, the easy to figure out cruise control and HVAC. And, they had actual stereos with tone controls and cassette decks. Who needed anything else. Whoa!
A couple nitpicks looking back, easy to steer but no feeling, and a very complicated carburetor with octopus-like hoses everywhere. Last year of the carburetor unless you bought the LX-i. Miss those cars today.
I agree this generation was among the prettiest of all Accords. I thought Honda did a great job with those retractable headlights and never had a problem with them.
Had both an ’86 and ’89 Accord LX 4 doors with 5 speeds. Among our favorite Hondas out of around 20 all bought new. Loved the build quality, simple controls, that dashboard shelf, comfortable velour interiors. Funny how some of us complain about lack of exterior paint choices and boring interiors of new cars. This Accord series had only 3 or 4 interior and exterior color choices.
1989 was the last year of carburation and they were mighty complicated carburetors indeed with octopus like tubes and hoses everywhere. Somehow, they seemed to run great and for a long time. The later fuel injection really changed up drivability for the better.