Honda Accord Coupe Is Dead, but Honda Believes Accord Coupe Buyers Will Become Accord Sedan Buyers

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Honda’s probably right.

The coupe, long a staple of the American auto industry, is fading fast. Between automakers who insist on using phrases such as “four-door coupe” and “ SUV coupe” and automakers that are just plain killing off coupes and consumers who favor more practical bodystyles, one wonders how rare the bodystyle will be in 10, or even five years.

Now, the tenth-generation 2018 Honda Accord has appeared and the coupe variation we’ve known for decades is off the table. No coupe. Coupe be gone. Coupe discontinued. Coupe defunct. Coupe dead. Coupé de grâce, to thoroughly muddle the French.

Yet it’s Honda’s belief that the new sedan is enough to keep Accord Coupe buyers from straying from the fold.

“The sedan has dramatic enough styling to appeal to coupe intenders,” American Honda spokesperson Sage Marie tells Wards Auto.

And to be fair, love it or loathe it, the 2018 Honda Accord sedan’s styling is a dramatic interpretation of historic Accord design.

Of course, most of us have only seen the Accord in 2D. By the middle of next year there will be more than 300,000 of these 10th-gen Accords on American roads, a ubiquity that certainly diminishes the drama.

From a share perspective, American Honda won’t lose much if potential Accord Coupe buyers and current Accord Coupe owners veer away from the Accord. Roughly 5 percent of Accord sales were coupe-derived.

Yet 5 percent of the Accord is not nothing. Based on 345,225 total U.S. Accord sales in calendar year 2016, that’s roughly 17,200 Accord Coupe sales. For perspective, that’s not quite as common as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Audi A6; slightly more common than the BMW 2 Series, Fiat 500, and Lexus GS.

If Honda is correct, however, there won’t be a loss of 17,200 Accord Coupe sales, because those coupe buyers will value the roofline of the new Accord sedan, the Sport’s 2.0T/six-speed manual combo, and its weight loss.

More likely than not, Honda is both right and wrong. Honda will hold on to buyers who, previously, wanted an Accord and found the coupe to be the more stylish bodystyle. Honda will lose the coupe buyers who prioritized coupe design and just happened to end up with an Accord.

The good news for Honda? There’s a little thing called the Honda Civic Coupe, available in three forms, with a genuinely useable rear seat and more obviously coupe-ified styling.

As Honda clears out remaining 2017 Accord Coupe stock — there are roughly 5,000 available — Honda dealers will be happy to point customers to both the 2018 Accord sedan and another coupe inside the showroom.

Many other automakers no longer have such an offering.

[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.

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  • Barbarella_bumblebrain Barbarella_bumblebrain on Aug 01, 2017

    I am so peeved the coupe was axed....I remember our first Accord....a silver Accord Coupe....that's all there was in 77.......dang it.............I've had 5 or so Accord coupes so I'm sad.....few choices..........and I've never used the backseat except to throw a gym bag or something back there......they should've at least given Acura a coupe to compete and be less than Infiniti, Lexus, MBZ and Beemer coupes......and Civic Coupe? Fine looks great, really great.......not everyone wants a Civic...reminds me of the 80's in college.....Civic...blech..oh well, Honda........you're not alone, jerks...:) RIP Accord coupe......your original coupe in 77 is now disrespected.....sad..better sell my damn 2010 EXL Accord coupe before the value goes down even more....thanks Honda

  • RaptorZ RaptorZ on Mar 21, 2018

    Honda is sadly mistaken if they think coupe buyers are going to buy a grandma-mobile 4-door. Sorry, I've never had anything but a coupe, and I have a 2013 Honda Accord Coupe (first non Chevy i've ever owned), I love it, by far the best looking yaer Accord before they put that Gaudy Silver all over the front-intake area. The car had great power for a FW v6, all the gadgets you'd find in the more expensive coupes...but now I find myself left out in the cold on a coupe that's reasonably priced....and no I wont' buy a civic, Im not 17 years old. Big Mistake, Lost customer....

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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