Generally, Honda has tended to be pretty tame in their brochures. Well, I guess if you don’t count the one with the colossal scribbly baby on it. But, other than that, they tend to be pretty straightforward with their brochures, at least in setting and tone and photography and theme. This one I happened to see today is notable for two things, at least to me: the incredibly aggressive, raw, uncut autumnality of it all, and a little detail Honda seems to have snuck in that I found sorta unexpected.
I guess it’s not really unexpected; it’s a little extra detail, and Honda has always been pretty good about that sort of thing. They seem to like details. Look at that picture above – I know carmakers and their ad agencies love autumn and the bursts of color and all the romanticized driving that entails, but holy shit, that is like Maximum Fucking Autumn. It’s fall cranked to 100, with every leaf of every tree squeezing out maximum color.
I bet you can hear them straining.
But here’s where Honda just went a bit further. They seem to have had custom signs painted for these wildly picturesque New England-seeming locations, making that industrial-grade-quaint little general store into ACCORD GENERAL, a name a very much doubt it had before Honda’s people rolled in.
And one time wasn’t enough for Honda! A general store named for the Accord is good, but they can do even better:
Hell yeah, Accord Mercantile, bishes! Some local signpainter cleaned UP when Honda came to town.
Also, look at these two Accord owners; red is pretty delighted with her fabric feline and Erik Estrada there looks like he’s ready to kiss the October out of her, hard. My man has like six bolts of fabric, a corduroy jacket, and a lust as powerful as the 1600cc, triple-barrel-carb’d, CVCC engine in his Accord.
I also have to mention how much I love ’70s and early ’80s Accord interiors and dashboards. They were gleefully chromatic, like these vast plastic expanses of blue!
We’re a good ways away from autumn, but hopefully this Honda brochure will tide you over until then.
UPDATE: Commenter Honus points out there is an Accord, NY. Perhaps these are all from there, and Honda didn’t hire signpainters! He could be right about that!
I mean, there is an Accord Market there:
It doesn’t quite look like the buildings in the brochure, but this is a pretty good theory!
can pretty much say that the “Mercantile Exchange” is now the Stone Window Gallery in Accord, NY, located at 17 Main St.
It’s got the same windows, wide clapboard, trees in the back, and visible 2-course cinderblock exterior walls.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NkvseDg6ZNyQJwrbA
The general store was owned by Doug Kolvenbach (obit) and was called “Kelly’s. I zoomed to read the window of the store to figure that out, but I can’t find the address of where it was.
The ShortLine sign in the upper left hand corner of the market photo is an old bus line that ran from NYC to Albany NY, PA, and NJ. Accord was one of their stops. It was in-between Ellenville,and Stone Ridge, NY.
Dollar Store Mariette Hartley’s really stroking that pussy.
That may be my new Autopian commenter name right there.
That it is so densely Fall that it collapsed into the Autumnal Singularity, which coincidentally looks like a wide-brimmed felt hat
“My man has like six bolts of fabric,”
I don’t know why I feel compelled to point out that there are clearly four.
/Technically correct. The best kind of correct.
There’s two in the car already, I can FEEEEEEL it
I had a ’77 Accord in the gold color in the late ’80’s. It was a fantastic, fantastic car. At least to 16yo me.
I want that Rheingold neon sign.
4 horn buttons on the steering wheel. I haven’t seen that since my 87 Jetta
My dad had a blue Accord of that vintage. When he bought it, a neighbor scoffed at him and made a comment about Honda being junk etc…as he (the neighbor) was showing off his new Fiat.
Those Accords from that era were game-changers.
“My man has like six bolts of fabric, a corduroy jacket…”
Accorduroy jacket? I see what you did there.
My mom had a silver ’81 Accord like these and it got rear ended once. From then on it was referred to the Honda Accordion even after it was fixed.
In that first photo, I was thinking, “Whoa, wheels painted to match the body?” Then I realized the car was probably silver and it all color shifted to that minty green because of the limitations of late-70s photo manipulation. “Forget the actual car color, Jim. Saturate those warm tones!” And are we certain the interior is blue, or is it black that didn’t get color corrected?
The steering wheel and the lower dash sections around the radio and HVAC are black, and can be seen to contrast a bit with the blue sections of the upper dash. This generation of Accord generally matched those upper sections of dash with the interior color, but the center controls, vents and steering wheels were all black.
I miss the old Japanese-car blue interiors. My wife had a ’90 Stanza when we were married, with the most beautiful blue interior.
My kid’s XV10 Camry has blue too, but it’s so faded by now that it looks gray.
“We should move here, and when it turns out not quite like we planned, we can hire the locals to make it look even more idyllic and trick a potential buyer while I write a series of children’s stories about this cat!”
Will he be eating Lamb Fries at the local diner?
This seems like a weirdly specific plan…
Sounds like a less evil version of what the Uihleins are doing to Manitowish Waters, WI.
You know, generational wealth descended from Schlitz beer and the overlords of the ULine office supply empire.
There are so many reasons to just not do business with so many companies.
They’re doomed, dude’s bolting, she’s going cat lady. The golden couple has a chance, and the waiter is doing his best penguin from Mary Poppins impression.
There is an Accord, NY, just outside Rochester.
Rheingold beer sign in the window would lend credence to this being a NY location, right?
And the sign for Short Line Buses, which apparently still goes from NYC to Accord, NY. (It would appear I really don’t want to work today)
appearance of the 80s “Mercantile Exchange” would appear to be in….ahem…accord with the building next door to today’s Accord Market: https://maps.app.goo.gl/b4Ynr6yJPWsoxZN6A
Yeah this is definitely Accord, NY in the gunks (by New Paltz, Kerhonksen, etc). As others have pointed out the Shortline bus sign (which is the bus service from the Southern Tier and central NY to NYC) and the Rheingold beer sign all but confirm it, but I believe you’re right that the Stone Window Gallery building is the old mercantile. My grandfather was a Rheingold rep back when it was the most popular beer in NY
“Also, look at these two Accord owners; red is pretty delighted with her fabric feline and Erik Estrada there looks like he’s ready to kiss the October out of her, hard. My man has like six bolts of fabric, a corduroy jacket, and a lust as powerful as the 1600cc, triple-barrel-carb’d, CVCC engine in his Accord.”
I can’t stop laughing; my sides hurt. It’s like that time Q made me laugh.
I’m thinking more Michael Landon than Estrada.
so are you saying Larry Wilcox drives a Toyota? I actually think he is in a Datsun pick-up on his way to meet Erik.
I love seeing the CVCC-era I took my driver’s license test in – my Dad’s 1978 mustard-yellow CVCC in 1996 – got a 100% on my test in the 5-speed before totaling a 1982 Accord 6 months later… oops
Larry drives a right hand drive Mini in the first season. I’m only up to season three currently, but I’m fairly certain he retains the blue Chevy stepside for the remainder of the series.
In the most recent episode I watched, John took Ponch’s Firebird into a demolition derby and rolled it, so it makes sense he would need a new sensible ride.
Erik Estrada? This is New England; that’s a young Jay Leno. Just look at that chin profile!
“I’m gonna screw you like you’re Conan O’Brien.”
Must be the red hair.
Ah fond memories. That was my very first car. I purchased used in 1990 for $350 from a friend. ( I think it might have had 180,000 miles on it ?? ) It ran great for awhile, then became a money pit. After multiple repairs I sold it to my sister for $1.00. It ran trouble-free for her for about a year until it bit the dust. I love these pics!
Note that, despite his best efforts, she’s got both hands on her own….um…souvenir.
What we don’t know is that there is a real cat inside that…um…souvenir.