Honda slashes Accord price below $30k

HONDA Australia has taken the axe to the pricing of its Thai-built Accord as it gets set to effectively re-launch the larger of its two Accord variants after months without fresh stock due to the flood devastation of Honda’s factory in Thailand.

Prices have been chopped by up to 13 per cent, as the importer looks forward to receiving shiploads of Accords from the refurbished plant next month.

The biggest price cut – $4300 – has been made to the entry-level Accord VTi, which drops from $32,490 to $28,190 (plus on-road costs), or $29,990 driveaway.

This makes the 2.4-litre four-cylinder Accord the only car in the large-car segment to be priced under $30,000, with Nissan’s 2.5-litre Maxima 250 ST-L the next lowest at $33,990.

It also makes the Accord VTi cheaper than the smaller Accord Euro, which starts at $30,340 for the Standard model.

The price of the mid-range Accord VTi-L has been chopped $2800, to $37,190, while the flagship V6 automatic takes a $2700 price drop, to $47,290.

From top: Honda City, Civic and Accord Euro.

However, customers will have to wait until next month for delivery and may be limited in their choice of colours in initial shipments, with the factory producing only the three most popular shades, white, black and silver for now.

The latest price cuts follow similar moves with Civic and City pricing over the past few months as Honda fights to retain sales volume and share after struggling with a severe lack of stock due to back-to-back natural disasters in 2011.

Honda Australia corporate spokesman Lindsay Smalley told GoAuto that Honda was looking to aggressively lift Accord sales volumes as stocks of the model began to flow next month.

“In June 2011, Honda announced a return to our strong value-for-money position in the highly competitive Australian market,” he said.

“We have realigned our pricing and added specification upgrades across most of our range over the past eight months.

“Our focus is now on the Honda Accord, as stock becomes available again from our re-opened factory in Thailand.

“Honda has repositioned pricing on the Accord range as we look to aggressively lift volume of this model.

“Honda’s strategy is to always provide our customers with excellent product at an excellent price and this new pricing is in line with this strategy.

“Fresh stock is arriving this month to satisfy what is sure to be high customer demand for the Accord.” The first shipments of Thai-built CR-Vs and Civics since last October’s floods are expected to arrive in Australia late this month, with Jazz, City and Accord stocks following next month.

Last month, Honda sold just eight Accords compared with 224 in the same month last year – a fall of 96.4 per cent.

So far this year, Accord sales are down 86 per cent, to just 101 units in four months.

With a drought of Accord due to the Thai flood disaster, Honda has been putting extra marketing effort into the Japanese-made Accord Euro, sales of which have soared 82.5 per cent this year.

The strategy has been so successful that Honda dealers have shifted more Accord Euros this year than Accords and Accord Euros combined in the same four months of last year.

Last month, Honda managed to sell slightly more cars than in the corresponding month of 2012, despite having almost no Accords, CR-Vs or Citys.

All of the Thai-built Accords are equipped with automatic transmissions, with the two lower models powered by Honda’s 133kW 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine and the top model getting the only V6 in the Accord range – the 202kW 3.0 litre.

Honda Accord pricing (plus ORCs)
VTi (a)	$28,190 (-$4300)
VTi-L Navigation (a)	$37,190 (-$2800)
V6 (a)	$47,290 (-$2700)