I may have already detailed my first drive in a Honda Accord on Ciao, but that was just the enjoyment of a weekend with a test car. Now I have the real thing to throw superlatives at. It took a while in coming but we’ve had the car for three weeks now and I’ve had the pleasure of driving it every day for the past week. This is the Accord from an owner’s perspective.
When I left home for university I went into halls with people I had never known, but a lot of my friends moved in with people they had known all their lives and while they may have thought they knew them well, they were very wrong. You can only get to really know someone or something if you live with it. That’s why I’m reviewing the Accord again. Now I know a lot about it, but there is still a lot to learn. In the last review I had a test and a glossy brochure for reference, today I have the car to myself and a manual instead of a brochure. This is the Accord with warts and all.
But first we must look at the positives and there are a few of them! Our model is a 2.0 litre VTEC model. For those of you who are technically minded, you will already know the advantages of an engine like this. For others I will try my best to put everything into layman’s terms for you. Basically, this 2.0 litre unit is very hi-tech. The valves in the engine increase efficiency by letting exactly the right amount of petrol vapour into the engine according to the throttle response. And if you don’t understand that, I’ll just tell you that the engine is lightweight, powerful and efficient.
From a standstill, the engine can push the car to 60mph in only 9 seconds. This is not lightening-quick but it is powerful enough for safe over-taking and to get you moving in good time. If you don’t mind breaking the law or find yourself in Germany you can push it all the way to 130mph. When you push that weighty, responsive throttle the engine growls like a sports car, but the car is so well insulated on the inside that the people outside can enjoy the sound much more than the driver if the car has its windows up.
Our model is a SE Executive, which gives us both climate control and a sunroof, heated, electric leather seats, leather steering wheel, wood effect trim, CD player and cruise control. The black leather in our car looks very classy and the heated seats warm up your bum very nicely. Leather is also easier to clean, which may prove useful in the future. Personally I find a sunroof a complete con that is only good at reducing headroom. The car still has adequate headroom, but you’ve got to wonder what a sunroof is for besides making the car noisier, especially when we have climate control anyway.
The single-disk CD player has finally put my cassette collection to bed and I’m in the middle of putting my home made various tapes on CD. The whole stereo system is superb and the ergonomics are fantastic. The RDS system is quite good as it can interrupt you’re CD for news or traffic bulletins on the radio if you ask it to. The speakers are fantastic and far superior to the set-up on our old VW Passat. The rest of dash is very solid, if not particularly attractive. It is very functional but it cannot match the Passat or the ingenuity of the beautiful new Renault Laguna. The ergonomics are excellent all-round though.
On the open road, if you can find an A-road or motorway with little traffic the cruise control is fantastic. The last time we had this feature on a car it was back in the early 1990s on our first Accord, but I was just a kid then and have never had the pleasure of using the feature before. The system is simple to use, with the controls on the steering wheel. Just press a button and you can take your right foot off the gas. If you want to accelerate you can just put your foot down or if you’re feeling lazy you can press the accelerate or decelerate buttons on the wheel! Different people enjoy different things about driving and while this is a quirky feature, I am a driver who prefers to do things manually, so unless I can hone my skills to turn it into a sporty feature, for me at least, it will remain a novelty.
Thankfully, therefore, we have a manual gearbox and it is just superb. The gears are spaced out for a sporty drive with a wonderfully short throw. It changes smoother than a Des Lyman link and is a joy to use (unlike the Passat). When it is controlling a 2.0 litre engine the equation is only going to have one outcome, fun!
Honda’s engineers have found the perfect mix of sport and refinement. It is not the motorway cruiser that the Passat is. The ride is much firmer and it tends to pick up imperfections on the road more, but it’s not enough to irritate the driver. The car handles superbly on both main and B-roads. The steering is weighted perfectly for the balance to deliver great fun on winding roads and composed assurance on the motorway. This is first class and just as good, if not better, than the new Mondeo, proving just how under-rated this car is.
On the outside, Honda has recently added a couple of tiny little tweaks for only those with an eye for detail to spot. The new front and rear bumpers have been revised with the new front end giving the car a more aggressive look, especially with the fog-lamps. The 15-inch alloy wheels are a little undersized, but are quite nice anyway. The car may not have the flair of the Renault Laguna or the solidity of the new Passat but it is a handsome car in its own right. Our car is (sadly) silver and the strips and door handles are all colour-coded. From the outside it looks very well indeed.
But owning the car let’s you know so much more about the car. It needs expensive 95 octane fuel for a start and it needs and oil change after 3000 miles (we’ve already clocked 2000 in three weeks). The main service comes round every 12,000 miles! These are the little things that can begin to annoy you. There also seems to be a little rattle on the front left-hand side, maybe from the wipers too. It will cost around £45 to fill up the car at today’s prices but it’s good for at least 400 miles on that and fuel economy is good for an engine of its size. I miss the extensive trip computer on the Passat that would give me exact economy figures and especially the aesthetics of those beautiful blue dials.
Sitting in the rear has its advantages and disadvantages when compared to the VW. It is less roomy, but the seats are more comfortable. The boot size isn’t quite as big either but still has plenty of room. These are all minor faults but they are worth the mention because it only takes a tiny itch to annoy you and drive you mad.
I loved our Passat and it will always hold sentimental value for me for various reasons. I don’t think that the Accord will ever hold the same affection for me, but as a piece of metal to take on to the road you couldn’t ask for much more…
…Well I could ask for an M5 or an S500 but that’s just me dreaming again…
More details
Purchase Price
£17,500
Reliability
Excellent
Spaciousness
Good
Customer service
Good
Security
Excellent
Fuel consumption
Good
Evaluate this car review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
helpful
somewhat helpful
