I remember hearing the buzz about these first-generation Accords when they were introduced back in 1976. (Fifty years ago? Really??) They were only available as a 2-door hatchback and paint options were limited to metallic blue, gold, or silver. The Honda Accord CVCC was larger and roomier than a Civic (Honda marketed it as a “larger, family-size car”), was fuel efficient, and friends and family who had them had nothing but positive things to say about this new Honda. The only negative I heard was that it wasn’t available in a 4-door, but that would be added to the Accord lineup in 1979. Here’s a 2-owner survivor with only 33,758 miles on the clock. It’s currently not running (the seller says the engine is fine but hasn’t run in probably 10 years). The seller’s father was in the process of fixing some body rust issue before illness put a halt to the project. It is located in Portage, Wisconsin and is listed for sale here on craigslist for $4,450 cash only. Thanks, Barney, for spotting this first-generation Accord and sending it our way.
The seller doesn’t give us any history of this Accord or how it came to be a project his father was working on. Overall, it looks decent to be 50 years old and appears to be original and not monkeyed with. The metallic blue paint looks original and you can see where rust repair had been done on the passenger front fender. Based on the limited photos, the car’s glass, rubber, and chrome bumpers look good.
Inside is classic mid-70’s Honda with a blue vinyl and cloth upholstery on the front bucket seats and rear bench seat, blue vinyl door panels, blue carpet, and a gray and black instrument panel and dash. I’m not seeing major wear on the front seats or any cracks on the dash. Accords came standard with a tachometer and a pushbutton AM/FM radio. Honda also boasted about their thoughtful instrument panel that included “a coin box to hold change for parking meters or bridge tolls, and a built-in tray on the face of the panel to hold sun glasses, maps (remember those?) and a large lighted glove compartment, all at no extra cost.” You can see trim parts and such in the floorboard as well as the rear cargo area which is typical of a stalled project.
Under the hood is the legendary Honda CVCC 1.6-liter inline-four cylinder engine that is paired with a five-speed manual transmission. It hasn’t been started in 10 years, is not currently running, and has been driven only 33,758 miles. This first generation of Accords really put Honda on the map and changed people’s minds that Honda built only reliable motorcycles. Now in its 11th generation, 15 million Accords have been sold in the U.S. since its June 1976 debut. You used to see these first-gen Accords everywhere, but they were driven, racked up lots of miles, weren’t strangers to Mr. Rust, and disregarded by owners for the next generation of Accords. Here’s a survivor that could make an interesting restoration project for just the right person.
I wonder.
Quite a find. I sure do remember the news. If the Civic didn’t win Americans over, this car did. In fact, many Civic owners moved on to the Accord, a brilliant strategy. While the Civic was touted mostly as a “city” car, the Accord was for traveling, economically. In fact, with airplanes still falling out of the sky, this was the cheapest, most reliable way of getting somewhere. And get they did, with Accords encompassing hundreds of thousands of miles, until, yep, rust ended that party.
Which brings me to this car, there is no way this car is from Wisconsin. Accords began rusting on the way home from the dealer in Wis. No, this was a southern car pops brought back. There is simply no other explanation, trust me. It’s a great find.
Many many years ago I had traded a black-and-white TV for one. I got it running and drove it for a couple years. I called it “Rhonda the rusty Honda”.
One time I went through a big puddle in the road and the whole rug lifted up and the floor filled up with water!
Amazingly though the air conditioner always worked, I ended up selling the car (for $800.00) to someone who just wanted to drive as far as he could towards California and trade it it when it broke down. He ended up making it to California with that car and called me to say that he actually made it without any problems and even the air conditioner kept working!
What a find!!! I was looking at the call out for the 5 speed on the hatch, in ’78 that was a big deal. 4 speeds were very commonplace as standard equipment on smaller cars in general. This just looks amazing. Love the colors too, and to add to what Ron wrote, maybe it was just me, but it really seemed like the 70’s and 80’s most Japanese cars were silver. So seeing this blue is a huge treat. And the lack of rust is a huge bonus. Hopefully it can get brought back to life without too much trouble. Thanks Ron!!!
Burgandy was popular. Two people in my part of town had them. The Civics were pretty frumpy back then, but these were sharp. Howard is correct, up north, rust was hard on them, ,even worse then a Volare fender, if you could believe that. (I teased my Mopar friends about that to no end. Good times)
Volared/Aspen and AMC fenders!
“This first generation of Accords really put Honda on the map and changed people’s minds that Honda built only reliable motorcycles.” I disagree, I feel that the Civic did that. (Naturally I would think that since I won many autocross and ice races with a Civic! ( lol) And yes, the 5 speed was a big deal. And would swap very easily with a 4 speed. I had a very modified 1237, high compression, Weber carburetor, 5 speed ’78 Civic that I should have never sold. Boy do I miss that car.
I owned a burgundy one. A flip car I bought with a bad engine and rebuilt. Kid that bought it drove it for years until it rusted down.
I started my apprenticeship as an auto body mechanic in a Chrysler dealership. Got paid 3 hours flat rate to change a pair of fenders on a volare. I did hundreds of them and I doubt if I made much money on any of them.
I had a burgundy colored 79 CVCC Accord! Loved it! Peppy and cheap to run! Dependable anytime of the year. Living in the New Hampshire the body disintegrated long before the any other components were tasked. A little while later, I got an 80 that didn’t have the CVCC and it was a bone with all the rust problems. The CVCC really was a very unique motor!
Speaking of callouts, I specifically remember this generation of Accords having a “Power Steering” badge on the horn button if so equipped. I have a small collection of call out emblems from 70s/80s Hondas/Mazdas/Toyotas that I picked up at various salvage yards in the 90s. Do you remember the Toyota SR5 logos?
Amazing. I had a hondamatic version. My second car in 1994.
This is exactly the Accord I’d have wanted if I wasn’t 4 years old in ’78; pool blue with a fun pedal.
Um, how about the spray can and filler on the right front side. Can’t tell exactly what it is, but it looks on the wrong side of amateurish to me.
You hit the nail on the head, Ron! These were a dime a dozen when I was a (big) kid. Seemed like they were everywhere. I’d all but forgotten about them until I saw this one. Great write-up & thanks for the trip down Memory Lane! And yes, they were quite prone to becoming Tin Worm food. I remember seeing them like that, too. GLWTS.
Gone!
The rust pictures also took me back to 1979 as ours rusted in the same spots and it wasn’t in the rust belt either. Then there’s the head gasket issues…
gave it away! already gone!
listed sold already! I assume
My 1st new car was a 5-speed 1980 Accord LX hatchback, in a metallic copper color Honda called “gold.” Fantastic car, especially for the time. There was a recall for rust on the tops of the front fenders which ignored since I didn’t have any rust – well, until a month after the recall expired… should have believed them and paid attention to all the other Accords running around with rust holes on top of the fenders. Bought for $7800, got $1800 on trade in on a 1987 Accord LX 4-door. No complaints.
I had a red 1978, so that must have been one of the colors :)
Here, our dealer took a $600 deposit and you waited 4-6 months for “your” car to show up, whatever color it may be. If you didn’t like it, you stayed in line and waited until one you liked showed up
We had to do the same thing in ’73 with our Civics we sold. Something had held up our initial shipments of cars. (We had just become a Honda store at the beginning of the year. But didn’t see our cars until mid-March. Meanwhile our allotment kept piling up at the yard.) When they started shipping cars it was like a parade through town. With the transport trucks leading the way and a stream of potential customers following. We had already taken deposits and each one in turn got their pick of colors. The people on the sidewalk in front of the dealership kept screaming I want that one! And we had a couple of times we had to call the police to break up fights in front of the dealership. We had been a long time Pontiac store. So when the gas crunch was on, (our dealer just like small cars and had read about the Civic which had been selling in England first with great reviews. So he arranged to get the Honda franchise BEFORE the gas crunch arrived.) But we didn’t get our cars until after it hit.When our first cars landed we already had a separate show room with an accessories section with all kinds of fun stuff like headers, air dams, Cosmic wheels and other goodies that we had shipped in from England. We already had 3 packages that people could choose from if they desired. And all if a sudden after a few of our cars hit the streets, we had other dealers wanting to buy accessories from us. (We wouldn’t sell to them!) We had great fun with the Civic. We found that we could recurve the distributor and bump the timing and that little car would scream. We took second place at the SCCA Solo II National Championship. We borrowed Carl Haas (US Lola dist. ) trailer to take the car long distances in case we broke it. But it never broke.
I really miss those days.
These were great little cars I owned a couple of them probably helped Honda become mainstream. The next body style, I think maybe 82 when it started, they actually became a family sized midsize sedan and the rest is history. They were bad about rusting.
Listing removed.
Very nice looking old Honda in all its late 70s glory. Wasn’t much you could add to one and that was part of the attraction. Walk in and be presented a complete car. I’m surprised that the radio was standard. Another feature was the variable assist power steering which we wouldn’t see on domestics for a couple of decades.
My sister had on just like this in silver
While in the Navy, upon my return from a deployment to the Mediterranean, I bought one of the first 1976 Accords (metallic Blue like this one) from a dealer in Newport, RI in May 1976 (I traded-in my 1969 Galaxie). Then, on a long weekend trip home to Roanoke, Virginia, my mother said “That’s such a cute little car, I love it” and I still (more than 50 years later) remember thinking “OH SHIT – IF MY MOTHER THINKS MY CAR IS SO CUTE – I’LL NEVER GET LAID”. Thankfully, the car was a non-issue for me :-).
This posting has been deleted by its author.. Sold?