Philisophe

Honda defers to heritage and timing as it 
deploys luxury touches on venerable sedan

Honda saw the redesign of the 2018 Accord as the perfect opportunity to introduce a host of new features.


They're the kind of gee-whiz features designed for smiles in the showroom: a color head-up display, a customizable digital screen in the instrument panel, instant near-field communications link with a smartphone and even climate control knobs that glow red or blue depending on which direction they're turned.

While most automakers would save such surprise-and-delight features for their high-end luxury models or brand, Honda introduced them not on an Acura but on its bread-and-butter family car, the redesigned 2018 Accord.
Honda had its reasons: the timing of the Accord's release, its halo effect over the rest of the Honda brand and the competitive nature of the sedan segment. But they all drive home the point that within American Honda's walls, the Accord commands deep respect, while Acura remains stuck in a second-fiddle role.

"When you look holistically at Honda and Acura in the marketplace you clearly see that Honda is the brand that's paying the bills and driving success and profitability," Eric Lyman, vice president for industry insights at TrueCar, told Automotive News.

The Accord was Honda's best-selling nameplate for decades and the car has played an outsize role in shaping Honda's identity within the U.S. market, selling more than 13 million since 1976. It wasn't until 2016 that a then-aging Accord gave up its crown at Honda to the redesigned Civic and the CR-V.

Honda saw the redesign of this storied model as an opportunity to introduce a ​ host of new features it had never used.

"The heritage of Accord is tightly wrapped with the history and success of the Honda brand," said Jeff Conrad, senior vice president of the auto division at American Honda. "And as we're looking at technology that we can mature and bring online in time for a product's introduction, Accord is the perfect candidate for it because it's such an important car for us."

Besides, said Conrad, Honda didn't want to wait for the next redesigned Acura — expected to be the 2019 RDX set to debut next year.



Conrad: Won't hold back tech innovations.


"Technology doesn't slow down for you," Conrad said. "So while we try to plan for it and we try to use our latest and greatest technologies on Acura, certain ones, when we've perfected them, if it's going to go on a Honda, it's going to go on a Honda."

Acura vehicles have a reputation for technological prowess.


The brand hangs its hat on the Sport Hybrid all-wheel-drive system that's in the NSX supercar, MDX crossover and RLX large sedan. The TLX and RLX have all-wheel steering, while a variety of Acura models offer a dual-clutch transmission, something no current Honda model offers.


The next-gen RDX will be a critical marker for the brand.

It will be the first redesign of the compact crossover since Jon Ikeda took over as general manager in 2015 and the first since Acura embarked on this latest recasting of its brand identity.


The RDX is now Acura's best seller, on pace to top 60,000 sales this year, making it a suitable for more headline-grabbing features. And there will be some on the 2019 model.




Acura will get its share of headline-grabbing features, such as the Precision Cockpit.


"We have some really strong innovative ideas that are going to be RDX-first and Acura-first," Ikeda told Automotive News. "


Sometimes the cadence of things has worked out the way it does, but you'll see that plenty of things are coming through in the RDX."
In addition to evolved exterior styling, the RDX will be the first Acura to get an element of the Precision Cockpit interior concept shown at the 2016 Los Angeles auto show, Ikeda said.
In the meantime, the Accord stays in the limelight.
"It might rob Peter to pay Paul a little," Lyman said. "But the success they can leverage at Honda is going to pay dividends down the road."

RDX10

"Element of precision cockpit" tells me that the RDX is getting a digital gauge cluster and not much else. Not a big deal considering the CRV already has a partial digital cluster iirc. I'm actually really excited to see what the next gen RDX will have to work with. REALLY hoping they put SH-AWD back and that there is some form of hybrid tech (like a sport hybrid).

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

just dont screw up the styling!

neuronbob

The midsize sedan category is crowded and extremely competitive. Honda has to do what it has to, to make its best-selling sedan stand out. The more Accords Honda sells, the more goodies are studied to go in Acuras. I'm OK with that.

TacoBello

I'm not. Since when is Honda considered more upscale than Acura? If that is the case, what's even the point of Acura?

RDX10

Honda has to be the ONLY company in the world to put newer features in their mainstream brand before their top end brands....it's a joke and also sucks because it wasn't always the case. The past TL was way better equipped than Accord, same with RDX vs CRV and MDX vs Pilot...but not anymore...

nore03

As I started reading this article I got a little bummed out at where it was going thinking to myself "do I really want to stick with a brand who would prefer to make their less expensive car more luxurious and tech heavy than their more expensive cars, but as I got to the end I started to understand Honda's point and where they were going. He is right, technology waits for no one and to wait until a redesigned Acura to release some of the tech they came up with would put them behind what other manufactures are coming up with. Now with that being said, I am an Acura guy and I am fighting the itch to switch to a more luxurious brand because I like the all around balance Acura has in their cars with tech and driving feel. I am hoping and praying that the future Acura models are something to be proud of and my dedication to the brand will be worth it. I could not see myself stepping down(is it really at this point??) to an Accord touring. It's just sad how long it took them to introduce some of their tech into the company. Some of this stuff should have been available sooner so that they could have put it in Acura. Seems a little lazy towards Acura to me, seeing how they are still using the old Nav tech and stuff like that.

neuronbob

That's a fair question to ask the Honda executive brass.

kurtatx

The only comparison I can think of is Oldsmobile when they used to test tech meant for Cadillacs. But I honestly don't get how that works now. It's one thing to have Acura be insufficiently premium over Honda, it's another to have Acura trail Honda in a number of key places.

Curious3GTL

Toyota kind of did the same thing with the new Camry.

They debuted the new Entune 3.0 infotainment system in the 2018 Camry, and it's an open based system too. It's not as dramatic but you'd think it would be in a Lexus first. The Camry also has the Toyota safety suite standard, which is an option on some Lexus models.

However, I think Toyota can get away with it because Lexus is competing with BMW and Mercedes. I think like it was already said in this thread, it's become really competitive in this segment which is losing to CUVs so they're doing what they have to do.

I think in the case of Honda they got tired of saying they were behind. Remember 2007? "I can't believe Honda is still using a 5 speed automatic." So Honda said "Okay screw you, here's a 10AT, 9AT, 9DCT, 8DCT, and 7DCT." You can say what you want about this Accord, but I don't think it's lacking any features that it's competitors don't have, on the contrary I think the Accord has features you can't get on any competitors. Even if you look at the 2013 Accord LX it had A LOT of standard features you had to pay with for on competitors.

Now why didn't all this stuff debut on the 2015 TLX? I have no idea, and I don't get that either, but I am sure this Accord will sell VERY well. If I had to guess it just comes down to numbers. The Accord sells 30,000 a month vs the TLX at 3,000. However, like you I remember when there was a long list of reasons to buy the TL over the Accord, and now that list has shrunk considerably.

And what about the ILX? It's on it's 5th model year, why don't we have a new one? The Civic it's based on was a new model in 2016. To my knowledge there haven't even been any spy photos for the new ILX. Are they going to let that die out?

The executives have seem to put Honda on a roll and don't care if they leave Acura in the dust. I mean the entire Honda lineup is very strong (minus the HR-V) and I guess that's what they wanted. All our local dealers still can't keep Pilot's in stock. They hit the lot and if they're not already sold they're gone pretty fast (I don't understand why they don't ramp up production). I'd argue the new Civic is the best in it's class, although the Mazda3 is very good too. So what does this all mean? I have no idea, and I guess we will find out with the 2019 RDX.

hondamore

The Accord, along with the Civic, the CRV and the Pilot, are the meat and potatoes of Honda's revenue stream. The Acura MDX and the RDX are the cake for dessert and the rest of the Honda/Acura line up is the icing on the cake.