Every time I run into a first-generation Accord, I can’t help but wonder if it’s the last one still on the road here. The pristine blue one I wrote up for a full CC is still around, but now sports a nasty dent, and otherwise looks worse for wear. I suspect the usual: Kids inherit them from great Aunt Millie or such, who kept it in the garage and hardly ever drove it and then, a few years later, it’s shot. I hadn’t seen this one before. It’s looking quite hale and hearty, so maybe there are still more Aunt Millies out there with pampered Accords to replenish the supply. It would be hard to imagine a time when there aren’t any left. The Corolla? No worries; there’s a half-century’s worth of them still around.
It’s fascinating how the passage of time influences perception. At the time, I never really registered to what extent the styling of this car is mimicking the Civic which preceeded it. It was just an Accord, an obviously different car than the Civic. Now with the passage of time, and the decline from ubiquitous to common to rarity, the parallels become obvious and the differences fade.
On a similar note, I’d never realized just how freaking WEIRD the styling of a Karmann Ghia is from behind, until I found myself following one and really looked at it for the first time in my life.
Were all of these Accords this color? I’m sure not, but this is the color I immediately think of when I think of one of these cars.
There is nothing more sickening than seeing a beautifully preserved old and unique car that is pressed into daily service by someone who has no appreciation for what he or she has. In the early 90s someone in my area was driving a turquouise 60 or 61 DeSoto 4 door hardtop. It was a beautiful car. Within about a year, it was sprouting rust holes and the front end was mangled from being run into something. It made me sick. Oh well. I guess we can’t save them all.
I think 60% were silver, with 30% either this green or prosthetic limb beige, the other 10% were some sort of burgandy.
Blue too, as in the one I did a CC on (link in the text).
The Accord initially offered a very limited selection of colors by the standards of the time. From 1976-78, the car was only available in light metallic blue, metallic silver and metallic gold, if I recall correctly. This was such a change from the usual practice – even the other imports offered a wider selection of colors – that early road tests mentioned it.
By 1979, with the debut of the sedan, the color selection had changed, but not really expanded much (it may have been available in four colors, instead of three). There were plenty in this green, along with burgundy, at the time.
In those days, though, Accords were in such demand that customers often had to take whatever arrived at the dealership. If the buyer didn’t want that color, the dealer had someone else on the waiting list who would take the car.
Color selection was indeed very limited (you’ll find that Honda/Acura even to this day tend to have a smaller color selection than other makes). In that era, the color selections were specific to the body style, so some colors were only offered on the hatchback or even only on the LX hatchback, for example.
This color is called Hampstead Green and was offered in 1980 and 1981 on both sedans and hatchbacks. I love the color! I recently captured one in amazingly good shape at the local Auto Club office, of all places, and posted on the Cohort: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mistergreen/7779203380/in/pool-curbsideclassic
A couple of weeks before that, I found a much rougher sedan in the same color. For some reason, it seems to be Hampstead Green month for me!
Have these really become that rare? There always seems to be one or two for sale on ebay whenever I look.
Not absolutely rare, just not very many on the streets here anymore. Or more like just one or two. But they haven’t all retired to Eugene. I suspect there’s a fair number in CA still.
A quick search on cragislist turned up one in the SF bay area, and one in Los Angeles. Considering how many were sold, that’s getting rare. I can’t remember the last time I saw one on the street, and I’d notice if one crossed my vision.
I’m about the hit the road for a 3-hour transit south bay to Santa Rosa, including a bunch of time on SF streets. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
I don’t know if these Accords really sold in very high numbers. They seemed popular because the color selection was very limited, and they were only available in two body styles.
I don’t believe that these cars approached the sales rates of most popularly priced domestics during these years. Demand exceeded supply, which meant that dealers refused to budge on the sticker price. The car also received a lot of press and good word-of-mouth, which made it seem more popular. But I doubt that it placed among the top 15 sellers during these years…it might not have made even the top-20 list.
Geeber, the Accord of this era was hobbled but Regan-era import quotas, which had the effect of making the cars even more profitable for Honda and its dealers. And they sold loads of them.
Sticker price? If you were looking to buy an Accord from our local Eugene Honda dealer, you’d be paying a $400 additional dealer mark-up. This was the first time that I’d seen such a thing. $400 doesn’t seem like much now, but back then it was 10 percent of the purchase price!
The Voluntary Restraint Agreement negotiated by the Reagan Administration didn’t take effect until 1981, or near the end of this generation’s life cycle (an all-new Accord would replace it for 1982). It didn’t have much effect on the sales of this generation.
The earliest sales figures I could find were for the 1983 model year . Accord sales were up to 222,137. Note however, that starting in 1982, some Accords were manufactured in Ohio, enabling Honda to get around the Voluntary Restraint Agreements.
I would be curious to see the annual sales figures in the United States for 1976 through 1981. Accord sales were constrained by production capacity at this time. I don’t believe that this generation would have been among the top 15 best-sellers in the United States of that time.
Does anyone have the sales figures for this generation of Accord in the United States?
I don’t know where to find the numbers. But you’re quite right about them being production constrained. The gen1 Civic was a huge hit, here and in Japan, and Honda had a massive headache in trying to find ways to increase production fast enough. And the problem only continued with the first years of the Accord.
The Accord was accorded very favorable press in the US; the car magazines gushed over it. Coming on the heels of the popular Civic, it had a very strong start out of the gate, and demand exceeded supply for at least several years, or more.
The Ohio plant was crucial to catching up with demand.
You’re correct, Paul. Within a 10-block radius of my parents’ house there’s a dead green one sitting in someone’s front driveway, and another one in the opposite direction sporting that weird brownish burnt orange those were available in.
The tin worm got all the ones in the northeast.
And in the Midwest. I haven’t seen one in twenty years.
Living in San Diego, I’d say I see one every couple weeks. Most of the ones I’ve seen in recent years have been metallic red. There’s a 4 door sedan in remarkably good condition that I think belongs to one of the mechanics at the independent Acura-Honda service place I went to recently for an oil change.
To me, this is a collectible car to be put in a museum.
There is one of these sitting in the showroom at the Honda dealership in West Chester, PA. It’s not for sale, and it’s tan.
I just saw one of these in traffic about a week ago. In Ohio. It was a sedan in this shade of green. Looked like it was in pretty good shape.
I haven’t seen one of these in probably 15 years. Couldn’t believe it. What was even more unbelievable was the Vega I saw yesterday…
Don’t think I’ve seen one of these for ages, but I’m sure there are still a few around.
On the other hand, yesterday I saw an example of the situation you described – a ~1987 Corolla sedan (which in Australia meant it was probably owned by a little old lady as most people bought the hatch or liftback) in showroom condition driven by an 18 year old complete with the little adhesive squares that were left from removing the rear window sunshade.
I see a few of these still going around Seattle. Not often, but they’re there. I even see a few first-gen Civics.
Where I grew up in Kansas City, these were rotten by the time I was in high school in the late 80s. When I say rotten, I mean rust spots 8″ in diameter, and holes in the middle of the doors where you could see the window regulator inside. My dad’s ’78 Civic was scrapped in ’82 due to terminal rust. It is amazing that my parents continue to rate Hondas in spite of this- I’d feel mighty cheated if my overpriced import dissolved at such a speed.
Regardless, Honda’s ability to make cars that didn’t stall and have to be put into neutral at every red light (remember this- I even had to do it on my driver’s ed Corsica) defined reliability in a new way. Previously, we defined reliability as the ability of a car to last 20 years, cost be damned (Volvo/Mercedes.) Honda/Toyota redefined it as the ability to run perfectly with minimal servicing for the usual 3-5 years people kept a car back then.
That green remains my very favourite car colour of all time- and was equally popular in the w123/ w126 Mercedes of the 80s. Merc did a ‘greeney’ version and a ‘bluey-green’ version as well.
However, most mk1 Accords I remember were either faded gold or faded silver. When the green oxydised, it seemed to develop a nice pleasant patina, unlike the other colours as they aged.
We had a metallic maroon 1980 Accord 4-door that lived outside, and the yellow gradually faded out of the color so that the car was definitely on the purplish-looking side when we sold it.
First, however well done they were, they weren’t all that sturdy. It was a characteristic shared with the Gen1 and Gen2 Civics…when was the last time you’d seen one of THOSE? Honda, and in fact the entire Japanese motor industry, was learning what was required to succeed off their island. Performance, in Honda’s case meaning smooth, reliable, economical operation with nimble handling – that was crucial but not the only consideration.
And Honda wasn’t alone there. Toyotas and Datsuns were not that sturdy in those days, either…and remember the 1950s and 1960s cars dissolving in big sheets of rust?
I don’t remember many 1950s cars around in 1978, either. And certainly Chevrolet’s Tri-Fives outsold the Gen1 Accord.
Now, in one area, Toyota pulled ahead: durability. The Corolla has become one of the all-time road-roaches. Not Honda’s fault, really…they had much to learn in those years.
You’re so right. It wasn’t until the wedge generation that Honda got its reputation for bomb and teenager proof dependability. Really, to put it in perspective, there was a brief window of ’86-93 for Accord and ’88-91 for the Civic when quality rivalled, or even surpassed Mercedes, and left others in the dust. To compare an ’88 Civic to an ’88 Corolla is chalk and cheese- the Civic is solid and well crafted and the Corolla is tinny, chintzy, although still reliable mechanically. My family had both during this period, and it really was when Honda finally got its mojo.
Regarding durability during the ’70s and early 80s though, the best analogy would be to compare Toyota to Volvo and Honda to Saab. RWD Corollas and Coronas would go on forever in soul destroying boring reliability until the axle rusts off. Early Hondas, though required valve adjustments, tinkering and frequent oil changes to run sweetly, and when on form, run sweetly they did. For the right kind of (anal retentive) owner who lives in the desert or anywhere without salt, a 78-85 Accord could be a very good car indeed, just as those who forgo the colon cleansing effects of bran can get a million miles out of a Saab 900.
Its no wonder that many early Honda faithful were either motorbike riders or former rear engine VW owners, both of whom were well versed in the benefits of the 2500 mile oil change and regular tappet adjustment.
I think outside of California, these basically are gone. I haven’t seen one in Phoenix since the one I posted on my site 2 years and 4 months ago.
They look and run great with a modicum of care for most of their lives, but at 20 years or anything above 300,000 miles, something breaks that’s worth more than the car and it’s off to the junkyard.