cars news 10: Feature Flashback: 1976 Honda Accord

It took seven years for Honda to become the No. 4 importer in the U.S., and that was accomplished just by selling tiny 600s and Civics. The company knew it needed a bigger car to grow its business, so it started work on “design number 671” in 1972, with clay models completed in 1973. Powering #671 would be a version of the Civic’s 1.5-liter SOHC “Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion” engine, stroked to 1.6 liters. When the finished product landed in Motor Trend’s hands, the verdict of our (for some reason un-named) author was: “It may be the best automotive bargain ever.” A pretty bold claim indeed that he backed up over the course of the five-page road test.

Read more about the 2018 Honda Accord in our First Test review HERE.

What’s in that Name?

Did you know that Accord is French for “agreement?” (Of course, it kind of means that in English.) But as our unnamed author noted, Honda was mining the French dictionary when naming Design Number 671: “following the recent affinity the Japanese have shown for products with French names. (At this time there are four cars, three motorcycles, two color TVs, and six chocolate bars with French names being sold in Japan that are all Japanese made.)” Researching that sentence must have required quite the fact-finding boondoggle!

Looks like a big Civic, but it’s new

Well, almost. As noted, the engine is related and the transmissions were also shared, but beyond that “there is little interchangeability of parts between the Accord and the Civic. Both of the cars have MacPherson strut suspension all the way around, but the strut cartridges are the only parts in common.” (Our current technical director notes that struts such as Honda’s in the rear are more correctly referred to as Chapman struts.)

Prescient CVCC engine

“The CVCC principle is to use a rich mixture in a precombustion chamber to ignite a much leaner mixture in the main combustion chamber.” Hmmm, diesels used to use prechambers to help ignite their lean mixtures, and Mazda’s brand-new Skyactiv X Spark-Controlled Compression Ignition (SpCCI) gasoline engine lights a rich mixture near the spark plug to initiate diesellike compression ignition. Was CVCC SpCCI’s distant great-uncle? In any case, we complained that “Like many Japanese cars, however, it has an irritating habit of holding rpm instead of letting the revs drop on deceleration.” Cars do that nowadays for emissions purposes, and CVCC’s big claim to fame was that it didn’t need a catalytic converter. This engine was pretty prescient!

Self-Flooding

Honda hadn’t totally earned its current reputation for bulletproof trouble-free operation. Our reviewer noted that, although cold starts are quick with use of the manual choke, “Hot starting the Accord is not such a simple matter. The carburetor is mounted directly over the exhaust manifold, so if the engine is hot, fuel might boil out of the carb float bowl. The percolated gasoline comes to rest in the intake manifold, just waiting to be sucked into the combustion chamber when the starter is cranked over. One staffer calls this ‘Honda’s self-flooding carburetor.’ It has been a problem on the CVCC Civics, but not to the extent it was on the three Accords we drove.”

Five speeds or two?

The Accord’s manual was completely contemporary, offering five ratios—about as many as any vehicle offered in the day, short of long-haul semis. The Hondamatic, however, offered but two ratios. A torque converter handled idle and drive away, after which the driver had to manually upshift and downshift the sliding gears (most automatics use planetary gears). A peculiarity of the manual: “there are no direct gears: first, second, and third are all indirect, while fourth and fifth are both overdrive. With such tall gearing, the Accord is seriously handicapped in power in the top two notches.”

Gas mileage champ

“On our 73-mile test loop of urban/freeway driving, the Accord returned 36.2 mpg, and it is rated on the EPA’s highway cycle at 44 mpg. In these days of resource awareness, we think that’s a reasonable trade-off between performance and fuel economy.”

She really sings!

Refinement had a long way to go to meet the current Accord’s Acura/Lexus levels, too—at least on our early test cars. The transaxle gearing was reported to make some disconcerting sounds. “In reverse there is a low, variable-pitched whine that sounds frighteningly like a small child calling from some distance away. It can be very disconcerting, especially in a child-filled neighborhood. The second noise in the transmission’s repertoire is played when second gear is used for engine braking. This one sounds like an emergency vehicle siren and can be nerve-racking in busy city traffic.”

Near-BMW-level braking

“Like its smaller brother, the Civic, the Accord stops impressively well. The servo-assisted brakes ground the car from 30 mph to rest in 33 ft. The 133-ft stopping distance from 60 mph was also good. The BMW 530i we tested last year (December ’75) required only 12 feet less. One irritating trait the Accord has inherited from the Civic is a mushy brake pedal. The brakes work well, but the pedal is so soft that they don’t feel as if they’re going to.”

He says “oversteer” like it’s a bad thing (?)…

“The car can be pitched into a corner with the tail coming out just a bit in actual oversteer. A front-heavy FWD car, which can be coaxed into an oversteer condition (albeit a mild one), is a little bit out of the ordinary, particularly for something from Japan. Fatter tires—175 or 185 radials instead of the stock ones—would probably help the handling quite a bit.” The ride quality drew raves, though, with credit given to the 7-inch wheelbase stretch and nearly 4-inch track increase relative to the Civic.

Interior comfort of the highest order

We had high praise for the front-seat space and comfort and noted that the rear was reasonable for folks under 5-foot-10. We also appreciated the fully carpeted cargo area and the seat back, which could be easily folded with one hand. We wished for fewer idiot lights and more gauges but geeked out a bit on the service-minder gizmo connected to the odometer—it changed from green to red to indicate when maintenance was required. Perhaps as an indication of how unfamiliar our staff, or at least photographers, were with Honda, whoever centered the steering wheel put the H upside down.

Scirocco-esque

“In the exterior styling department, the Accord rated very high with most of the staff. The most frequently mentioned aspect was its marked similarity to the [Volkswagen] Scirocco. However, there was no copying of a ‘good idea’ involved. The Accord’s design was finalized in the fall of 1973, just a matter of weeks before the Scirocco was first shown in Europe in late January 1974.” We did take issue with the overabundant badging on the back: “CVCC, HONDA, ACCORD, FIVE-SPEED.”

A sure winner

“The package is practical, it goes and stops well, handles and rides superbly, should be reliable (the CVCC engine has a reputation for being tougher than a 50-cent steak) and gets great mileage. It isn’t perfect, but what car is? It is one of the finest all-around combinations of size, comfort, handling, and performance we have seen. And at a base price of less than $4,000, it is certainly the best automotive buy we’ve seen in a long time.”

Feature Flashback: 1976 Honda Accord