Honda Accord 2.0i LS

Author's product rating:

Safety	Excellent
Comfort	Excellent
Road Handling	Excellent
Looks	Good
Features	Good

Advantages:	Lovely car to drive, nuns notwithstanding .
Disadvantages:	The fog light switch is obscured by the steering wheel, so you might . . . perhaps . . . forget you've got the fogs on .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I’d like to get started on this little journey by dispelling a few myths.

Myth 1: Honda Accords are old men’s cars
Myth 2: Hondas are boring
Myth 3: Honda Accords are only good for ferrying the family about.

In order, then:

1) I am not old…I just look that way due to a hard life!
2) The Total Cup 1997 was won by Rob Gravett in…a Honda Accord! Additionally, Accords were 5th and 6th in the British Touring Car Championships in 1997, 3rd in 1998, 4th in 2000 etc etc. Honda also make F1 engines for 2 teams; Jordan and BAR AND Honda build the utterly beautiful 276 bhp NSX.
3) I don’t have to ferry my family about very often (but when I do, the Accord has a monster boot, so I can plonk my sons in there no probs, therefore keeping up appearances for the neighbours.)

Right…that’s got that off my chest. Now let’s take a look at the Honda Accord, which is what this op is about. Not, as you might have been forgiven for thinking, member’s advice on being a boring old fart.I have a 4-door Accord 2.0iLS. This makes it a tad faster and more powerful than the bog-standard 2 litre, but less powerful than the VTEC equipped version. (Don’t fret, petrol-heads, I’ll get the numbers down towards the end)

As mentioned, a huge boot comes as standard. To get a storage area as big as this on most saloons, you’d need to get the ‘trailer’ accessory pack! As if this monster space wasn’t enough, the rear seats fold down in a 60/40 split, giving enough space for even more stuff to be packed in and carted around. I narrowly failed to get a new housedoor in a few weeks ago, only missing by about 6cm. I ended up leaving the boot open a little and having the offending 6cm sticking out (God, how often have you heard THAT one?)

Inside, it’ll seat four in comfort, 5 without too much pain, 6 in a pinch and 14 after the party, when all present couldn’t give a sh….monkey’s due to much local anaesthetic being administered.

The seats in my model are velour-covered. From the driver’s point of view, they are quite grippy, so tight or quick cornering won’t leave you floundering around amidships trying to right yourself with the gearshift, never fear. In the rear, there is a foldaway armrest and I’m assured by those whose job it is to ride around in the back while I get the fun of driving that it’s comfortable enough even if you are in the middle and therefore leaning on said armrest.

When it comes to driving, I have three distinct ‘at-the-wheel’ situations: Short haul around London, long haul on motorways and DRIVING!!!!!

London driving, as anyone who is obliged to do it will tell you, is rarely fun. Average speed is about 11mph, petrol consumption goes down to about 50 metres per litre and temperatures (or at least mine) tend to go sky high. It’s essential, therefore, that a London car has to have certain attributes designed, accidentally or otherwise, to keep you sane.

Power steering is a must. How else could you squeeze your car round the moron who has treble parked outside Micky D’s while he ‘just nicks in for a Big Mac’ (‘I’ll eat it here thanks, I don’t want to get the car smelly’)?
It should have ABS in order to keep from mowing down the bloke dressed head to foot in black, riding a black bicycle with no lights down a poorly lit one-way street the wrong way…with a blindfold on…and carrying 6 bags from Sainsbury’s on the handlebars…with ice on the road!

It should have the dog’s wedding tackle of stereos, in order to keep up with where the flying roadwork crews are going to strike next.

It should have electric windows front and rear in order to trap the fingers of anyone who takes a fancy to your rear-seat luggage (or passenger) while you are at a standstill in another traffic jam.

And it should have decent speed from a standing start, in order to get in front of the Micra 1.1L, with four nuns in it, which has been weaving around in front of you for the past 20 minutes doing a steady 21 mph despite the 40 mph limit.

Thankfully, my Accord is blessed with all these (Thank you Sister, same to you!)

For the long-haul, you need a car which will cruise along at something resembling legal speeds without driving you bonkers with road noise. Something that won’t give you backache, even if you do London-Aberdeen non-stop in the fog, and will allow you to respond quickly and safely to the kind of sudden dangers that can crop up on motorways: 40 footers lurching out from the left-hand lane with a cursory single blink of the indicator, white vans attempting to break the sound barrier suddenly appearing on your inside in a death-defying undertaking manoeuvre, a Micra full of nuns doing 21mph in the middle lane…(Yes, yes Sister, and also with you!)

Again, my Accord will fit the bill.

And for DRIVING!!! We look for something that has decent acceleration, corners well, gives decent road feel, good visibility and no blind-spots, uncomplaining brakes, bucketloads of mid-range torque etc. etc.

For my DRIVING!!! pleasure, I favour East Lothian, just outside of Edinburgh. The bit of the A1 when you can see the Forth on your right (if you’re going North) and Arthur’s Seat in front of you. Come off the main road and explore the roads around Drem, Dirleton, Longniddry, Gullane, Aberlady and the rest, and you’ll find sweeping bends bordered by low hedges allowing you to see all possible hazards in time to slow down and act like a grown up. Great long straights followed by challenging corners which allow you to take your car to its limits. I only recommend this because I know you’ll be careful. Plenty of people think they know these roads and their cars and still come to grief, so take it easy, enjoy it, but with all due caution. However, I love to drive these roads, and my Accord does too. It digs in to corners and holds on like a…thing that holds on very tight. It accelerates in the midrange in a manner that can take your breath away and it’ll stop on a dime with barely a shudder from the ABS should you require it, as when faced with a Micra full of nuns doing 21mph in the middle etc etc. (Thank you Sister, I gave at the office)

And now…for the petrol heads…here are the numbers:
1995cc injection engine
147bhp @ 6,000 revs
Redline @ 6,300 revs
Top speed 130 mph (though I’ve never had the ba….nerve to get it past 120…in Germany of course)
0-60 9.9seconds
ABS fitted
Aircon available, though I haven’t got it.
Cruise control the same.

Price for a P reg Honda approved same spec as mine is about £7,000 - £7,500
Or for about £8,500 you can get one with some extras and only 19k on the clock currently on the Honda UK website. www.honda.co.uk
Fuel Consumption. The book says 24.8 for urban, 41 for ex-urban and 32.9 for combined. Mine has about 62k on the clock and does about 30 to 32 on average. What this really means is that it’ll get me from SW London to Edinburgh (400 miles) on a tank of gas (about 55 litres) Go figure!
Features and kit: two front airbags, all-round electric windows, central remote locking, alarm and immobiliser, electric slide/tilt sunroof and a BIG FAT GRIN.

So the down side in summary: It’s not loaded with nice stuff (aircon would be a real bonus) it’s not got a glamorous reputation, it’s not the quickest thing on four wheels.

And the upside in summary: It is a great all-rounder, it’s still pretty bloody quick, especially accelerating from around 2,000 revs, it’s very nimble for what is quite a big car, it’s cheap to service compared to many foreign makes, it’s ultra-reliable, it looks quite nice and it’s very comfortable…and it’s fun…and it stops well…and it always starts first time…and I’ve only had to open the bonnet twice in 2 years outside of normal services. (Thank you Sister, I like your car too!)