A few weeks ago I was rather surprised to see a 2nd-gen Accord parked in front of an ice cream shop. Any Japanese cars from prior to 1990 are rather thin on the ground here, but this one is still kicking. And it’s even an LX model, with a Cutlass Ciera-approved trunk-mounted luggage rack!
I was somewhat surprised that this one had a caved-in roof–under what circumstances would that have happened? Unfortunately I was only able to get one shot (I had bigger fish to fry), but I have in fact spotted an even nicer Accord of this generation around town, and it will get the CC treatment sometime soon. Until then, this one will just have to tide you over!
The caved-in roof is an easy fix. Just plant your feet on the headliner and push.
My brother had a mid-80s Tercel wagon (the ATM-machine version) with a similarly caved in roof.
It was because he was so excited about buying his first car that he wanted a picture taken of himself sitting on the roof. The sheet metal was thin, and the roof wasn’t supported by much structure underneath. Hence the dent, starting from just about the first day he had it.
I feel this generation of Accord was single handedly responsible for the color green revival on cars. It seemed every other one was that nice medium green with the ivory interior. Made the car look more expensive than it was.
Funny you say that — it seems to me that every other one of these was this exact shade of gray! I find it to be really dead and boring now, although I’m sure it was the height of sophistication when new. Honda was ahead of its time with that color, which is now even more popular. I looked at a VERY nice clone of this car for sale a few years ago — I’m sure I have photos — but I passed on it because it wasn’t an LX and yes, the boring color. These are fantastic cars. Even though I like the 3rd generation with the pop-up headlights a bit better, I suspect this was the height of quality and “special”-ness for Honda.
I had the hatchback version of this car for quite a while and I would say the two subsequent generations were a little more upscale in features and feel. The 1990-1993 generation was more conservative, but a slick piece of work in every respect; the only serious complaints I could make would be the motorized seatbelts and the odd angle of the rear seat backrest.
The ’85 LX was well-executed and well-equipped, but the materials and interior still felt more economy car than upscale.
In New Zealand every other one was a lovely shade of light blue! (probably with the ivory interior). In typical CC-effect fashion I haven’t seen a mobile example of this shape Accord in some time – but got passed by a white one on the way home from work on Friday!
This was the official new car of new college and post secondary graduates everywhere in 1984-85. One of my classmates who graduated with me in 1985 had seen pictures of the new 86 and hurried up to buy one of these because he liked it so much more. I have wondered if he felt the same way a year or two later.
I never drove one of these, but liked them.
my family went from an 82 chevy cavalier 4spd stick to an 84 accord 5spd stick. what an upgrade; worst stick shift ever to best; the honda engine was so smooth and quiet you had to look at tach; interior quality was fabulous, i can still ‘feel’ that cloth upholstry. In fairness, the cavalier went 180,000 miles (the two cars overlapped of course) but the honda crossed 200k. Honda rusted much faster than the cavalier though, unfortuntately. Not surprisingly the next cars in family were all hondas and toyotas until quality returned (in our opinion) to the domestics in the 2000s.
I think cars of this era must have been made of something only slightly more substantial than tinfoil. Shortly after acquiring my license in high school, a couple of pea-brained friends hopped onto the hood of my mom’s Nissan as I was pulling away and caved the thing in so bad that she thought an angry neighbor had sought retribution for something when she finally saw it in the driveway the next morning. It must’ve been a Japanese thing though as my ’86 Cougar showed just minimal traces of abuse after taking it down numerous jeep trails and umm “sitting” on top of the hood with my girlfriend.
Maybe it came from somewhere further south. Were those luggage racks popular in Florida?
The luggage rack was another way to inflate the selling price back in the days of limited supply of Japanese cars (even though most of the 4 door Accords were built in Marysville, Ohio). Pin stripes, door edge guards, wheel lip moldings, paint protection and fabric guard were just some of the ways to add valuable dealer installed options(?) and more profit for the luck Honda dealer who managed to have one in stock. Of course some dealers just added ADM or ADP to their addendum stickers. What are ADM and ADP? Why “Additional Dealer Mark-Up” and “Additional Dealer Profit” of course. It is hard to believe that back then many Honda and Toyots sold for well over MSRP.
So were luggage racks actually functional, or were they just cosmetic items? I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed actual luggage being lugged around on one of those.
More often than not they were purely ornamental. However, they could be used. My 1987 Cutlass Supreme had one installed on it. It had places to tie things down on it, and the tops of the rails had removable rubber strips. The closest I came to using it was when I either had to set something on the trunk, or when I would strap my bike rack to the back of the car, strapping it to the luggage rack.
A big fad. Never seen anything strapped to one.
Here’s what it was: a big profit center for dealers, who slapped them on and charged a ridiculous mark-up, mostly on cars that were in high demand, like this Honda. Don’t forget that in the eighties and well into the nineties, if you wanted a Honda, you put $500 down, and they’d call when the next truck came in, and you’d better be there to grab yours before someone else did. Can you imagine that? That went on for decades.
Now I did have a Fiat Spider in college that had a luggage rack that was actually useful. My roommate and I took it to the lumber yard and bought wood for a loft in our dorm room and managed to get all of the 2×4’s and several 4×8 sheets of plywood on the back of the Fiat.
I doubt that anyone has ever put anything on a Honda Accord trunk rack.
I remember seeing a lot of these luggage racks in Northern California. My first ride was an ’83 Prelude, and it had the rack. It was functional- tie downs on each strip, but I have never seen one in use.
My mother drove either a 1978 or 1979 Accord Sedan, which she bought new- I remember dad saying they were on a waiting list, and didn’t have much choice in color or options. It also had the luggage rack. Dark red, with red interior.
The Accord you have pictured here appears to have wheels off an SE-i model. This gray, along with the dark red was everywhere!
Thanks for the fond memories–
I owned an ’85 LX hatchback as my first post collegiate car. Was a year old and had 16K on it when I bought it.
Drove it for almost 4 years – took it on a cross country trip from CA to MI and back. Best tank on that trip was almost 45 MPG.
I did nothing to that car except gas and oil changes.