A beautiful fourth generation Honda Accord sedan, seen on a car market in Beijing in 2016. It was in a reasonable shape and very much in need of a good cleanup and some love. The good Honda has a black 京A· 40108 license plate. And that makes it the fourth 4th-generation Accord with such plates that I have seen. Earlier on I met 京A·07472 and 京A·03383 and 京A·04621. But this is the first one in red!
The tires and alloys are not original for the Accord but the alloys look pretty vintage anyway, perhaps they came from another period Honda. If somebody knows more about these alloys, please tell me in the comments below.
The fourth-generation Honda Accord was available with 1.8 liter, 2.0, and 2.2 liter petrol engines. Sadly the engine badge was gone so I can’t say for sure what was under the pretty red bonnet of this Honda.
The interior looked all right. Seats were covered with rather dirty seat covers and there was no radio unit. Lots of old-school black plastic that can withstand almost everything. Giant steering wheel big enough to steer an oil tanker. Gearbox is a five-speed manual.
The famous black license plates were issued to foreign-owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars or on price or on engine type. The numbering started at A·00001 and then it went up. So the lower the number the older the car.
The fourth generation Honda Accord sedan was not officially sold in China in period but quite a few cars arrived via gray imports, diplomatic channels, or, like this car, via the foreign-owned company way. Oddly, all the ones that I have seen were black-plate cars.
Bonnet was damaged quite heavy with two large dents and some cracks. Perhaps the Honda was hit by carton falling off a truck. Or by something else entirely. This is the last 4th generation Accord that I saw in Beijing, at least as far as I can remember. But perhaps I’ll find another one in the archives later on.
Nice car!