2018 Honda Accord Designer: "Accord Is an American Car"

The 2018 Honda Accord will be assembled in Marysville, Ohio. The overwhelming majority of its sales will occur in the United States of America. Its dimensions, inside and out, suit the U.S. market. In 2016, the Accord ranked second on Cars.com’s American-Made Index.

Open its trunk and a family of bald eagles fly out, having successfully incubated apple pies, having binge-watched every season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. There’s a subtle Statue of Liberty easter egg on the windshield, Hollywood signs engraved in its cupholders, and a 3D hologram of Mount Rushmore featuring a fifth character — Soichiro Honda — that emerges from the glovebox if you shift the manual transmission into sixth, say VTEC three times, and spit over your left shoulder.

The Accord, according to lead exterior designer Tetsuji Morikawa, “is an American car.”

To make sure of that, however, Morikawa said the design team, “wanted to feel like Americans.” And they wanted to finish their design of the 10th-generation Accord in the United States, not Japan.

Speaking to Automobile Magazine at the 2018 Accord’s July 14th launch, Morikawa elaborated on numerous design details, from the taillights (“The Civic’s taillights have a younger style, while the longer, sleeker Accord’s lights are more adult,” according to Morikawa) to the overall shape (the A-pillar positioning accentuates length, which, “combined with the shorter overhangs,” says Morikawa, “creates a very coupe-like form”) to the location in which the design work was done.

“Though we are a Japanese team, the light is different in Japan,” Morikawa told Automobile. “We wanted to feel like Americans to better create the design.”

Kelley Blue Book’s Jack Nerad also interviewed the new Accord’s design leader and learned more about Honda’s decision to bring the Accord design process to the United States. “We took the clay model of the car to the U.S. to see it in U.S. sunlight,” Tetsuji Morikawa tells KBB. Asked about different light, Morikawa says the light in Germany and Italy is grayish, for example, while a model in which Morikawa had previous felt comfortable was brought to the U.S. and “the light washed it all out.”

“So,” Morikawa says, “that’s why for this model I turned around and asked my boss if I could work on the model in the United States.” The result, at least in Honda’s view, is an American car for America.

Now we approach a discovery phase. Whether you like the new Accord or detest it, what are the chances that you’re a sedan buyer? Toyota believes the 2018 Camry will bring buyers back into the fold who may have considered straying from Camry to RAV4, thereby bolstering the segment as a whole. Camry sales are on track in 2017 to fall to a six-year low, subject to the new Camry’s ability to take off (or not).

With the Honda Accord, interior designer Yosuke Shimizu tells KBB, “We thought with a shrinking sedan segment, the people who are going to buy a sedan are people who really want to drive.” Shimizu mentions the seat positioning, the shapes of steering wheels and shift knobs, and a general desire, “to emphasize fun to drive.”

The Accord may be stylish, it may be fun, it may be decidedly American, but can it unwind the clock? Like the Camry, Accord sales are on track in 2017 to fall to a six-year low.

[Images: Honda]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.