EXPERT BLOGGERS SAY ACCORD HYBRID PROGRAM PROVES HONDA S INSANITY

Citing poor sales, Honda announced it was discontinuing its line of Accord Hybrids. Such a move, has attracted a large amount of speculation on the mental capacity of those in charge at Honda. For instance, wasn t the Honda Accord just named the official pace car of the 2007 IndyCar season? Widely-read environmental blog Accuweather informed their readers that all Hybrid Accords will be discontinued “Honda has dropped the line entirely, but will continue its line of Civic hybrids which continues to do well.” The author of the post, Laura Hannon, speculated that Honda s attempt to design and market a hybrid car to consumers who weren t typical purchasers of a Hybrid proved to be the Accord s undoing. “The Accord hybrid focused more on producing power than fuel economy, which I believe is the reason for its lack of success,” Hannon continued, “I don t think most people looking at hybrids are in the market for a performance sedan with a lot of extras.” Hannon put together a loose profile of the typical consumer in the market to purchase a hybrid. Dividing them into two slightly overlapping groups, she described them as “people who care about the environment and/or people who are willing to pay more for a vehicle upfront which will save money on gas with improved efficiency.” Gristmill, a respected environmental news blog, concured with Hannon s position. They commented on Honda s recent move with a tongue-in-cheek reply, “Honda is ditching the Accord Hybrid because it discovered that ... are you sitting down? ... People who buy hybrids like good gas mileage.” One of the most amusing aspects of the demise of the Accord Sedan was noted in a post from the widely-read AutoBlogGreen. It announced in March that Honda would be promoting their Accord Hybrid by using it as the pace car during the upcoming IndyCar Season. They declared that the car was a natural fit for the Indy circuit because “the Accord, and especially the hybrid version, is largely considered Honda s top of the line model, and the highest-performing version of the Accord.” Since Honda is remaining increasingly tight-lipped on the whole affair, we can only speculate that the whole Honda hybrid program is going down the toilet. Is Honda shifting to diesel? Stay tuned to the world of green blogs for all the latest news and opinion. About Greenedia Greenedia is your guide to the best Green social media available on the Internet. Green social media is not just about activism. We aggregate the most widely-read green blogs, podcasts and online video, all in one place. It s about the economy, business and investment. It s about living, building, driving and eating green. It s about daily life and the future lives of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Please visit Greenedia.com.



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