re: Would You Drive This? 1978 Honda Accord LX CVCC

Hard to find a newer manual these days. It’s going to become a skill that younger people will never have. Sort of like memorizing phone numbers or calling up REGGIE to schedule classes out of a catalogue.

Other than performance cars like the Mustang, Camaro, BMW M, or the V series Cadillac who still has manuals?

Toyota Tacoma maybe? Heavier Silverado or Ram work trucks? Possibly the Nissan Versa?

I think you can get one on the Mazda 6 but that whole car is being canceled this year.

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Said NO ONE after owning a Pontiac 6000 for more than a day, back in the day.

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Now that I am looking at it, I think the 6000 was the A body car…not the better W body. So it probably had a lot of cheaper parts. For some reason I thought the 6000 was more of a Bonneville scale car. But it looks closer to being an earlier version of the smaller Grand Am that Pontiac peddled in the 1990s.

Weird…but everyone I know with a W body (or larger) GM car from that era with the iron block 3800 V6 seemed to like it. They were reliable, but they were much bigger and heavier than the Accord or the Pontiac 6000. Certainly they were far, far superior to the craptastic smaller cars GM had at the time, like the Cavalier or Skylark. GM and Ford didn’t really make reliable products that small until the 2000s probably. Actually Ford’s front drive car business didn’t really take off at all until the Taurus/Continental in 1987 or so.

My grandparents actually used to gravitate towards those larger front drive GM cars. They had an Oldsmobile Toronado and a Buick LeSabre from the late 1980s. They were both very good cars. One of them had a clamshell hood but I don’t remember which at the moment. Both had similar proportions as GM was really just badge engineering one car across multiple brands in those days. Both larger than the Accord or Camry, but smaller than the big V8 Cadillac, Chrysler, or Lincolns.

They even eventually got a late 1990s Buick Regal with a supercharged 3.8L V6 that was surprisingly quick and extremely reliable. I think their 2000/2001ish Chevy Impala was also on the same chassis and had the same engine. That was another very reliable car for them.

Weird how that platform was considered a downsized car in the 1980s, but full sized by the late 1990s. I think Buick was positioned a little higher and more expensive than Oldsmobile, but I always preferred the look of the front drive Eighty Eights over the LeSabre. I really liked the Aurora and Intrigue when they came out too….although the Aurora might have been on a different chassis entirely.

Drove a 1988 Accord that was bulletproof. That thing was 9 kinds of awesome in terms of sheer reliability. I drove it for years (prob 1994-1998 or so) and ultimately gave it to my mom who went another 5 years before wrecking and getting a Toyota. Not sure about the 78 model as far as the carburetor and all, but I'd take that 88 model of mine back in a heartbeat.

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1978 Honda Accord LX CVCC

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Crazy how the car manufactures one day were like, "let's just start making all the cars out of plastic instead of metal".

My first car when I was in high school was a 81 Honda Accord SE. When I slowed down the tape player would also slow down. Loved that car though. Would make sure everyone knew it was an SE....Special Edition bitch!

I bought one of those for $250 in the late 90s.