Honda Accord Euro 2009 News

The last call is about to go out for Honda Accord Euro orders. The car has just been killed off, despite its popularity here.The Accord Euro succumbed because of global demand for the wide-body Accord that's more like a Toyota Camry and a winner in the US heartland.Nearly 75,000 Accord Euros have been delivered in Australia over the past 12 years, a result that handily trumps the sibling locally. Fans expected its popularity would mean a new-generation car in 2015 but it's not enough to save the car.The bad news has just arrived from Japan after a worldwide tally of the third-generation Accord Euro.Honda Australia director Stephen Collins says: "It was a global decision to discontinue the model. The car is not sold in the US, not sold in Japan. The lead market was Europe but sales have been declining there." "There is no doubt it's been a success for us. For three years in a row we sold more than 10,000. We were a reasonable market, but not big enough. We're disappointed, obviously. But the global decision was based on the decline in Europe." Honda Australia has locked its final production slot for the start of next year, which means its dealers are taking orders for cars that will be delivered until the middle of 2015.The Euro arrived in 2003 as part of a new wave of Japanese cars, including the Subaru Liberty, which were much more European in the way they looked and drove.The idea was to launch a full-scale attack in the soft underbelly of European prestige brands including Audi and BMW, but the global financial crisis hit and the Japanese makers retreated, and now the Europeans have their own generation of price-competitive compacts."We introduced it in 2003. During the same period we've sold 52,000 wide-body Accords. The best year was 2005, when we sold 10,500 cars," Collins says. He is not expecting a surge in the car's final months, says there no special run-out edition plan, and expects the price to stay at $30,340.The loss of the Euro is another blow for Honda Australia, whose sales have been in retreat this year. "We re going to end up around 33,000 this year. That's clearly down on last year but we're having a much stronger second half to the year," Collins says."Next year, we're hoping for close to 40,000. That will be led by HR-V and we want to be one of the main players in that small SUV segment."

Mazda was the first to move, cutting prices by $930 to $2000 in October, and now Honda has joined the push with savings of $1500 to $3000.  Cars to take a cut include the go-fast Civic Type R, Accord Euro and Odyssey.The bad news for Honda buyers is that models built in Thailand - the CR-V, Accord, Civic and Jazz - hold the price line because of a free- trade agreement.  Even so, Honda has found space to trim the sticker of the Thai-built City four-door, which now has a starting price of $19,490.The new Honda pricelist comes into effect on today.

Taste is entirely subjective. But some things transcend subjectivity and become absolute.There cannot, for example, be any argument that Alfa Romeos are a blessing to the eye. Nor can there be any doubt that Saabs are the preserve of the clueless. These are givens.So it is with faux woodgrain. It’s ghastly. Vile. It always looks exactly what it is, never what it’s supposed to.A pretend tree around the dashboard doesn’t make you look like a wannabe enviro-vandal who delights in nothing so much as denuding virgin rainforest. If only it did. No, it makes you look someone who can’t afford a car with the real thing.Wood is of the essence in the glorious land yachts of Rolls-Royce, the next best thing devices of Bentley and the better models from that up and coming Indian marque, Jaguar. For a start it’s wood. It belongs.Faux wood belongs nowhere. It doesn’t confer the aspired to sense of opulence and affluence. Trimming up an interior with the fake stuff is like wearing a red bowtie with a dinner suit.I’m looking at an example right now. It’s in an ad for a used BMW 320d, a car that is – pound for pound, buck for buck – the best 3 Series. I’m a big fan. One day, the GFC and other man-made disasters notwithstanding, I’d like one.But not this one. Not even at the just north of obtainable price of this low-kilometre 2006 example. Not even as a gift.It’s not because the MY2008 has the upgraded engine, it’s mainly because a near perfect sporty diesel sedan has been vandalised with bloody hideous faux woodgrain trim.In the Bimmer’s greyly sombre, somewhat spartan cabin (which I happen to like) this stuff sticks out like a dunny in the desert. Possibly someone will find it in themselves to ignore this grave defect, though this would require all the discernment of a Kath or a Kim.Audi has applied restraint with the natural finish of the ash inserts in the Q5 – a miracle: wood that looks and feels like wood.But usually the application of dead tree is a criminal misjudgement. On that charge sheet you can include the orange-lacquered kitchen laminate that abominates the Toyota Tarago.In the first generation Euro Accord Luxury, Honda perpetrated the worst example of recent times, with a sick-making blue (yes, blue) faux woodgrain. For a mercy, they soon deleted this option.Now, how to make all carmakers follow suit?