Honda unveils Accord Crosstour

[Eye of the Tiger]

RSX?

[Vinsanity]

RSX?

hey, I said I was biased...

[Eye of the Tiger]

So RSX is #3?

[Vinsanity]

So RSX is #3?

#3.




The RSX is just okay.

[nickdrinkwater]

I put "shitbox" in quotes because that's how a lot of people on the UK forums I visit describe it.  Yeah, the Fiesta is probably the best small car going right now.  No surprise it's doing very well.  Maybe I'll finally get to see one when Ford finally gets off their arse and brings it over here.

BTW, I was just reading about Hyundai overtaking Ford as Britain's number one retail car brand.  To (mis)quote John Lennon, we live in strange days, indeed!

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Industry-News/Crunch-watch-September-09-the-auto-industry-in-crisis


Cheers,
Madman of the People

I've never heard the i10 described as a shitbox but fair enough!  It's in the Autocar top 5 of small cars last time I checked.  We all go on about cars these days being bloated and overcomplicated.  The i10 is an antidote to that.  It's small, simple and well built.  It's no looker, but it's not ugly, either.

Hyundai are offering some excellent deals so I guess it's no surprise to see them topping the charts.  You can have a 1.6 petrol engined i30 with A/C for about ?10k, whereas a comparatively specc'd Fiesta 1.6 is more like ?12,500 for a car one size down!

[ifcar]

New image from Honda:

[nickdrinkwater]

That looks fucking awful

[Raza]

New image from Honda:

Oh, that is sexy.  I love the super high ride height, the tiny wheels, and the hulking monstrous visage.

It makes the Ridgeline look like a Zonda.

[Payman]

Jeremy Clarkson once described the Chrysler Crossfire as looking like a dog, hunched over taking a massive dump.

I think that analogy applies here as well.

[MaxPower]

New image from Honda:

That's supposed to be an improvement over the Facebook pics, which people ripped up?    I wonder how big those wheels are.

[the Teuton]

Can cars have Down Syndrome?

[CaMIRO]

That a designer might describe their efforts in abstract terms is to be expected; crossover designers tend to particularly obscure, painting their challenge in a most open-ended fashion. It's the best of both worlds, they cry; and thus, it can be anything it wants to be.

Perhaps. In the optimistic gleam of a designer's eye. In the protected greenhouse of a designer's studio. On the glittering floor of an auto show. Presented among towering screens, projecting epileptic displays of random, translucent images from a faraway life. Perhaps, in such transcendent moments, these creations appear as otherworldly as their creators claim.

Yet in the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart, lifestyle imagery removed, these designs are all too often revealed as peripherally (and often questionably) different top hats whose proportions must conform to a fixed set of underpinnings, as familiar as that which drives the same brand's mainstream sedan; hardly an auspicious start for something truly new; for a segment buster which defies expectations.

The 2010 Honda Crosstour was introduced not at a glamorous million-dollar presentation, but on Facebook. In the unimpressed, 2-dimensional environment of social media, anything badged "Crosstour" was unlikely to fare well; and the most untrained eye could recoil at the overwrought surfacing; the front and rear ends that seemed so at odds with each other, and the gaping wheel arches, a ludicrously optimistic attempt to suggest off-road freedom. Meanwhile, anoraks eagerly pointed to what could have been, waxing lyrical of Europe's Accord wagon, described as a work of balanced, minimalist perfection that Honda America had inflated beyond recognizability for obese, blind American customers.

Not much about the Crosstour is new; not even to Honda. In its slanted headlights and simple hood, the front fascia is Honda-esque, even despite an oversized, Ford-like 3-bar grille. Yet the size of that grille - its reach, into the jutting bumper - sets up an arrow-like expectation (a Honda characteristic) that the vague, blobular rear shatters. Along the way, sheer, heavy handed slashes across the flanks contrast with the simple expanse of comparatively plain hood and tailgate. It is as though the front fascia came from one car; the doors and wheels, from an altogether more complex design, and the rear, from a CRX that was rammed, repeatedly, until it bubbled into a CR-V.

Honda likes to speak of dreams; but the Crosstour seems more like the result of (David Marek's) disjointed nightmares. More to the point, few expect a focused company such as Honda to produce something that looks like three teams worked separately on it, in a collective game of corporatespeak.

While the Crosstour bears resemblance to the current crop of Hondas, that its design is quite so at odds with itself makes it a punching bag - as AutoBlog put it, a "bubble-butted pi?ata" - for those who do not like the design direction of that very range. Once, Honda's understatement made fans of the brand feel as though they were part of an in-crowd; an group with the fervor of an underground cult, whose Accords and Civics visually shared the same, basic unvarnished design philosophy that had produced the CRX, NSX, and S2000. With their inflated proportions, pronounced surfacing, large, chromed grilles, and chromed window lines and door handles, Honda and its upmarket Acura label have steadily pulled away from the crisp, functional look of old. Modern, yes; but the Underground will prefer the term, "sellout."

Arguably, the same could be said of recent Audis and BMWs. Yet whereas the focused promise of an upmarket badge and homogeneously muscular lines keep BMW's X6 desirable, the Crosstour's muddled approach inherently makes it less of a Honda, thus robbing it of even the limited desirability this rather more plebian vehicle might have enjoyed. The result is a confused car, and in this, it recalls the Chrysler Pacifica; a far more attractive crossover, but one which, as a pioneer, deserved better marketing than the vague strains of Celine Dion.

The public needed to be told what the Pacifica, a pioneer, and a fair enough grand tourer, was; Chrysler never bothered. Perhaps it, too, did not know.

Whether Honda can explain what the Crosstour was supposed to have been matters not. The public now knows what it could have been; and the reality is simply not as palatable.

[CJ]

I LOVED the Pacifica!

[CaMIRO]

I LOVED the Pacifica!

As did I. Spent two weeks with one back when they launched, and really grew fond of the lines, the ex-Mercedes interior, and the pliancy. On the right road, with the 3.5-liter V6 (not the coarser 3.8), I felt as though floating on a cloud.

Pacifica was very comfortable, if underdamped (some Euro testing would have solved this), with an interior whose materials and general solidity in places (not the center console, unfortunately) recalled '80s Benzes. Clearly, Chrysler dipped into DaimlerChrysler's parts bin for some of the switchgear.

But Chrysler simply did not have the brand cachet - the credibility - to muscle-in with a segment buster. Imagine how badly the Nissan Qashqai (now doing fairly well in Europe) would have flopped if Nissan had tried to sell it in, say, 2001, when Nissan was broke, and hatchbacks were hatchbacks.

Ok, so the Pacifica was not quite a segment buster (nor is the Qashqai); but it might well have been, given how badly its marketing let it down. Chrysler had no idea what it was, so they had Celine Dion sing about it. That's not good enough for a $40,000 Chrysler - and dropping the price later only confirmed that Chrysler had built something they did not understand.

Of course, Mercedes-Benz knew that the price was a problem; in their minds, it was not high enough. So they built the R-Class. And we all know how that one turned out.

[CJ]

With the 3.5, it feels a little underpowered.  With the 4.0 and the 6-speed automatic, it's very nice.  I loved the updated version! 

[Cookie Monster]

Best Honda/Acura ever made, followed closely by the S2000.

The S2000 still looks fantastic today. It doesn't even look dated and it's been out for 9 years already.

[Raza]

Best Honda/Acura ever made, followed closely by the S2000.

The S2000 still looks fantastic today. It doesn't even look dated and it's been out for 9 years already.

Well, that's because it stuck to a good formula, and it has no successor.  Cars tend to look older when they are bold (which the S2000 is decidedly not) or when they're replaced by something more modern looking. 

[Maxxum]

Any interior pics out yet? I'd be interested to find if this has anything over the Outback.

[ifcar]

Any interior pics out yet? I'd be interested to find if this has anything over the Outback.

I'd be surprised if it didn't just share the existing Accord dash.

[Atomic]

i am a pretty big honda fan, but i must admit, this car will take some getting use to. it looks like a cross between a bmw x6 (also controversial) and the current chrysler sebring. i think it will sell in droves because it is a honda. i do look forward to seeing it in person and actually test driving one. imo, a fwd model makes no sense, but awd/4wd is what i think will attract many -- despite it's styling.

[nickdrinkwater]

As did I. Spent two weeks with one back when they launched, and really grew fond of the lines, the ex-Mercedes interior, and the pliancy. On the right road, with the 3.5-liter V6 (not the coarser 3.8), I felt as though floating on a cloud.

Pacifica was very comfortable, if underdamped (some Euro testing would have solved this), with an interior whose materials and general solidity in places (not the center console, unfortunately) recalled '80s Benzes. Clearly, Chrysler dipped into DaimlerChrysler's parts bin for some of the switchgear.

But Chrysler simply did not have the brand cachet - the credibility - to muscle-in with a segment buster. Imagine how badly the Nissan Qashqai (now doing fairly well in Europe) would have flopped if Nissan had tried to sell it in, say, 2001, when Nissan was broke, and hatchbacks were hatchbacks.

Ok, so the Pacifica was not quite a segment buster (nor is the Qashqai); but it might well have been, given how badly its marketing let it down. Chrysler had no idea what it was, so they had Celine Dion sing about it. That's not good enough for a $40,000 Chrysler - and dropping the price later only confirmed that Chrysler had built something they did not understand.

Of course, Mercedes-Benz knew that the price was a problem; in their minds, it was not high enough. So they built the R-Class. And we all know how that one turned out.

Well, Chrysler launched a segment buster (in the US at least) when they launched the original minivan.  And Nissan don't have that much brand cachet in the European market.  They're lower volume than Toyota I think.  Nissan are known for reliability and dependability first and foremost,  I'd say.  That's why the Qashqai was a surprise.  It is also a great car, my bias aside.

[CaMIRO]

All good points - and you're right, Chrysler was on its knees when it launched the minivan.

The minivan didn't cost $40k (or the equivalent), though; and there's the rub. To adjust my theory - the role that brand credibility plays in successfully creating a new segment rises with the new product's price.

When Renault launched the Megane Scenic, it had been (largely) asleep at the wheel for a good 15 years; and yet people adopted that rather innovative (and affordable) vehicle fairly quickly.

So the Qashqai was a poor example; but I've often wondered how history might have been different had (for instance) the Talbot Matra Rancho worn a Land Rover badge.

[cawimmer430]

So the Qashqai was a poor example; but I've often wondered how history might have been different had (for instance) the Talbot Matra Rancho worn a Land Rover badge.

Always loved the Matra Rancho. Used to have two models of it from Matchbox.

The new Skoda Yeti reminds me of it, at least the concept. I think to myself that they were inspired by the Rancho.

[thewizard16]

I'm late to this thread, but that is one of the least attractive vehicles I've seen in a while. None of it really seems to look like it belongs together- it's just a bunch of pieces that happened to fill the space. I don't think the Venza is particularly attractive either, but where it looks a bit odd, this looks a bit repulsive.

[CALL_911]

Always loved the Matra Rancho. Used to have two models of it from Matchbox.

Now that you mention it, I had a Matchbox that looked like that too.