Obviously, this new Accord is close in design and detail to the Accord Concept Coupe displayed at Detroit's auto show back in January. No bad thing. This is going to be a slick-looking Accord with a more angular look up front and more aggressive sculpting along the flanks than the current model. Don't expect much change mechanically, as the current four- and six-cylinder engines, with their accompanying transaxles, are likely to return intact. There's some chance the V6 will swell from 3.0- to 3.2-liters, as all V6s in the car's more expensive brother, the Acura TL, now displace 3.5 liters.
Inside will be a more extravagant interior than in previous Accords, with larger, chrome-ringed main instruments and enough on-board electronics to fill every Best Buy west of the Mississippi twice over.
Both the new Accord Coupe and its companion sedan should be on sale within the next few... oops, they just showed up at your local Honda dealer.
Chevy's TripletsA few years ago, Chevrolet sold itself as an iconic all-American brand, right up there with baseball and apple pie. But in the 21st century, Chevy is a global brand, sold in most of South America, a lot of Asia and probably Antarctica. And global brands can't just wrap themselves in red, white and blue, and hope patriotic fervor leads to sales. Nope, global brands actually need attractive products.
At the New York auto show, Chevrolet showed three micro car concepts. All three products of GM's design studio in Inchon, South Korea. Yup, no Americans were involved with developing these cars, beyond writing the press releases.
Sort of metallic frog green, the Beat is a front-driver powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine and is supposed to evoke images of tuners and high-energy technology. It also kind of looks like an Equinox SUV that's been squeezed in a vise-shrunken-head technology applied to automobiles.
The brownish/reddish one is the Trax, which is, Chevy says, "an urban crossover concept equally at home on the trails or in traffic." Yeah, but will it be at home, parked in a suburban garage next to rusting exercise equipment? Whatever, the Trax has all-wheel drive and is powered by a 1.0-liter gas engine.
Finally, the ominously dark concept is the Groove, an experiment in (and this is Chevy's word, not ours) "funkastalgia." The Groove's appearance is supposed to be "too tough-looking to be cute" with a combination of bold body shapes and old-school detailing. It's a front-driver powered by a 1.0-liter diesel engine.
All three concepts are more attractive than any Chevy micro car has a right to be. But no matter if they're straight outta Inchon or Compton, what really matters is if they have an effect on future production Chevys. That's something we'll find out over the next decade.