Like most marketplaces, the important thing to success within the automotive area is to supply the precise product on the proper time. Loads of respectable automobiles have flopped just because they both arrived too early and didn’t seize the general public’s creativeness, just like the superior Audi A2, or some miss the boat and get overwhelmed to market by comparable fashions that maintain maintain of the lion’s share of the market.
2012 Honda Crosstour
- Base MSRP
-
$27,755
- Base Trim Drivetrain
-
Entrance-Wheel Drive
- Base Trim Transmission
-
5-Pace Computerized
- Base Trim Horsepower
-
192 hp
- Base Trim Torque
-
162 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm
- Base Trim Most Towing Capability
-
1,000 lbs.
- Base Trim Engine
-
2.4L Inline-4 Fuel
- Base Trim Curb Weight
-
3,664 lbs
The Honda Accord Crosstour is an effective instance of the previous, because it made its US debut simply a few years earlier than the crossover craze took maintain.
This piece covers the story of the 2010-2015 Honda Accord Crosstour, a crossover that arrived a bit too early to safe success.
The Crosstour Was A Taller Accord
Whereas Honda supplied a wagon model of the Honda Accord all over the world, it elected to discontinue the mannequin within the US in 1997. For over a decade, solely the sedan model was out there, although in 2009, Honda lastly launched a brand new providing to fill within the hole for a big wagon-type automobile. Named the Crosstour, it did not take the form of a standard wagon, however reasonably a taller crossover.
Dialogue
What’s the finest SUV or crossover for below $26,000?
If you’re out there for an inexpensive new crossover, there are nonetheless some nice choices within the low $20,000 vary. The Chevy Trax is a cut price for simply $20,400, and the posh model, the Buick Envista, is $23,495. What SUV or crossover would you purchase for that value, or would you get one thing used?
The crossover market had grown massively in Europe, primarily as a result of immensely profitable Nissan Qashqai. The sector hadn’t made an enormous splash within the US on the time, regardless of automobiles just like the Toyota RAV4 and Ford Escape having been out there for years already. Feeling the frenzy would come quickly, Honda elected to make a crossover out of the Accord. The sedan’s foundations have been stored, however the Crosstour featured an extended, wider, and taller body to make sure it was extra spacious and high-riding than its sibling.
The Crosstour Struggled To Make An Affect
Regardless of coming with stable underpinnings and additional area, the Crosstour translated to a gross sales failure for Honda. The general public merely did not get it, with its considerably difficult appears to be like doing little to win over skeptical drivers. The Crosstour’s most profitable yr was 2012, when simply 21,912 examples have been shifted. By comparability, Ford managed to promote almost 280,000 of its Escapes in the identical yr.
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On account of its gradual gross sales, Honda pulled the plug on the mannequin in 2015. Whereas it could not have made an impression when it was new, the present lay of the automotive land means that the Crosstour could be rather more profitable in the present day.
The Crosstour Was A Little Early To The Social gathering
Finally, the Crosstour’s failure comes right down to the truth that the market hadn’t developed to want it by 2010. Those that discovered {that a} sedan just like the Accord was too impractical opted for bigger SUVs just like the BMW X5, although it did not final endlessly. Because the 2010s progressed, compact SUVs and crossovers turned an ever extra profitable market within the US, with the likes of Nissan even promoting its Qashqai, renamed the Rogue Sport for the US market, throughout the Atlantic for the primary time.
2010-2015 Honda Crosstour Specs | |
|---|---|
Engine | 2.4L NA I4, 3.5L NA V6 |
Energy | 192-278 hp |
Torque | 162-252 lb-ft |
0-60 mph | 6.4-7.2 seconds |
Prime Pace | 124-150 mph |
One of many essential causes the SUV market took off was that drivers preferred the go-anywhere nature of SUVs, due to them often being out there with all-wheel-drive and better experience heights, the latter additionally permitting passengers to sit down larger than in regular automobiles. Bigger fashions usually got here with larger engines, which value extra to take care of and maintain fueled up. Smaller SUVs and Crossovers maintained the upper rooflines of their bigger counterparts, retaining the convenience of entry, and excessive seating positions, however have been cheaper to purchase and cheaper to run attributable to having smaller engines and being a lot lighter.
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The Crosstour Is Supreme For Fashionable Calls for
Sadly for the Crosstour, it got here just a bit early to make the most of this shift in angle. Its larger roofline in comparison with the Accord made it simpler to entry the cabin, which was helpful for strapping kids into their journey seats, whereas its hatchback tailgate ensured it had considerably extra cargo area. Whereas the Accord had 14 cubic toes of area with the rear seats up, the Crosstour had 25 cubic toes to play with.
The truth that it was a full seven inches taller than the Accord meant it additionally had a a lot larger seating place, guaranteeing it match the blueprint for the fashionable crossover completely. Alongside this, although, it drove like a traditional automobile attributable to nonetheless being primarily based on a automobile platform, and never being as excessive as a full-fledged SUV. This not solely made it extra enjoyable to drive than most full-size SUVs, in addition to extra inexpensive, but in addition extra maneuverable across the metropolis.
The Crosstour Got here With A Intelligent Engine
Reflecting its goal market of city-dwellers that typically preferred to tackle the unknown, the Crosstour was ultimately supplied with two totally different engines. It solely got here with the choice of a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 between 2010 and 2012, which supplied up 271 hp. It was clever, too, because it got here with Honda’s Variable Cylinder Administration – a cylinder-deactivation system. The engine might drop to operating on three cylinders on mild throttle openings to save lots of gasoline, although at larger speeds it might run on 4 cylinders.
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When the time got here for the powerplant to make the most of its full potential, all six cylinders might hearth up and get working. In 2012, an much more environment friendly 2.4-liter inline-four engine was launched. With 192 hp on faucet, the brand new powerplant might handle a mixed 24 mpg, in comparison with the V6’s 22-mpg determine. A five-speed automated transmission shared the Crosstour’s grunt between all 4 wheels, which improved its grip and stability on slippery roads.
The Crosstour Works As An Supreme Used Crossover Buy
As a result of Crosstour’s failure to seize the general public’s creativeness in its prime, good situation examples may be had for a cut price value in 2025. In response to Kelley Blue E-book, even later 2015 Mannequin yr Crosstours may be had for round $11,000, a cut price for such a succesful automobile with a complicated V6, heated leather-based seats, all wheel drive, and, when you get the EX-L trim, satellite tv for pc navigation.
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Earlier fashions supply much more worth, with base-level EX variants from 2012 valued at lower than $7,000. On account of being a Honda, the Crosstour additionally boasts a powerful reliability and upkeep document. RepairPal reviews that it ought to solely value round $520 per yr to maintain on the street, although there are 5 identified remembers filed towards it. All regard the automobiles’ airbag system, a typical purpose for automobile remembers, with probably the most severe being that metallic fragments may be thrown at you upon the system activating – a legacy of the Takata airbag recall, which was the biggest in automotive historical past, and has nonetheless not concluded. The facet airbag system can also be identified to not inflate correctly within the occasion of a crash.
2010-2015 Honda Crosstour Affordability | |
|---|---|
Common Used Worth | $6,834-$11,349 |
Yearly Upkeep Price | $520 |
Recollects | 5 |
KBB Reliability Score | 4.9/5-stars (187 evaluations) |
Honda introduced all Crosstour’s again in to rectify these issues, and all must be sorted by now. When inspecting your potential new Honda crossover, ensure the remembers have been actioned for peace of thoughts, alongside all the opposite ordinary checks it’s best to perform when shopping for a used automobile. Get one, and you will have an inexpensive, dependable, sensible, and efficient crossover that may simply take care of most on-road challenges you may face everyday.
Sources: Honda, Kelley Blue E-book, GoodCarBadCar, RepairPal.
