Top-spec Honda Accord V6 to get a June facelift
BY MIKE COSTELLO | 13th May 2011
Photos received from a GoAuto industry source reveal that the cosmetic changes will include subtle revisions to the front bumper and the grille, which will have two horizontal bars compared to the current model’s three, as well as chrome stripes running along the rear tail lights.
The modifications to the grille and tail lights appear to be the same as those on the facelifted US version of the car, which appeared in American showrooms in August last year.
The Thai-sourced large sedan also gets Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port with iPod integration, a new style jack-knife key and intelligent dual-zone climate control.
Fuel consumption has also been marginally improved to 9.9l/100km (down from 10.0l/100km), while CO2 output will drop to 235g/km, down from 239g/km on the previous model.
Pricing for the MY2011 Accord V6 Luxury will remain unchanged at $49,990. It is unclear at this stage if the same changes will appear on the four-cylinder VTi Accord models, with details of the update to those models not yet available.
The Accord facelift can’t come soon enough for beleaguered Honda. Sales on its large sedan have almost halved so far this year, with the company managing to shift just 733 units compared with 1370 sales at the same time last year.
Meanwhile, the Accord Euro facelift, which debuted at the Geneva motor show in March, is set to arrive here in the second half of this year.
Changes seen on the show model included the obligatory tweaks to the grille, lights and bumpers, as well as alterations to interior fabrics and trim and technological updates. The current model Accord Euro is now officially in run-out, according to the company’s public website.
The Accord is the latest in a string of mild changes across Honda’s range so far this year. In April, the company attained a five-star ANCAP safety rating for its entire Jazz line-up after it fitted the base GLi model with side and curtain airbags.
The Japanese manufacturer also tinkered with the Odyssey people-mover last month by including more standard equipment, changing the interior trim and adding a colour to the range. These changes were also accompanied by a $1500 price increase for the top-shelf Luxury variant.
Honda slashed prices in March and added a new entry-level variant to its British-sourced Civic Si range, as well as giving the slow-selling hatchback a new grille design and equipping it with standard Bluetooth connectivity.
Meanwhile, the company quietly released the all-new ninth-generation Civic at the New York motor show earlier in May.
The next version of the company’s small-car staple is almost identical in appearance to the ‘concept’ model previewed earlier this year at January’s Detroit show.
Honda Australia, which has confirmed its version of the redesigned sedan will again be sourced from Thailand but will wear the new sheetmetal as seen in New York, has said the new Civic may not go on-sale here until early 2012.
The CR-Z hybrid coupe is also slated to go on-sale early next year, most likely around the same time as the redesigned Civic, after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused Australian stocks to delayed by up to six months.
Honda’s local arm continued its sales slide in April, with monthly sales down 20.2 per cent year-on-year, while annual sales have fallen by a significant 25.8 per cent as of April.
