New car news

12 September 2007 - 11:00

Frankfurt show: Honda Accord Tourer Concept

Honda says that its centre-stage Accord Tourer Concept previews the styling of the next-gen Accord, which will go on sale in the UK next summer.

That's all good - the low-roofline, curvy-backed estate looks tidy and fairly close to production-ready - but we're hoping there might be a bit more on the inside of the production Accord.

See, the Tourer concept is nothing more than a plastic bodyshell. The windows are blacked out - hiding, we'd imagine, the nothingness within - and even the exterior is nowhere near to production-ready.

See those door handles? Stuck on pieces of silver card. Instead of wing mirrors, the Tourer Concept gets rear-facing bullet cameras, which are as likely to make it to production as those two-tone alloys.

Not that we mind a bit of speculative concepting, but we're just a bit bemused as to why the Tourer Concept looks such a long way from production. 

Honda did at least tell us that the Accord will get the same 2.0- and 2.4-litre petrol engines as the current model, as well as a 2.2-litre diesel, which is expected to be the big seller.

All the engines should get cleaner in the emissions stakes, however, with a slight upgrade in performance expected, too.

We'll see the Accord in production guise early next year, by which time we're hoping it'll have gained an inside.