The Vigorous Accord
The top of the line variant of one of the best selling cars in its day
Released in 1976, the Honda Accord swept the world as a fuel efficient, cheap, and reliable full sized sedan to complement the smaller Honda Civic.
PC: Jerry Yee
The Honda Accord was such a popular platform that it became the basis of other popular Honda cars such as the sport oriented Prelude and the luxury oriented Honda Vigor.
First produced in 1981, the Honda Vigor shared many of the same aesthetic elements as its Accord sister, while incorporating many different luxury features not available on the Accord. Produced to compete with the likes of the Toyota Chaser and Nissan Laurel, the Vigor helped set the stage for Honda to enter the luxury car market.
PC: Jerry Yee
By the time the third generation Honda Vigor (pictured above) was introduced, the Vigor was no longer based off of the Honda Accord chassis and featured a longer wheelbase incorporating better legroom to further highlight the luxury orientation of the car. The Vigor was the flagship Honda in its day, and many of its innovations carried onto the Honda Legend, which incidentally was the first Acura vehicle (along with the Integra). The Vigor, which was originally sold in Japan, was then sold in the US market under Honda's luxury division, Acura.
PC: Jerry Yee
After the third generation (pictured above), the Vigor evolved into the Honda Saber/Acura TL. This means that some of the best Honda sport saloons such as the Acura TL Type S and the Acura TLX A spec owe some of their lineage to this largely forgotten car and its parent model, the Honda Accord.
What do you think of the Honda Vigor? Did you learn something new? If so, please leave a bump and comment your thoughts!!
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Comments (6)
I have never heard about the Vigor before I'm sure it wasn't sold here
Probably not. It remained in Japan until A
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We only had the accord in Britain but we did have Rover (sterling in usa)cars based on Honda models
Yeah. I did an article on the Sterling 827 before.
The Vigor was originally only sold in Japan but eventually got exported
I remember that article. Rover carried on doing this till they closed in 2005 as they had two of the cars based on Honda civic models these final cars were the 25 hatchback and 45 saloon/hatchback models.