My Magnificent Honda. Photography by Adam Kay.
So we’ve all done it. Bought something because it was there rather than because we needed it. Sometimes the purchase is flung into a drawer or cupboard, never to be used. Sometimes it’s used once or twice and then discarded once the pointlessness of its existence is realised. Sometimes though, sometimes we end up not only using the object, but actually falling in love with it! But this story isn’t about one of those times. It is, though, about how I unintentionally fell in like with my Unintentional Car Of A Lifetime I, a 1993 Honda Ascot I bought earlier this year.
My Magnificent CB Ascot and someone else’s Less Magnificent CB Accord. Interior, lower doors, windscreen and opening door glass shared.
“Hey Scott, what’s a Honda Ascot?” y’all who don’t live in JDM-used-import-land New Zealand are asking. Long story short(er), it’s basically a Honda Accord in drag. Not drag-racing-type drag, but party frock and sensible shoes type drag. The JDM gen1 Ascot was the CB-series from 1989-93, based on the CB Accord. So far, so simple. But the Japanese are adept at filling (creating?) niches in their domestic market, so just to confuse matters, Honda Japan built and sold another, different, CB Ascot from 1992-98! To distinguish it from the original ’89 Ascot, the ’92-8 model was named the Ascot Innova. It was badged Accord in Europe – where it had been co-developed with Rover (or whatever they called themselves that week) who also sold it as the slightly different Rover 600.
CB-based European Accord, Ascot Innova and Rover 600. Interior, lower doors (entire front doors on Rover and Accord) and windscreen shared with each other but not the other CBs. Rover displaying typical pose. Accord photo nicked from hondakarma.com, owner is eagledragon69.
So there were four FIVE distinct variants built on the CB platform: Accord, Ascot, Ascot Innova, European Accord, Rover 600 – are you confused yet?! Even more confusingly (or awesomely if you’re an OCD car-spotter such as myself), four models (excluding the Euro Accord) are available in NZ… EDIT: Thanks to CCer Bernard Taylor for noting in the comments that the European Accord-badged Ascot Innova had different door windows to the JDM Innova. Bizarrely the Accord version had framed glass versus the Innova’s frameless. Yet the surrounding body was unchanged which indicates more money wasting from Honda! Euro Accord pic added to the original shot above.
CE Ascot, all yours for only NZ$2,499 – dent behind headlight thrown in at no charge!
In 1993 the JDM gen1 was replaced by the CE-series which rocked up at the same time as the CD Accord. The CD Accord had grown a tiny tad too tubby for Japanese tastes (and regulations), so the CE Ascot sat on an updated and revised CB platform. Continuing Honda’s rudderless approach with the CB platform, the CE Ascot swapped the engine position from being transversely-mounted to longitudinal… A bizarre thing to do, but at least it gained quite pleasing RWDesque proportions. Of course it was still FWD so Honda was lying to us through styling!!
Time for a booty call! – and it’s roomy enough for box-loads of foreign language dictionaries.
Before we continue down the road of my unintentional COAL, let’s take a side street into JDM-model-namingville. Honda, that shameless hussy, casually stole the Ascot name from the famed British racecourse, to give the car “an alleged air of class and elegance”. Or so says Wikipedia anyway. But the CE Ascot was also sold as the Rafaga, and Wikipedia has no idea where that originated. Plugging Rafaga into Google Translate reveals it to mean ‘burst’ in Spanish. Whilst not as hilariously bad as Pajero in Spanish (“Que se masturba con frecuencia!”), I’m not sure a “Honda Burst” would have sold well in Spanish-speaking lands. Although it does allow us to have fun in English – “I just ran over a piece of jagged metal and my f-ing tyre rafagaed!”, or for the younger audience, “Hold on dude, I just gotta rafaga this zit before we hit the skate park…”
Yep, still a Magnificent Honda from behind too! Photography by Adam Kay.
Anyway, where was I? Better corral my thoughts, they’re rafagaing all over the place. Oh yeah, let’s go back to 1993 in Japan. Someone – let’s call him Takeshi – trotted into his local Honda Primo dealer and said “私は堂々と響きの名前で、何かを新しい車をお願いして購入したいのですが!”. What? You don’t read Japanese? Me neither, so to translate, Takeshi asked for a nice new car, with a regal name. “I’m sorry sir,” came the reply, ” We don’t sell the Buick Regal”. Once that wee confusion was sorted out, Takeshi’s eyes alighted (alit?) upon a charcoal grey car sitting alone in the corner of the showroom. Further enquiries revealed it to be an about-to-be-replaced Honda Ascot. And not just any Ascot, but an Ascot FBX…Limited! Definitely regal-sounding! Keen to reel Takeshi in and seal the deal with zeal before he turned heel, the dealer showed Takeshi this Honda promo video of the Ascot, and all its features. “Yo dawg, woo-hoo, this ride be pimpin’ and I be rollin’ y’all!”, said Takeshi, in a typically restrained Japanese way, and the Ascot FBX (Limited!) became his.
Phwoar, this is what 118 – count ’em! – raw horse-power looks like. *makes Tim-the-Toolman style grunt*
Despite the top-spec name, the FBX Limited actually came with the bottom-spec engine – no doubt satisfying Takeshi’s desire to avoid a display of ostentatiousness. I think that’s a real word. The engine was Honda’s familiar F-series pick-up that powered various Hondas, Acuras and Rovers from 1988 to 2009. The Ford Honda F-series was available in a variety of capacities and levels of tune, from 1848cc to 2254cc and 88kW (118bhp) to 150kW (200bhp). 88kW didn’t seem much for a car that was 4.68 metres long (184 inches), but then again, it only weighed 1,360kg (3,000 pounds), so Takeshi found the performance to be quite adequate for his modest needs. And even though the transmission was Honda’s 4-speed automatic, he found the fuel economy to be excellent! The Buick regal Ascot had plenty of luxury features too – power windows and locking, digital air-conditioning, cup holders, nice velour upholstery, thick woollen floor mats and so many soft-touch surfaces!
Mmmm, velourishly velourish velour and soft-touch plastic almost everywhere. #whatchangedhonda?
After 5 years blissfully blissful blissfulness, Takeshi decided it was time for someone else to enjoy the Magnificent Honda, as he termed it. So he released the Ascot into the wild, figuring if you love something you should set it free. Plus the ashtrays were all full and he didn’t want to clean them. So with just 54,548km on the odometer, the Ascot went to one of Japan’s huge used-car auctions, and was snapped up by one of New Zealand’s used car importers. On my Grandfather’s 81st birthday, 17 November 1998, the Ascot arrived at a place named Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It was then sold to someone probably not named Takeshi. Eventually, in July 2002, it arrived on the lot of a dealer in the nearby-to-me North Island city of Hamilton.
Nodding duck sold separately.
My accountant (and my now-employer) Craig and his wife Jenny, who were also friends from Church, had started their family, and wanted something a bit bigger and newer than their 1988 Ford Telstar (a Mazda 626 in lippy and heels), so the Magnificent Honda became theirs. I remember them buying it and thinking it looked nice – Jenny almost rafagaed with pride when she told me recently that she “was so proud of that car!”, and they enjoyed it until January 2006, when their increasing family size required something bigger again (a Toyota Granvia if you feel like googling obscure JDM vehicles).
At the same time as they were selling the Magnificent Honda, my best friend Dale was looking at upgrading from his 1986 Toyota Corolla, and as he’s not into cars, he got me to test-drive the Ascot with him. Feels like only yesterday instead of almost 9 years ago! After about a kilometre, I pronounced the Honda easily – easily! – the s l o w e s t petrol car I’d ever driven. 118 horsepower? Yeah, nah, some of those horses were canned and being ingested by a nearby dog. Although, TBH, it was quick compared to Ol’ Smoky, my Glorious 1992 Nissan Laurel diesel that used 5 litres of oil per 1,000km, but I digress. Anyhoo, after negotiation, the Magnificent Honda commenced its life with Dale. I’d taught Dale to drive, and I knew he looked after his cars really well, so I figured the Honda would last him reliably for years.
After-effect of hit-&-run incident. The Magnificent Honda stoicly refused to die, despite my superbly low-quality “Bash the dents out with a bit of 4-by-2 and then apply copious Phillips-head screws” style of repairs.
Fast-forward eight years to June this year (2014), and Dale and his wife Jo decided to buy a newer car with those newfangled safety things called airbags and ABS. They also wanted a car that was cool – literally so, as the Ascot’s a/c had long since died. At the same time, my parents were wanting to sell their 2007 Subaru Legacy wagon, so a deal was struck that saw Dale and Jo buy the Subaru. Which meant they had the Magnificent Honda to dispose of. The Magnificent Honda didn’t especially want to be disposed of, as, after eight years of reliability, it broke down and refused to start on the day before the Subbie arrived. Complicating this even further was it broke down in Dale’s garage…which was under his house…at the bottom of a steep driveway…that had a 75º bend in it…
Not a Magnificent Honda, but its replacement, a Superb Subaru.
Having committed to buying the Subbie, they refused to spend any money on the Honda and offered it to me as-is-where-is for its scrap value (NZ$300), if I could get it out of their garage. My Dad’s a retired Honda mechanic, and I’m reasonably mechanically minded, so I figured the gods were on my side and for the second time in my life, I bought a Magnificent Honda! Although my first one, a 1985 CA flip-lights Accord, was an Anti-Magnificent Honda; an ill-handling lumpen leaky thing that cost me a fortune in engine repairs and made me swear off (and at!) Hondas. My behated (as opposed to beloved) CA taught me that “Honda” was an actually an acronym for Hated One, Never Drive Another! But, I knew Dale’s Ascot had been very well serviced and looked after, so I took a gamble that it could be fixed quickly and cheaply and on-sold quickly and expensively, thus leaving me rolling in riches. Oh, how we sit around and laugh now at what a jolly golly folly that turned out to be!
Magnificent Honda, displaying hoof marks from pixies on the bonnet.
Once retrieved from the garage, the break-down and refusal to start was tracked down to a faulty distributor, one of three main known faults with the F-series engine. Once a replacement distributor was fitted, the car ran fine, so I sold it a week later and waved it goodbye. And then waved it hello again a couple of days later when it broke down for the new owner… After I got another of the three main known faults, the igniter module, replaced, I waved the car off again. And waved it hello again very shortly thereafter when it broke down again! The Magnificent Honda was rapidly descending into another H.O.N.D.A.!! Because I value my integrity, I gave the now-former not-new buyer his money (+an additional 10%) back, so a couple weeks after selling it, I became the owner of a less-than-Magnificent Honda for the third time in my life…
With two of the three main known faults fixed, it seemed logical that the remaining unfixed fault was at, er, fault. So the ignition wiring harness from the steering column to the fusebox was replaced, and the car was once again mobile. I’d given up on any idea of making a profit on it by now, but wasn’t happy to on-sell it until I was certain it was back to its normal level of reliability and sheer Magnificence. So for the next three months, I decided to begrudgingly drive the Ascot (FBX Limited!) everywhere, around town and on long trips, daring, willing it to break down…!
It’s alive! Photography by Adam Kay.
And over those three months, something unexpected, something strange began to occur…It didn’t break down and I began to fall in like with the Magnificent Honda. I know, I know, I was as surprised as you! It wasn’t rear-wheel-drive, it wasn’t achingly beautiful, it wasn’t anything like what I normally liked. But what it was, was nice. It didn’t do anything brilliantly, but neither did it do anything poorly. It was quick enough, quiet enough, rode and handled well enough, more-than comfy enough, way-more than economical enough, big-windowed-with-superb-visibility enough, and almost every interior surface was soft-touch-enough in a way that modern Hondas aren’t. But above all, it exuded a feeling of quiet solidity and reliability. It was easy to drive and easy to live with; it made life…easy.
This is the face of love like! Photography by Adam Kay.
By October this year, I had fleeting thoughts of keeping the Magnificent Honda instead of my Glorious Nissan (not Ol’ Smoky, who long since coughed his last breath), but the Glorious Nissan had airbags and ABS and working a/c. And then I unexpectedly bought My Unintentional COAL II (story coming next week!), so the Honda had to go. Within a week of advertising it, a young man by the name of Adam, with stunningly-brightly-coloured shoes, had driven it, liked it, and bought it. It had cost me over NZ$1,000 for the repairs, so true to my prediction I made no money out of it, but I almost broke even, and think I achieved something even better: I kept an old but tidy, reliable and perfectly usable car from clogging up yet another scrap yard. The Magnificent Honda gets to live another day, and will hopefully provide Adam with years of reliable service! Being something of a photographer, he very kindly took the four stylish photos of the car featured above for me. I’m pleased to see the Magnificent Honda still looking Magnificent, and who knows, maybe Adam too will fall in like with the Magnificent Honda!
Brilliant write up!
“Yeah, nah, some of those horses were canned and being ingested by a nearby dog.”
That’s the hardest I’ve laughed this week!
+1 a great read thanks Scott.I thought this Honda looked familiar and then found out it was also a Rover 600.
Thanks folks! 🙂
How weird, just a slightly bizarro version of the car I grew up in the backseat of. My family bought one of the USDM 1990 Accords like this new when I was 5, and it was a phenomenal car. We owned it for 15 years, and over 170K troublefree miles.
Only foible was the power antennae NEVER worked from new, Honda replaced it 3 or 4 times before we just gave up and left it in the up position. And it needed a new clutch at 130k miles, after I learned to a drive a stick on it when I was 16.
When it had about 100k miles on it, a Quick lube place drained the oil, and didn’t refill it during an oil change. We got about 5 miles away, it started making terrible noises, so we pulled over and shut it off. Had it towed to the dealership, they simply refilled the oil, started it up, and it never had an issue from the experience, still ran like a top for years afterwards.
It would still be going today if a wreck (brothers…) hadn’t taken it off the road.
I remember our 1994 Camry Wagon (made in Indiana) also had a failed power antenna. Radio reception wasn’t affected much, so we never fixed it. Maybe this came from the same supplier.
The rear washer also stopped working, but I was too cheap to fix this, too.
Power antennas must be tricky things in general. We had one on our Audi 5000, which quit working one day and was left up. That is, until Dad somehow managed to shut the trunk lid onto the extended antenna, snapping it in half.
Seeing as how we were forced to replace it at that point to get FM reception, it worked again after that…
I never knew these existed. So cool to see the Accord dash in right hand drive, and in a vehicle I have never seen or heard of before. I too had many of the US versions of the Accord, my favorite was a 1993 EX wagon, 5-speed, seattle silver with red interior. Phenomenal car! The power antenna gave up when it was about 9 years old, but that car ran perfectly for well over 250k miles. Rust led to its eventual demise. I will never forget that wonderful automobile.
Here’s another pic of mine showing the dash:
One of the best dashboards of all time! Great writeup, Scott.
Nice looking interior. For some reason, we don’t get very many right-hand drive cars here in North America. I’d buy one in a heartbeat. My favourites are Toyotas, Hondas, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.
It probably has something to do with the fact that we drive on the other side of the road relative to Japan and New Zealand etc….although you can find Subaru Legacys and a few others if you search a bit, they were made for sale to rural postal carriers.
The only problem is finding one in good condition.
There’s a fifth version too; the European market 1993 Accord. It looks almost the same as the Ascot Innova save that it has conventional B and door pillars (so the front door is identical to the Rover 600). It was facelifted in 1996 and replaced in ’98.
That platform was certainly value for money!
Oh, good catch! That’s the one CB we didn’t get here, and although I’m aware of it, I’d always assumed it used frameless glass like the Innova! I’ll grab a photo of one and add it to the montage above. Thanks Bernard!
My pleasure, Scott. Though they were never officially sold in the UK I did walk past an Ascot Innova near my old place in London, probably about 10 years ago – bit of a double-take of course – an Accord with frameless windows…?!
Interestingly, since you reminded me of the Euro Accord, I’ve spent a bit of time online researching them. It seem one of their known weaknesses is the front windows have a habit of coming out of the runners, so maybe Honda/Rover retrofitting frames to the doors wan’t such a good idea afterall!
Because I value my integrity, I gave the now-former not-new buyer his money (+an additional 10%) back
Giving the purchaser more money back than they paid? I apologize if this comes across as rude, but I’m not sure if that’s generous or ignorant. Common sense dictates a 20+ year old car that costs $300 isn’t going to be fault-free. You are a better man than I Scott.
Yeah, but I’m the one who paid $300 for it; I sold it for a lot more than that (the repairs came to over $1,000, and I’d also had other remedial work done on it that isn’t mentioned above). I’d advertised the car as well serviced, well looked-after and extremely reliable. The second time it broke down was in the fast lane of NZ’s busiest motorway, en route to the Auckland airport where he was due to pick up his heavily pregnant fiancée who had to wait 3 hours with a tired 3-year-old in the heat for him… So I felt compensating him for the inconvenience was the least I could do.
Understood; even I’d feel pretty awful in those circumstances. The world could use more genuinely good people like you.
Aw shucks *blushes*
You are good guy, Scott. Karma is real, and I am sure yours is the best.
When in Canada, come for dinner. Practice using chop sticks first.
Chop sticks? Down here we call ’em axes…! (kidding!)
You’d think my karma should be good, but wait until you read about My Unintentional COAL II next Friday, it’s more bad drama than good karma…
Those familiar with me know I like Honda products a lot, which is why I keep driving them. They simply work. You get in a Honda, sit down and every control is absolutely obvious. The visibility is good, the cars are easy to drive and every Honda car I have ever driven has at least a hint of sportiness. You cannot say that about a Hyundai or a Toyota, but then again, Hondas tend to cost a bit more.
I have a hard time keeping excellent cars, and my present Honda is, believe it not, the longest I have ever kept a daily driver. For a big part of this year, I was car shopping. We drove everything out there in our budget level (around C$40,0000) and there was only one I liked as much as my Honda, a 2010 Passat 2.0T DSG, but the thought of German car repairs kept me away.
Thus I have decided to keep my old Honda and make it into a real CC. It simply pushes all the right buttons for me, and I enjoy driving it every day, even if it usually seems like a greyhound straining on its leash in our horrible Vancouver traffic.
Even though I hated my CA (well, I lie, I loved the styling), it was a very nice place to sit because everything was perfectly placed. Quite simply, it (and the CB) are very, very good ergonomically. Well for 5’7″ me anyway; 6′ Dale found the ergonomics were poor for him and the driver’s seat didn’t go nearly far enough back.
Nice looking Honda. It’s too bad it was never sold here in the USA. Even as an Acura, I think it looks way better than the Legend when it first debuted. 🙂
It does look much classier than a US Spec Accord. They should have sold it here.
I agree. I’ve never understood why JDM Japanese cars aren’t generally allowed to be sold here in North America. Is it because of the Japanese safety standards being different from ours? I would think there would be a way around that.
I’ve often wondered that – I mean we get all these random cars second hand, but a lot never showed up here new. Although we are a tiny market, so that wouldn’t help.
One possible factor regarding JDM cars is the quality of the interior trim – some aspects of the Ascot were far less sturdy than the equivalent CB Accord. The picture below illustrates one such example (two if you count the door handle), the black plastic moulding containing the window/door controls.
On the Ascot, this moulding (without the grey plastic surround shown in the photo) simply clips into an opening in the soft-touch armrest. Over time, this opening grows a little, due to warping of the armrest. This means the black moulding moves around a little and the edges start cracking and breaking apart until eventually there’s not enough left to stop the moulding (and buttons) disappearing down inside the door trim.
On the Accord, the same black moulding is set into a sturdy grey plastic surround which is much wider and contoured to the shape of the armrest. It’s not soft-touch like the Ascot of course, but the black moulding remains intact.
When the moulding breaks on one’s Magnificent Honda Ascot, simply buying another Ascot moulding+buttons won’t last because you’ve still got the slightly warped hole in the door trim. So, easiest thing to do is buy the larger Accord set-up as I did for my Magnificent Honda (photo below is of mine). It does result in a lip at the rear, but because the grey surround is properly supported, and in turn is properly supporting the black moulding, the buttons will never again disintegrate and vanish inside the door!
There were a few other areas of trim on the car where the plastic design/quality wasn’t as sturdy as on the NZ-new CB Accords too. Trim design/quality is but a tiny factor overall though.
Japan ‘ s shaken inspection system means it is not economic to keep a car longer than 5 years. Perhaps this accounts for the cheaper interior bits.
It’s puzzling because the Ascot was a bit more expensive than a comparably equipped Accord — not much (¥10,000), but you’d think that would cover some better moldings.
True, but in the Ascot’s window/mirror controls looked smoother and classier than the Accord’s; and the entire door trim was soft touch, unlike the Accord. So I suspect a degree of money and differentiation went into perceived style and and finish, without thought of the practicality or longevity of said design.
I have a little experience here FWIW. I lived in Japan for several years and, when finally returning to the States, I looked into bringing a JDM motorcycle back with me. I figured it would be no big deal as motorcycles don’t have the ‘Hey! Your steering wheel is on the wrong side!’ problem, and don’t have catalytic converters, crash testing, or safety glass rules to worry about. However, it turned out to be basically impossible – the bike required a sticker certifying it met DOT standards or, failing that, a bond, modification to meet DOT standards, and then being placed in impound for roughly six months for testing and inspection. Then there are dozens of things that must be altered. Turns out that every hose on the thing must have a ‘DOT Approved’ marking on it or it must be changed out for one so marked. The list goes on and one. The tires, the lights – you name it. Never mind that the JDM equivalent is at least the same quality.
TL/DR: Unless the vehicle is really, really special and/or old enough to have the requirements waived, it’s not practical.
I heard that inspection system was nothing more than a bit of Industrial Policy to prop up the car industry, as part of Japan’s postwar economic recovery. And that SCAP (Gen. Douglas MacArthur, whom locals called “gaijin shogun”) instigated it.
I think his imperious personality, which understandably irritated many Americans like Prez. Truman, actually worked in his favor while in Asia.
From a vehicle safety/inspection viewpoint, the Shaken inspection system appears to be of similar standard to NZ’s WOF (Warrant Of Fitness) inspections. The difference is our WOF costs less than NZ$50 each 6-13 months, whereas the Shaken is around NZ$3,000 for a very similar inspection. So the inspection isn’t ridiculously difficult, it’s more that it’s ridiculously expensive.
It’s worth noting that the Ascot’s grille actually looks a lot like that of the late (KA5/KA6) Japanese-market Legend, which was toward the end of its life when the CB Ascot was introduced. The chromier grille wasn’t exported — I assume American Honda didn’t think it would sell.
Scott, darn it all, you’ve made my sides hurt from reading this. When a fatboy’s gut gets to flopping around from laughter, bad things can happen! Well done!
This reminds me of a question I’ve had for a while. When JDM cars are imported into NZ, are there records attached to them for the prospective new owner? I’m sure there likely is, but this has got me curious. I cannot imagine in this day and age that these would be the proverbial pig in a poke.
I’m a fatboy too. Well, not really, but I carry a few more kg than I’d like. So I started at a gym last night, first time in my life! I’m so sore this morning I can barely press the buttons on the keyboard… 😮 Gaining exercise from laughing sounds much more palatable but I already paid for the personal trainer!
Nope, there are usually zero records from Japan on imported cars. If you’re really lucky the owner’s manual/service book might be included, but it’ll generally tell you little as a) it’ll be entirely in Japanese, and b) the Japanese appear not to service their cars at all. Ever. My old R33 Skyline came into NZ with 98,000km on it; it had its service book (that I kept for posterity when later trading the car), that showed it received its 1,500km service and nothing thereafter…!
So the standard rule when imports come in, is to assume they haven’t been touched since leaving the factory and to service the heck out of everything serviceable. They need to go through a VIN process here, and many standard things like brake pads etc need to be checked and/or replaced as part of this.
Most cars bought at Japanese auctions will come with a report giving them a ‘Grade’ rating, so that’s what the NZ importers rely on and often use in advertising here. Other importers, refurbish cars here to give the prospective purchasers piece of mind. Toyota NZ does a roaring trade in importing used Toyotas – they refurbish them in their former assembly plant, and will even paint them if need be. They’re then sold as ‘Signature Class’ cars, commanding a premium over lesser importers’ wares.
Some JDm imports go straight to scrap as they cant be complied som die within weeks some(most I assume) run for years trouble free some JDM cars that didnt originate in Japan are a parts nightmare because they dont match the models sold here new UK Fords being a prime example JDM cars differ and there is no local parts back up and most people dont find out until their used import dies and cant be revived
Great write-up Scott! I’ve heard of this car before, but never really knew a lot about it besides it was similar to the Accord. I like the full-width taillights! It’s a shame we never and still don’t get some of the more interesting JDM Hondas here in North America.
Thanks Brendan – and congrats on being the first to mention ‘1990-93 Accord’ in yesterday’s clue!
Funny story and some good information albeit some of it was several years too late. Had an 83(?) accord that I loved but it kept breaking. Turns out it was a batch of wires that were somewhat melted. Probably the ignition module IIRC. Got tired of it breaking but think it was fixed by the time I sold it. Just tired of the hassle.
Good post.
I’d never heard of ignition wiring/module faults until the Magnificent Honda entered my life, but my mechanic told me although uncommon with the older Nissans I’ve been driving for years, it’s quite common with older Hondas.
Having a somewhat twisted thought process myself, I almost had coffee spraying out the nose! The few differences between this car and a US Accord really gave your car an upscale, classy look. And your classy move when the car sale didn’t work out is something that’s sadly all too rare today. I didn’t love this write up, but I really liked it.
And I didn’t love your comment 67Conti but I did fall in like with it! 😉
The Ascot was yet another of a litany of JDM “twins”: similar models with slightly different cosmetics sold through different dealer channels. Honda was never nearly as successful at that particular trick as was Toyota, which originated the practice. (Toyota had a much stronger JDM sales network overall — Honda had lots of franchises, but many were little-bitty operations with very limited facilities.)
The Ascot did poorly in Japan, I think in both incarnations. Masaaki Sato puts part of the blame on a disastrous ad campaign that cemented the CB Ascot as a car for old fogies, but Japanese buyers hadn’t been terribly thrilled with the CB Accord to begin with, so it wasn’t starting off on a good footing.
The CE Ascot Innova/Rafaga I’m inclined to attribute to Honda’s protracted effort to get its money’s worth from the G-block five. They introduced the G20A (1,996cc) version in the 1990 CB5 Vigor and Accord Inspire, which were quickly replaced by the bigger CC version (North American Vigor). The CC was in the ordinary car tax class, so in 1993, Honda basically reinvented the original (which was in the small car class), figuring there might be a market for a version that was cheaper to run. Since the five-cylinder Ascot and Rafaga lasted only one generation, I guess the market’s response was, “Nah.” The longitudinal five was expensive, made for poor packaging efficiency, and was a tough sell against rivals with sixes.
Although the CB Ascot did well here (used, obviously), it certainly had a more staid image than the CB Accord which from new had a sports-luxury vibe.
Your comment about the CE being part of Honda’s plan to get value for money from the G-series engine sounds about right, and certainly matches what I’ve heard over here.
The CE’s packaging was pitiful after the superbly-roomy CB – my Ascot had the same 2720mm wheelbase as my current C35 Nissan Laurel, and was shorter and narrower than the Laurel. Yet it was so much more spacious inside, and the boot seemed twice the size! The CE by comparison is about as inefficient as the Laurel is.
The CE was actually 50mm longer in wheelbase than your Ascot, but Honda lopped 125mm out of the overall length. A disproportionate amount of the CE’s wheelbase was taken up by the powertrain — the gearbox sits behind the longitudinal five, so you can see the dilemma.
If you could have gotten the 2.5-liter CE5 with a five-speed manual (like the U.S. Vigor), it might have been an interesting combination as a driver’s car just because it was quite compact and around 100 kilos lighter than a 2.5-liter Vigor, but it’s hard to see it being terribly roomy inside.
Cool car, and great read.
Here in the US of A, this was a Honda Ascot.
Hahaha, love it, that’s awesome! 😀
Actually, there were two motorcycle Honda Ascots: The dual-port (4 valve) 500cc single (FT500 sold in ’83 and ’84), and the V-twin 500cc (VT500, sold in ’84 and ’85, 1964bler’s picture). Both brought out at the same time, both with the styling of the dirt track racers.
And both were sales flops, due to the usual Honda tactic of pricing it too high. Back at that time, for some reason, anytime Honda brought out something interesting that wasn’t a classic CB in-line four, they priced it at a level where you could swear they were trying to amortize the tooling in the first model year. Which means it didn’t sell worth a damn – I believe these cost a couple hundred more than a CB650 Nighthawk, and weren’t as fast. Which led to them being virtually given away by the dealers once they became two year old leftover new bikes sitting on the showroom floor. And have become very desired bikes by vintage motorcycle collectors, selling for way more than a garden variety CB550, 650 or 750 of the same year.
These weren’t the only mistakes. GB550’s (the Velocette-retro) and 649 GT Hawk (forunner of the Suzuki SV650 and a much better bike) immediately come to mind.
My brother bought an FT500 with a broken starter motor for an easy winter project.Err not quite,Honda wouldn’t sell the repair kit but would be happy to sell a new starter motor at silly money.Needless to say there was no kick start and it wasn’t possible to fit one.He got lucky as a guy at work was building a single cylinder racer and he sold him a working starter motor.This was big brothers last Honda motorcycle winter project.
When I was in Japan in the 1990’s, every single Kiwi and Assuie took car home with them and why not? Loads of low km, cool cars were available, most of them right hand drive. The Skyline was hands down the favourite permutation. I had a Japanese friend with a four door hardtop Skyline with a two litre, fuel injected SOHC six and four speed automatic. He picked it up with like 60,00 km on it for less than $2000. A really nice car, but the evil sha-ken made it undrivable in a few years.
Yes, some cars go for next to nothing. Seems a ridiculous waste of resources to build a car than effectively legislate it off the road 5-10 years later via the Shaken system. And yet, I believe it’s not the Shaken that’s the issue, but the outlandish cost of it. The Shaken and NZ’s WOF (Warrant Of Fitness) system are quite similar in what and how they inspect. Our 6-12 months WOFs are less than NZ$50; whereas a Shaken is over NZ$3,000…
I didn’t mention in the article, but we also get quite a few LHD vehicles from Japan. As the Japan-NZ used-car-import systems are so deeply ingrained, it’s a lot easier to get, say, a LHD Corvette here from Japan that it is from the States.
Aussie were often after Skyline engines to revive their Nissan powered VL Commodores the mash up was a disaster for Holden buyers the engines are too tall for the Holden engine bay meaning the head is higher than the radiator top tank and if it run low on coolant warped heads were the result and it happened time after time Skylines were a hard sell in Aussie Nissans had a horrible reputation so there arent many spare heads in scrapyards unlike NZ which is littered with dead Skylines
What a bizarre looking “Accord” with the broughamy grille and tail lights that look like they belong on a Subaru Legacy.
The lights+grille always remind me of the ’82-5 Accord – if you told me the CB had been the direct replacement for the ’82-5 without the CA having existed, I could believe it.
I got backended by a Honda Accord(ian) while driving my 2008 Dodge Avenger. I got a small hole in my back bumper, whilst the Accordian was totaled. He was driving around 25 mph and I was stopped to make a left turn. His hood was in the windshield, the block was cracked, the radiator destroyed, the crossmember was bent, and the door didn’t open easily. The body shop couldn’t believe the two cars were in the same accident. I barely even felt the impact. I am still looking for a new bumper cover.
My behated CA Accord ended its life when the new owner got T-boned from both sides at the same time (he drove through a 4-way intersection without stopping). It was a relatively low-speed crash (less than 50km/h) but the Honda’s engine head cracked in half and the front broke off!! The bonnet also ended up through the windscreen. The doors were all jammed shut, but the sunroof proved useful as an emergency exit…
Ah, the perverse pleasure of driving a car you don’t have to care about.
Very fascinating car, in the “kind of like what we had but not really” JDM way. I always wondered how they recovered their tooling costs, with so many different permutations of the same car that all had unique sheet metal, unique trim…but it certainly makes for some interesting “alternate universe” versions!
Something I’ve never understood about the Japanese and their cars is why they don’t keep their cars for a very long time before selling it to someone else, why they abandon the car by the side of the road when a car no longer serves its purpose. I have a 2006 USDM Toyota Corolla which has 116,000 miles on the odometer, and it’s still going strong. I plan to sell the car at around 300k miles, hopefully while it’s still running and it’s still safe to drive. 🙂
To some extent, it’s a lot like General Motors in the ’50s: The advantages of maximizing your utilization of the inner body shell (which I assume is the most expensive part of the body tooling, particularly with a monocoque car) and running gear while increasing your product range generally outweigh the added cost of some different exterior panels and bumper covers — particularly if you can build all the variations on the same line, which by the ’80s many of the Japanese manufacturers could.
The other consideration for the Japanese was increasing their dealer penetration. More models allow for more stores and (theoretically) more sales. There’d probably be an interesting thesis project here for some Japanese-fluent finance grad student — I’m not sure if the manufacturers rolled the near-duplicate models together when calculating tooling amortization, although that would make a certain amount of sense.
On a serious note, a young man I taught to drive many years ago bought a 4-wheel-steering Ascot and later had a very serious accident in it, with a passenger killed. It was hit in an oblique angle right in the rear door/wheel arch. All the spot welds in the floor pan’s side-to-side seam and cross member (runs under the back seat) let go and the D-pillar ripped apart from the roof right at the top seam. The entire back end of the car pivoted at the (still connected) opposite D-pillar, to end up splayed 45 degrees from the front. I remember looking at the wreck and observing the back end could be swing back into place & spot-welded back together, so clean was the tearing apart (the back windscreen didn’t even smash). I mention this now as a stark reminder of the dangers present every day on the roads.
That’s not good. I’m sorry to hear that.
Some kids hit a tree on Marine Parade in a 90s Honda Ascot it literally split in half strong they are not JDM cars often do not meet the crash standards required in export markets as they leave a lot of the extra metal out side intrusion beams being a favourite delete,
Yeah, I was shocked at how weak the welds were across the Ascot’s floorpan, and can’t believe that an export Accord would be allowed to be as underdone. But I guess getting hit obliquely right on a rear door+wheelarch would put a hell of a lot of pressure on a monocoque body shell.
The difference between old and new JDM designs was starkly shown to me last Thursday night, when an R34 Skyline drifted across the centreline outside my house and hit a 2006 Toyota Caldina obliquely in the rear door+wheelarch. Whereas the Ascot’s rear end tore off all those years ago, the Caldina simply spun violently while the R34 ended up 100 metres up the road minus a lot of its front-right. R34 driver was a drunk teenager…no injuries thankfully…
I imagine if you hit hard enough, or if someone T-Boned the car hard enough, the car would split in two, and if someone was un-lucky enough to be in the car, the scene would be quite gruesome. 🙁
Yes indeed – and I guess there’s a lot of mass in that rear wheelarch area which would have some heft if hit. I was still impressed at how the Caldina was hit at the same angle in the same place and its body remained in one piece (although its wheel, bumper and lower door skin got ripped off!).
D’oh! Bugger! 🙁
Thanks for sharing this. It’s always so interesting to see variants of a car not sold where you live. Especially such a ubiquitous car as the Honda Accord! It does feel a bit like a visit to a parallel universe though. I think it’s a nice looking car, but the Toyota Camry-esque roofline (from the Camry of a few years earlier than this) would take some getting used to! Overall the design themes are a bit busier and make the car look a little older than the US version of the time. Not that it’s a bad thing — it just makes it more interesting now!
Good point Chris – it does make the Ascot look older than the CB Accord. As I said above, the Ascot looks like it could be the direct replacement for the 1982-85 Accord, without the fliplight CA having existed. And yes, it does make it all the more interesting!
Yes — of course, weren’t there variants of the flip-light (3rd generation) Accord that didn’t have the flip up lights? The full-width taillight treatment is another thing that seemed to be in style for a while, but was falling out of favor by the early ’90s.
The Accord variant that we didn’t get here in the US that intrigues me most is the Aerodeck of 1986-89 or so. So cool!
Yes indeed, there are fixed-light gen3 (CA) Accords – and as you’d expect we got boatloads (literally!) here, but most are long dead now. A former workmate had one actually. They look nice, but bland compared with the quirkiness of the flip lights!
And yes, the full width lights seemed very popular between 1989ish to 1993ish, especially with red+clear lenses only (and using orange bulbs for the indicators so they were disguised unless active). Nissan and Honda seemed to go through a phase where they facelifted most of their JDM models with full width along those red+clear lines.
We got the Aerodeck new and as a used-import; there’s a really grungy one that I see occasionally in town, but only when I’m camera/phoneless! Dad worked for Honda when they came out, and I remember thinking they were soooo cool! I still have the NZ brochure somewhere!
Here’s a fixed light CA:
Good-looking car, clearly, but to me it loses something compared to the unusual flip-light version. It also looks very much like a supersized and better-proportioned Civic. This CA Accord is, to this day, the only 4-door sedan with pop-up lamps that I can think of in the US market.
(I’m aware there was a 4-door sedan version of the Integra of the same vintage, also with pop-ups, but we didn’t get it in the US. Only the 3-door and 5-door hatchbacks. They had ’em in Canada so a few have probaly escaped across the border…)
Late to the party, but brace yourself:
An ascot, old bean? Quite nice. Yes. Yes. Quite. Quite. Eh wot?! Say no more! 🙂
My ascot matches my ascot. Yes. Yes. Quite. Quite.
OK I’ll stop now. 🙂
Here I say dear boy, tally ho wot wot, I shall doff my bally Ascot cap at you wot wot. 😉
Update: the magnificentesque Honda’s registration lapsed in 2019, and the registration was cancelled by the government’s motoring department on 19 October 2020. Farewell sweet but s l o w Ascot, no more races for you.