It wouldn't surprise me either. I don't see what the Accord really offers. With the likes of Kia now shoehorning themselves into the market somebody has to fall out.

I have heard the rumour.

Well the Urban Cruiser is no sad loss...

The current Accord, in estate form, is an excellent car, but competing against a very established hierarchy of BMW, Audi Merc & Volvo estates. It was always up against it, to win sales over from those. Also, whilst the i-DTEC 2.2 is as good a 4-cyl diesel as any, the automatic version was uncompetitive, both emissions and mpg, compared to direct rivals.

Lots of people want to own Hondas though - the incredibly positive customer satisfaction surveys are impossible to ignore. We've had three in our house, including the current FR-V, all excellent. I suspect another reason for the Accord's demise is that a prospective Honda buyer goes for the CR-V instead, for a broadly similar price.

Such a shame that a very good (if slightly conservative) car was spurned in favour of the wannabe Range Rover CRV carbuncle

It's a hard class to sell a car in and the Accord doesn't offer enough.

If you want value you'll buy a Kia Optima or a Hyundai Sonata.

If you want the perfect all rounder you'll buy the Ford Mondeo.

If you want a cheaper all rounder you'll buy a Vauxhall Vectra.

If you want to scream 'look at meeee!!!' you'll buy a Mercedes C Class.

If you have no imagination and too much money you'll buy a BMW 3 series.

RIP indeed.

My Accord served me remarkably well. What killed a same brand replacement was Honda's unwise attempt to price the latest model against the German competition, making it overpriced (as were, IMNSHO, the aforementioned German competition). That and the removal of the hatchback (presumably for the same reason).

Strange compnay, Honda. Great engineers. Not so good at understanding the maarket.

Americans don't rate VW reliability and are baffled why we do.

As it happens the US Passat is a different car to the European version, a bit like the two Accord versions - bigger, more bloated in the US.

Americans don't rate VW reliability and are baffled why we do.

Not sure many of us in this forum do.

I had noticed - and VAG doesn't appear on my very long short list for a replacement SUV.

car buyers gradually traded down to a smaller but better value "D"(which had by then grown to the size of an "E"!)

This is something I have noticed over the last 20 years or so, Small cars are getting bigger. If you look at an original Vauxhall Nova and you look at todays Corsa it has grown to the size of an Original Astra (If not a little bigger).

Or the Ford Fiesta which is now the size (almost) of a first generation Focus.

Edited by Wackyracer on 09/11/2014 at 08:35

Japanese "D" segment cars (Primera and probably also Accord and, apparently, Avensis) seem to be going the same way as the European "E" segment in the last decade or two - car buyers gradually traded down to a smaller but better value "D"(which had by then grown to the size of an "E"!) - witness the demise of the Rover 800, Ford Scorpio, Vauxhall Omega, Renault Safrane, Peugeot 607 and all the large Italians.

The mainstream "E" sector evaporated as buyers switched to cheaper mainstream "D" sector models, or as the majority did switched to a prestigious premium "C" model - the present evaporation of the mainstream "D" sector involves similar switches to mainstream "C" sector or premium "B" sector - but with the addition of switches to MPV and CUVs.