Hondas remain a largely unknown quantity for me, sorry to say. They were not overly popular in continental Europe, where I spent my formative years – particularly the big ones. Once in a while, you might see a Prelude, but generally, folks who bought Hondas in Europe in the ‘80s and ‘90s were looking at Civics or CR-Xs. Accords were rare and Legends aptly-named. So finding this exquisitely well-preserved early Inspire was, for yours truly, the occasion for a long overdue bit of education.
I don’t think these ever made it to Europe – maybe they were sold in some markets outside the then-EEC, like Scandinavian countries, but I have no memory of ever seeing this “Accord Inspire” script. Nor do many of you, I trust, as the version of this car that made it to North American shores was rather different. It was slightly bigger and based on the car that actually started it all, the Honda Vigor.
In the beginning was the Honda Accord. It did very well in both Japan and the US, but whereas the Stateside version carried on solo for the second generation, the Japanese one was given a “sporty” badge-engineered sibling called the Vigor for the Honda Verno dealer network. Born in 1981, the 1st gen Vigor was aimed squarely at the Toyota Mark II/ Chaser/Cresta trio, the Nissan Laurel and Leopard or the Mazda Capella.
By the end of 1989, the third generation Vigor was ready to be launched, but this time, it wore a different body on a stretched Accord platform. Crucially though, the new Vigor was to be a “hardtop” saloon (a pillared hardtop, if you’ll pardon the oxymoron) and as a new Accord Inspire for the other Honda distribution networks to be able to carry the new car. After all, the economy was booming then and deluxe “hardtops” were selling like hotcakes.
The Vigor / Accord Inspire twins were designated as the CB5 in Honda’s internal ID system. These early cars were all in compliance with the eternal (but ever-changing) Japanese Government Rules and Regulations on the size and displacement of motor vehicles. This meant that the width of the new Honda had better be under 170cm, that the overall length was necessarily less than 470cm and that the engine could not exceed 1999 cubic centimeters.
So far, so clear then. Honda made a large Accord-based pillared hardtop, called it Vigor and Accord Inspire, with the latter having a wider grille and larger taillights. Under the hood, a longitudinally-mounted 1996cc OHC 5-cyl. providing 155hp, mated to either a 4-speed auto or a 5-speed manual and driving the front wheels. All of this was designed so the Japanese taxman would allow the car to be given a license plate with a “5” on top – a big selling point on the JDM in those days.
The Inspire’s initial range was extremely easy to navigate, for a ‘90s Japanese market luxury saloon. Three trim levels were available: base cars were called AZ-i, the top of the crop was the AX-i, and the Goldilocks one was the AG-i. Toyota and Nissan, by comparison, had at least a dozen trim variants on their upmarket saloons. Just goes to show that Honda played it their way, not merely aping what the top dogs did.
Our feature car is a higher trim AX-i, and it must be said that the interior looks a lot more luxurious than that of its Toyota Mark II or Nissan Laurel rivals. Honda’s tie-up with Rover seems to had rubbed off on the Japanese marque, and their generous use of wood trim, at this sub-premium price point, certainly makes the cabin look more inviting than the competition.
The AX-i trim was the only one available with leather upholstery. Unsurprisingly, whoever ordered this car three decades ago decided against it. Cowhide is really not popular in this country. The alternative seems to be a suede-like material – probably a better choice on a sweltering summer day. I don’t know whether the Burgundy carpet is an original feature. If it is, that’s a bold choice and a welcome touch of colour.
Some of the more Acura-minded of you may have perked up and recognized the Inspire herein as a kin. It might have seemed like some sort of alternate-reality JDM trickery, but your eyes are both right and wrong. Yes, there was an Acura Vigor sold from 1992 to 1994 that looked a lot like this, but it’s not exactly the same car.
When Honda elected to market the Vigor/Inspire as an Acura, they figured, quite sensibly, that North American customers would not be overly concerned by the strict Japanese size limits that had presided over the birth of the CP5. So a slightly wider, longer and bigger-engined variant of the car was devised, using the 2.5 litre 5-cyl. The wheelbase and most body panels remained identical, keeping development costs down to a minimum. The “wide” variant was codenamed CC3 or CC2, the latter being a JDM-only 2-litre version.
The Acura version was entirely based on the Vigor, both in name and in aesthetics, and only that car was offered on that market. On the JDM however, Honda marketed both the narrow and wide variants of both the Vigor and the Inspire, the latter losing its “Accord” moniker in wide form, for some reason. Pretty confusing, considering how similar these cars all were. Clearly, there were too many for Honda’s own good, especially given that the economy had gone tits up just as the expensive “wide” CC2/CC3 versions were launched.
Something had to give on the JDM, and that ended up being the Vigor. The Inspire, on the other hand, did quite well. In the initial months (i.e. the “narrow” CP5 version), it even outsold the Nissan Laurel and gave Toyota a run for their money.
Was it the Vigor’s disproportionately tiny grill or the fact that they had never really sold all that well to begin with? Whatever the case, Honda decided to nix the Vigor nameplate in Japan when the CP5 and CC2/CC3 siblings were given the chop in early 1995. The new name for this segment would become Honda Saber (and Inspire) in Japan and Acura TL in North America.
For its part, the Inspire ended up being the quiet success story of this challenging era for its maker, which was confronted by the loss of its founder and an unprecedented economic downturn on its home market.
Things turned sour eventually, though. The Inspire took over the Accord’s entire portfolio in Japan and continued to put on weight and grow in stature, but never managed to equal the first generation’s success. The nameplate was retired in 2012, only to be resurrected six years later on a Chinese-made hybrid sister car of the Accord.
Big Hondas are not very popular in Japan. The marque is very big in the kei segment and sporty compacts, but folks who think “big comfy sedan” tend to head over to Toyota or Nissan – that is unless they have the means to go for a Benz or a Jag. The original Inspire was apparently the one time Honda had some sort of competitive edge in that arena on the JDM. America and some Asian countries (notably China) do have a fondness for big Hondas, but not everyone is convinced, even thirty years after this CP5 made its attempt at the big time. Maybe they should have called it the Aspire.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1992 – 1994 Acura Vigor – The Closest Thing To A Real Four Door Hardtop, by PN
Curbside Classic: 1994 Acura Vigor GS – North America’s Only Choice For A 5-Cylinder, 4-Door “Pillared Hardtop”, by Brendan Saur
CC Outtake: 1993 Acura Vigor GS – Living Up To Its Name, by Brendan Saur
How do the Japanese keep their cars so dang pristine??? 33 years old and black, looks almost brand new
The JDM midsize sedan market(guess in Japan these are big cars) in the 80’s/90’s simply boggles my mind. You could get FWD, RWD, AWD. 4 cylinder, 5 cylinder, V6, straight six, with or without turbos. Even a V8 in a few cases.
What really boggles my mind is how many very similar yet different versions there are of the same car like this Honda. Its like they were imitating GM in the 80s/90s(well except the quality part), 5 versions of the same dang thing.
1 way JDM cars stay so clean looking is that many gas stations feature car washes. Another probably stems from the Japanese necessity to have proof of off street parking BEFORE applying for vehicle registration. With reasonably ” protective ” parking a car stays nicer looking, longer.
When I was in Japan in the late 80s I saw one of these early Vigors on the JDF/USA air station that I was assigned to. I assumed it was simply a slightly differently styled Accord. I never realized that all Vigors featured the longitudinal engine orientation.
I do like the design of the Vigor/Inspire. I’ve only seen one, which was obviously a private import and to me it looked even better in the metal. But I love Japanese car styling from this era anyway and I’m a whore for 4 door hardtops too.
I had no idea they had a narrow and wide body version. I just assumed the Acura sold in America was the same car but with the 2.5 litre engine.
Like the second (/l?) generation Legend, they had a longitudinally mounted engine. Perhaps they were trying to mimic Audi’s drivetrain layout.
It’s not the Audi drivetrain layout (at least not the Audis then)
The Vigor/Inspire engine is mostly behind the front axle. There is a short driveshaft from the transmission forward to the differential.
The US market Vigor was always a curious car, and I had assumed that it came over more or less straight from Japan. Apparently not. What was not enough car for the US was evidently too much car for Japan.
Honda’s lack of success with larger vehicles in its home market remains a curiosity to me.
I loved the US market Vigor when I drove it. I found the 5 cylinder pleasing (as most 5 cylinder cars I’ve driven have been) and the brilliant Honda manual transmission, combined with pretty neutral handling for a large FWD (the longitudinal engine setup was supposedly done for this purpose, to improve weight distribution). What ever its faults, I liked it A LOT more than any ES I’ve driven, not to mention the I30. The J30, now, that might give me pause. Combining RWD with that Nissan V-6 starts to sway the pendulum.
A neighbor of ours drove a US Acura Vigor, 5 speed (I’d hear him shift as he drove by our house on his way to work). I saw it regularly so at the time didn’t think of them as unusual here, but in hindsight there weren’t too many around compared to Integra’s and Legends. Was Honda the only Japanese manufacturer to use a 5 cylinder engine?
I just think that’s an extremely handsome car—maybe because I own a Civic from the same period. Other than a bit of Germanic fussiness to the side trim (think of the lovably obsessive gasketing of every bit of brightwork on a Mercedes of the dat) there are no unnecessary formal moves or decorative filigree to be distracted by. The shape and the proportions are fine, to my eye.
I had hoped to put that wheel on my car, but I was told it wouldn’t fit, so that was that.
It would be interesting to know just exactly how many body components were shared between the numerous narrow and wide body versions of their cars over the years. I assume that it was of course as much as possible, for cost reasons. I wonder if anyone has ever done a detailed analysis of that.
I have often wondered the same thing as I’ve learned more about narrow/wide variations of the same car for Japan. Like my initial thoughts, do the cars look the same viewed directly from the side and it’s only in the width that they differ. And if so, is it only those parts in the middle that are differnt. Hood, grille, bumpers, roof, windshield and rear window.
Then I start to think about all the other parts not quite as noticeable. Is the suspension the same on an overall widened body-in-white? Does that body have wider firewall and trans/exhaust tunnel, or are the floor pans wider?
My understanding is that in most cases, the answers to the latter questions are “yes, no, and no.” Likewise, the windshield and backlight are typically not different either. The differences, at least in the ’70s and ’80s, were mostly in the fenders, and possibly the door outers.
A useful point of comparison, surprisingly, is fifties Chevrolet trucks. If you look at one of the bigger trucks with their wide axles, they look enormous compared to the lighter-duty 3100 series models, but the inner cab structure is almost identical. The big trucks have wider fenders and may have exterior steps (where the light trucks had steps concealed within the doors), but the greenhouse is the same.
In this case, however, the answer on the commonality question was apparently “a lot less than you would think, to look at it.”
The initial five-cylinder Vigor/Inspire ended up, even in the view of a lot of Honda executives, the worst of all possible worlds: They looked a lot like the Accord, which kept them from being taken seriously as premium cars, but their commonality with the Accord was limited enough to make them expensive to build and a bunch more expensive to buy.
(Had they been just five-cylinder Accord hardtops, they might have had an easier time justifying themselves. I don’t know if any Japanese buyers took the Camry Prominent V-6 hardtop that seriously as a luxury car, but I imagine it wasn’t that horrendous an investment either.)
I could have been completely fooled into thinking that this Inspire was merely a home-market version of the Vigor we got. I’m still looking at the pictures in disbelief that there were dimensional differences. This is coming from someone who would often be called by his brothers’ names by people who couldn’t be bothered to distinguish. LOL
I thought “Vigor” was a terrific model name, along the lines of “Integra” and “Legend”, and was sorry to see it go. I loved the “pillared hardtops” out of Japan from around that time period and always secretly wished the U.S. automakers would get aboard that train.
The original Vigor was not really a Mark II/Chaser/Laurel rival: It was exactly the same size as the contemporary Accord and looked very similar. It was a little more upscale than the Accord — it was only offered with the 1.8-liter engine (Accords could have either the 1.6 or 1.8), and had a couple extra features — but only a little, and when the second generation came out in 1983, it was explicitly an Accord “twin.” I think the original object was mostly to support the Verno sales channel, one of Honda’s various sometimes-quixotic attempts to expand their JDM dealer base. (In principle, the Verno channel was supposed to be more youthful and more male-oriented, but Honda mainly wanted to add more dealers.)
The CB Vigor and Inspire apparently went over really badly with JDM dealers and sales officials, particularly the G-series five. Basically, the complaint was that they were being asked to sell a five-cylinder car that looked like a four-cylinder model against rivals with 2-liter sixes, which was not an equation that made anyone very happy. Honda subsequently tried again with the 1994 Ascot and Rafaga, which had the five, but were smaller than the CC Vigor/Inspire; I surmise that both were flops.
I’ve always found these ‘in-between’ Hondas fascinating. We didn’t get these in Australia, and today’s feature shows there’s more to them than I realized. Peak Honda for styling, with that low, low cowl and simple lines, with the slim chrome band around the headlights and taillights giving a touch of upmarket class. And that imaginatively-placed inline five. Lovely!
It would look a bit bleak inside without the wood accents on the doors, and the burgundy carpet sort of subtly picks up the toning of the wood, making it look more integrated. I’d just want to extend the wood trim the the console as well.
Nice find, we got loads of these ex-Japan in the ’90s and ’00s, but I haven’t seen one in a long time. Actually, haven’t seen an Accord in a while either. I loved the Inspire/Vigor’s styling inside and out – although not inspirational, the extra length ahead of the firewall did make the cars look a tad more vigorous than the shorter Accord.
I knew Toyota made narrow and wide Camrys and Previas, and Mitsubishi Australia created its first Magna out of the Sigma/Galant, but I had no idea that Honda made different widths of the Inspire/Vigor. Great background story Tatra87, thank you!
Side note, the original Vigor (and Capella) were a segment smaller than the Mk II/Cresta/Chaser/Laurel/Leopard. They wouldn’t have sat in the same segment until the CB5 came out.
AS Scott said above there were lots of these Hondas around not all that long ago but they are getting a bit long in the tooth to be everyday cars now so most have been scrapped plus parts backup for a lot of ex JDM cars is non existent so if the wrecking yards havent got what you need theres no future in keeping the car.
Is it me, or is there just tiny bit of the AMC Ambassador Paul showed us the other day in the front end in profile?
But to make up, that rear window and the sweep from roof to rear deck is top class.