Presuming, of course, you're reading this in North America, rather than, say, New Zealand. NZ's Otago Daily Times claims to be surprised (surprised I tell you) by the new Euro-Accord station wagon. "Its arrival comes as part of this month's rollout of an all-new Accord Euro, and completes a freshening of the Accord range that started when a new iteration of the larger, softer V6 was introduced earlier in the year." Not only was scribe David Thompson caught unawares by the Accord wagon, but his efforts to put the wagon through its paces were thwarted. "My plan to preview the new Accord Euro with an extended drive in the upper South Island was thwarted when fog disrupted early flights out of Dunedin at the start of last week. By way of partial compensation, I managed a short drive around Dunedin in one of the first new Accord Euro sedans to arrive here." And Davey was… unsurprised! "Not surprisingly, the car I sampled still felt a little tight mechanically." What exactly does that mean? Your imagination will have to fill in the blanks. Meanwhile, should Honda build an Accord wagon stateside?
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Yes. More wagons, less CUVs. The quicker we regain our sanity for cars that can also haul things the better. I learned how to drive in a ’70 Dodge Coronet wagon, and have owned wagons up until recently.
I do miss not being able to buy a reasonably-priced wagon. I would love to buy a new BMW 535 wagon to replace my dearly departed ’99 528 wagon (hit by a clueless cellphone user), but cannot see spending that kind of coin. No Subarus either after having to lemon-law an Outback wagon.
Oh, while I’m asking for things that car companies in the US hate to give me, more hatchbacks, less sedans. Utility is a good thing!
Hmmm
That TSX / Accord wagon is just damn sexy. Ive driven Accords… 92, 96 and now an 00. Im thinking about letting my Accord fetish go and pick up a Mazda3.. cause the 6 is too big, and the Mazda has an interior thats just.. *DROOLS*
But I suspect after Ford starts pumping out the Euro Focus for US, and everyone figures out that a well designed HATCH / WAGON can sell.. then the Civic hatch and Accord / TSX wagon should be here in the US by… hopefully 2012.
Just in time for me to go back to Hondas…
Yes – a TSX wagon makes sense as they are making a comeback – even becoming fashionable as SUVs and even CUVs are now entering the state of mind that minivans are still in. If Honda imported the 2004-2008 TSX in a wagon version with the 6 speed we would bought that instead of the sedan.
YES! As long as it has the euro grill and not the hair-lip Acura one.
I miss the Mazda6 wagon, too. To me, sex on wheels is an E-series wagon….understated, purposeful. Which says a lot about my sex life I guess…..
The day GM er uh Saab stopped making 900/9-3 hatchback’s was the day it died.
I have always dreamed of an Audi RS4 Avant. A grocery getter that.. uh…really goes…to get the groceries.
I would never be without a wagon–currently a Volvo V50, previously an Audi A4 that our daughter took with her to San Fran. They make so much sense…particularly if you also have a Boxster.
I definitely think Honda should offer us a wagon. I’d get rid of the V50 in a flash; the AWD turbo five is a horribly fuel-inefficient powertrain. I can’t do better than 21 mpg in ordinary rural driving even though I hardly use more than the first half-inch of throttle these days.
We unequivocally need more wagons and hatchbacks in the US. I had a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT turbo 5M/T wagon, but had to sell it when I went to grad school. Now I’m getting a Mazda3 hatch (they call it a 5 door- whatever).
I bide my time waiting for the day that Americans realize their crossover is just a jacked up wagon getting worse fuel mileage than said wagon while having no greater hauling or towing abilities.
the duke:
We unequivocally need more wagons and hatchbacks in the US.
The question isn’t whether we need them. It’s whether we want them (as in will buy them).
Coming from a minivan dad – no thanks, need more utility in the same footprint. I’d rather see Honda bring over the Freed, Stream (with the 3rd row please), or FR-V/Edix.
Although I’m not sure if I’d buy a Honda wagon, the bodystyle is definitely preferable to my needs and desires. I’d be very fine with an older Cross-Country or even an Outback (never liked Subie that much). I’ll keep the Mazda for a while…
YES! Station wagons with their low loading heights are the most practical vehicles on the road. They get work done without making you look silly with a waste basket on the rear of your vehicle (PU) or like an Osama supporter (SUV).
Wagons just aren’t popular here. If people wanted them, the automakers would sell them.
If gas prices were to leap and bound for an extended period, I could see them making a comeback. But when the oil bubble bursts, we’ll just get more CUV’s, instead.
Honda used to sell (and make) the Accord wagon in the US. It was the single most-exported US-built car several years running. Keep in mind a TSX-wagon is going to run something near 30 grand. Now consider that a loaded CRV is just about 25 grand. Who’s going to buy these things?
YES! Honda, please, just do it! If you build it, they will come(around).
UnclePete wrote:
Yes. More wagons, less CUVs. The quicker we regain our sanity for cars that can also haul things the better.
Amen.
Anyone who has ever driven a wagon and an SUV/CUV knows the difference in handling.
I would love an Accord wagon, but I’d rather it not come over as a TSX. A more Honda-appropriate price tag would be preferable. My family really wants to get a wagon, but the Mazda 3 lacks cargo space we don’t need the AWD of the Outback. Bring over the Accord wagon, price it low, and Honda’s got a winner. Or, okay, do the Acura badge, but PLEASE get rid of the new TSX grille.
I put about 180,000 miles on a ’92 Accord wagon, doing everything with it. With the VTEC 4 cylinder in it, it could keep up with virtually everything, get 28mpg consistently and was absolutely bulletproof, well, except for the folks enamored of the cheap cd players that my insurance company had to keep putting in it. I understand why they dropped it, SUV mania kicked in, but still, a hybrid Accord wagon wouldn’t sell right now? Even with the base 4 it would be a super family car. C,mon Honda, build it and they will come!
AndrewDederer: A Loaded CR-V is well over 30,000 dollars at this point for an EX-L with navigation. They are worth it though; very nice cars these days.
Robert Farago:
The question isn’t whether we need them. It’s whether we want them (as in will buy them).
This is true, and sadly most Americans don’t want them yet. Subaru killed the Legacy wagon because of poor sales, yet the [in my opinion] ugly Outback, which is just a jacked up legacy wagon, sells quite well (at least in Portland where I am originally from) because it “looks more like an SUV”.
I personally wait for the day my fellow Americans get over their stigmas with wagons, and embrace the two box passenger vehicle.
I don’t know why, but from a styling perspective I like the Accord Wagon, while the Sedan is just Fuggly.
Now that more and more US buyers are coming to their senses, one can only hope that the market for hatchbacks and wagons will pick up. Prius, Fit, Mazdaspeed-3, Mini and others have proven that Gringos will indeed buy hatchbacks, so that hurdle has been jumped.
The small efficient wagon is one of the great vehicle types of all time and deserves to come back. If nothing else, the traveling salesdudes need something to carry their samples and literature around in while still clocking 30+ mpg over the road.
Mom, dad, two kids and their crap easily fit in an Accord sized wagon. Strollers and such are much easier to toss in and out of wagon than they are to shoehorn into todays sedan trunks.
Bring ’em on!
Honda’s first attempt at an Accord Wagon, introduced for 1991, was a victim of horrible timing. The SUV-boom was picking up steam and the minivan was firmly planted as the sensible choice for hauling a family and cargo.
Now that we’re in a world of $4.00 gasoline, SUVs are as fashionable as parachute pants and BIG hair! The majority of these SUV drivers would have a very difficult time adjusting to a traditional sedan with a trunk. The wagon is a great alternative with a big cargo area, open and airy glass all around and a hatch rather than a trunk lid.
It seems that both styling and nomenclature play a role in winning over U.S. consumers. A good example would be the Mazda3 and Mazda6. The Mazda6 Sport Wagon was introduced in ’04 and dropped at the end of ’06 because of poor sales. The Mazda3 was introduced for ’04 as a 4-door sedan AND as a “5-door” (aka Wagon or Hatchback). The 5-door Mazda3 has accounted for significantly more of the model mix than originally expected.
Styling is key to winning over these buyers. Many people (including some automotive journalists) find the Mazda3 5-door better looking than the 4-door sedan, which isn’t hard on the eyes by any means. By not calling it a ‘wagon’ and simply using the 5-door designation, it’s acceptable for a 20-something single guy to drive one.
Personally, in 12/05 I went to the Mazda dealership with every intention of purchasing a Mazda3 s 4-door. A few hours later, I pulled off the lot in my new Mazda3 5-door! The added space and utility won me over, but the sexy styling still looks great!
RedStapler :
I don’t know why, but from a styling perspective I like the Accord Wagon, while the Sedan is just Fuggly.
Yep, this euro-Accord wagon looks just fine. No Ridgeline truck grille, no absolutely-utterly-insane guillotine enormous chunk of fake-chrome plastic grille, no out-of-scale enormo-bug-out headlights, no 18,000 different surface angles on the doors, and even the back end appears to be in proportion with the rest of the car.
I guess Honda Corporation has decided that American buyers want the ugliest abominations that they can possibly conjure up. I suppose it’s at least half-heartening to learn that they’re actually still producing attractive cars for the rest of the planet.
What about the V/XC70? I might buy one as my next purchase if they get the powertrain and options for the US sorted.
I think they represent a good value used as well.
Alas, V70 and XC70 are right up in the minivan (or even an SUV) territory with their fuel efficiency:
V70 16 mpg / 24 mpg
XC70 15 mpg / 22 mpg
Not very appealing.
I only recently noticed the Mazda 6 and Legacy wagons were no longer on sale. I understand poor sales, but this is an obvious case of poor timing. I wonder why BMW and Merc continue to put out wagons but GM and Ford can’t be bothered to give us a hatchback option bigger than the Vibe or Focus.
Fine as the Lambdas are, GM sells nothing else offering nearly as much interior space that weighs under 4,500lbs. Personally, I am pining for a G8 wagon. The new Holden Sportwagon looks less fugly utility and more euro sleek. It would probably sell better than the Ute over here – there are only so many people working at Jalopnik, after all. It’s also more likely to work well with a forced induction 4-cylinder than any large CUV.
Excepting the premium brands, is there anybody making a full size (or even mid size) wagon for the US? Not some high-riding Taurus X or Outback. A real, car-style wagon that doesn’t carry all the extra weight of a CUV.
AndrewDederer : Keep in mind a TSX-wagon is going to run something near 30 grand. Now consider that a loaded CRV is just about 25 grand. Who’s going to buy these things?
The people who would otherwise buy an Audi A4, BMW 328i, Saab 9-3, or Volvo V50. (Although similar small wagons such as the Jaguar X-Type, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and the Lexus IS300 have been discontinued due to low sales.)
Hell no! Let’s review our basic logic….
if new TSX = ugly crap,
then new TSX wagon = ugly crap with bigger trunk
This could probably work as an Acura “sport wagen” of sorts, competing with the BMW and Audi wagons. Other than that, most people are inclined to want a CUV.
hell yes, with diesel and hybrid options the time is now. it’s time subaru had some competition in this area.
JoeEgo: Excepting the premium brands, is there anybody making a full size (or even mid size) wagon for the US? Not some high-riding Taurus X or Outback. A real, car-style wagon that doesn’t carry all the extra weight of a CUV.
The Suzuki Forenza is available as an honest-to-God wagon (Suzuki even calls it one!). It weighs 2855lbs and holds 62 cubic feet of cargo with the back seat down.
A 5-spd manual version with ABS, cruise control, A/C, power doors/windows, and a good amount of airbags stickers at about $17,000.
Oh yes yes yes!!! I would buy one. Actually I already have. That’s right, I purchased a brand new Honda Accord LX wagon. In 1996, for my wife. Great car.
Excepting the premium brands, is there anybody making a full size (or even mid size) wagon for the US? Not some high-riding Taurus X or Outback. A real, car-style wagon that doesn’t carry all the extra weight of a CUV.
Very few. VW offers the Passat and Jetta wagons. Suzuki has some POS which isn’t worth thinking about. Volvo, Audi and other higher end brands all offer some. But to the original question, the Jetta and Passat are pretty much the only mid-market real station wagons on the market in the US right now.
In response to Robert’s response to Duke:
“We unequivocally need more wagons and hatchbacks in the US.
The question isn’t whether we need them. It’s whether we want them (as in will buy them).”
I’m not certain many people will willingly go back to wagons but they may not have a choice if gas prices continue climbing.
It behooves the car manufacturers to make these wagons as attractive as possible to lure more to them.
Hell, they spent millions “convincing” people over the years they “needed” SUVs, how much harder could it be to persuade them back into wagons with gas prices over $5/gal?
Since most people seem to act as lemmings when it comes to car styles, it can’t be too hard… remember how easy John Travolta convinced people in “Get Shorty” that the Olds Silhouette minivan was the “Cadillac of minivans”… by the end of the movie all his contemporaries were driving one.
Even the Honda Odyssey sold “Down Under” is way more attractive and efficient than we get here in North America.
Hyundai has an Elantra wagon coming for ’09. It even has promised a proper stick shift.
Owing to the “wagon” stigma, the new model will be called the Elantra Touring.
http://www.elantratouring.com/
I drove an A3 earlier today – DSG version and manual.
That car is suuu-weeeeet! It’s the right weight, a little tight in the back seat and hatch, but may be worth sacrificing a bit in size in exchange for a hoot to drive factor.
Still need to check out the A4 Avant manual with that turbo 4 pot. There’s some lag just at launch, but it spools up quickly. Once going, it’s a blast and handles better than any other FWD car I’ve driven.
I never understood why the wagons disappeared. Ford taurus/sable wagons were everywhere. The Honda Accord wagon was an obvious take on the Taurus. You see Escort wagons everywhere, they can carry a load of anything. I liked Camry wagons too, even the Nissan line had wagon versions.
How hard would it be to take a 4 door car and build wagon versions? The Taurus SW doors were the same as the 4 door car.
I’d definitely consider an Accord wagon. I never understood why they stopped selling them in the first place. I still see the occasional AW from the mid 90s, and they still look good in terms of styling. If Honda does bring it over, hopefully they’ll offer it with 3 pedals, and either an efficient gas engine (no V6 is necessary), and their 2.2 litre common rail diesel.
Honda should sell it in the U.S. Would my household buy one? Unfortunately, probably not. My wife loves sitting up higher in her Odyssey. And being that we have/will continue to have an Odyssey, we don’t need a wagon.
That said, we just got back from our Summer vacation week to the Midwest (Ann Arbor and Chicago). Put over 2,000 miles (from Boston) on our ’06 Odyssey that has Honda’s VCM (variable cylinder management). During the actual travel days of the trip, we got 26 mpg doing 75+ mph along I-90, I-96, I-696, I-94, I-294 and I-55 (two adults, two toddlers, and ALL of our shyte). Around town we got ~23mpg, as she typically gets while commuting around Boston.
The ’06 VCM only has two modes: 6 cylinder and 3 cylinder. The new ’08 VCM offers 6, 4 and 3 cylinder modes, which would have further improved our fuel economy (when on the highway cruising at ~75, intermediate hills come along that require the engine to use all 6 cylinders again. With the newer VCM, the engine could go from 3 cylinder mode to 4 cylinder mode, only having to use all 6 when in the mountains). Just sayin.
Saw several Mazda 5’s on the road. Love the design…they are only going to grow in popularity. Unfortunately, it would not have carried everything in our Odyssey. But maybe once our boys are older, we won’t need to transport as much stuff. Golf clubs don’t take up as much room as pack n plays, high chairs, strollers and toys.
@hiptech
The 2.4L turbo Odyssey must be more efficient than the 3.5L V6 that we get here, plus it is slimmer, lighter, and only seats seven.
Better looking than the U.S. version? Absolutely not. The Aussie version looks more like the original U.S. Odyssey. UGLY.
wagon + diesel + Honda = :)
When they make one that looks like a ’32’ ford sedan, they won’t be able to keep up with the demand! It’s what so many folks want. Look, they bought that PT loser just ’cause it was cute. Heck, look at a low ’32’ street-rod and tell me it aint cool lookin’. I wonder how slippery that shape is…anyone know?