Honda counts on new design, brand loyalty as sedans fade
Nate King gets sentimental when he talks about the 1996 Honda Accord that he drove back in high school, a workhorse of a car that went north of 200,000 miles before the odometer broke. The car kept plugging away anyhow.
It is this experience that makes King, 30, a teacher who lives in Hilliard, an Accord loyalist. He drives a 2009 model and intends for his next vehicle to also be an Accord.
“You can drive them forever,” he said.
The problem for Honda is that the number of people who feel this sense of attachment is shrinking. Consumers are abandoning sedans, particularly midsize sedans, and buying more SUVs. Accord sales were down 3 percent last year and are down 4 percent this year.
It was in this environment, in October, that Honda began selling its redesigned Accord. The model, with a 2018 model year, has received near-universal praise from critics. Now, the question is whether any midsize sedan, even one with the pedigree of Accord, can rise at a time when the segment is falling.
Central Ohio has a vital interest in this. The Accord is assembled in Marysville and has been the plant’s main product since it opened in 1982. Today, Accord remains a highvolume vehicle, but its sales have fallen behind another Honda product from Ohio, the CR-V, and the Indianamade Civic.
“The challenge for Accord is to not only keep existing owners, but also speak to and get on the shopping list of people also shopping (Toyota) Camry, the Hyundai Elantra” and other midsize sedans, said Rebecca Lindland, executive auto analyst for Cox Automotive. That company includes Kelley Blue Book and AutoTrader.com, among many others.
Lindland thinks the design and the quality of ride of the new Accord are good enough that the model can maintain or even expand its share in the midsize-sedan segment, even as that segment declines. This doesn’t mean that Accord sales are poised to increase, but it probably means that the pace of decline will be slower than the segment’s.
“This is one of the best Accords, one of the most fun to drive,” Lindland said.
The new Accord is the 10th generation of the model. It has a flatter nose than before, and a longer wheelbase, part of a design that Honda says is “sporting and athletic ... like a sprinter in the blocks.”
It is lighter than its predecessor, contributing to an improvement in fuel economy: 30 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway for the base-level engine.
The new Accord also is notable for the options that are not available. Honda has stopped making a V-6 for the model, and it no longer has a two-door version, both of which were losing popularity, according to company officials.
This year through November, Honda had sold 300,540 new Accords — both the 2017 and 2018 models. That makes the Accord the brand’s third-most-popular model, after the Civic and CR-V. The CR-V is assembled in East Liberty, just west of Marysville.
“You have to remember that even though the midsize segment may be down, it’s still one of the largest segments in our industry,” said Ray Mikiciuk, Honda’s assistant vice president for sales.
He expects the model’s sales to be “relatively flat” in 2018, he said, declining to go into specifics.
One way to bolster sales is to shake up the Accord’s staid image.
Take the example of Bryan DeArdo, 32, of the Northeast Side, who writes about football for CBSSports.com and drives a Mazda3. Growing up, his family drove Hondas, including the Accord.
Four years ago, he shopped around and chose the Mazda.
“It was my first car purchase on my own,” DeArdo said. He chose the car because of the way Mazda “sells itself, as a youthful, exciting car company.”
At the same time, he saw the Accord as unexciting. “It looked to me like every Honda looked the same for 20 years.”
But this story takes a good turn for Honda. In recent weeks, he has seen the new Accord, and he likes it.
“I saw (the 2018 Accord) when I was jogging the other day, and I did a double-take,” he said, adding that the model is “the least-boxy Accord I’ve ever seen.”
The next time he buys a car, he will seriously consider the Accord, a model he has always felt a personal attachment to, even if he wasn’t a fan of recent designs.
Meanwhile, some of the toughest competition for the Accord is from within the Honda stable.
Lindland, the Cox Automotive analyst, said the decline of the midsize-sedan segment is largely because of the growing popularity of crossovers and small SUVs, which means, among other things, that customers are trading in Accords for CR-Vs.
“They’re just buying different Hondas,” she said. “It’s about keeping your buyer in your brand. The last thing you want is a buyer to leave your brand because you don’t satisfy their product needs.”
To see this in action, look at Karen Kirchhoff, 67, a retired hospital lab technician who lives on the Far East Side. She loves her 2014 Accord hybrid, but she said her next vehicle will be a CR-V hybrid.
“You sit up higher, and you can see better,” she said about the CR-V. “I just like the feel of it.”
The only question is which of her family’s cars will be the trade-in for the CR-V: her Accord or her husband’s Civic. There is no question, however, that her next vehicle will be a Honda, continuing a decades-long loyalty to the brand.