I’d just driven a four-cylinder automatic Nissan Altima with leather upholstery, and wanted to drive a similarly-equipped Honda Accord so that I could compare the two back-to-back. My salesperson disappeared for a good twenty minutes, only to return with an EX V6. It seems she thought it was a four. Not wanting to wait another twenty minutes, I drove this car, which was identical to the 2003 I reviewed last year. Still, I did come away with some different impressions, including concern about the amount of tire noise along patchy roads. At least as notable, the Accord is no longer less expensive than the Camry.
Styling
The Honda Accord sedan’s exterior is a mix and match of the Lexus IS 300 and various European sedans, some of which are not available in the United States. Interestingly, it shares a prominent character line rising from the front wheel opening and angles back triangular front headlamps not only with that Lexus but with a direct competitor, the Nissan Altima. Since the Altima was not out when this car was being designed, and I doubt Honda would have knowingly copies a key element from one of Nissan’s products, it seems that both design teams did the same thing because they both knocked off the same original. Serves them both right.
Aside from these two key design elements, the Honda does borrow from enough French and Italian sedans that it has a very different overall character from the Lexus, the Nissan, or the Passat (which has also subtly influenced the design of both the Altima and Accord). It is, in a word, more voluptuous than the crisply tailored Nissan. The bodysides are fuller, and while the Altima certainly also has a large rear end the Accord draws on a wide C-pillar to add visual heaviness to its derriere. This fuller body makes the Accord look less sporty but considerably more elegant than the Altima. That Honda forewent trendy clear taillamps reinforces this general direction.
I have found that many people dislike the rear half of this car, and especially the rear pillars—which make the rear end look stubby—and rear lamps—which resemble those of the late Buick Skylark. I’m not terribly fond of the lamps, but am happy to see Honda taking risks. The parts might not be unique, but the whole is distinctive.
Once upon a time Hondas were some of the few cars that actually looked okay with smallish steel wheels. Those days are long gone, and with this design they are deeply buried. Tall, full bodysides like these require large wheels styled to look even larger to look good. If the wheels are too small, the car will look fat and bulky. So it’s a good thing that the 16” alloys standard on the EX, with seven spokes styled to accentuate their diameter, serve the car’s styling well. Larger wheels are available as a dealer-installed accessory, but these are fine. For those who buy one of the trims with 15” wheelcovers…if you care about how the car looks you’ll want to upgrade.
The Honda Accord EX sedan’s interior looks rich and luxurious. In quality the materials fall between the Camry and revised-for-2005 Altima. There is quite a bit of hard plastic, but its generally used where you won’t touch it often and it somehow doesn’t look like hard plastic. The various knobs and buttons all have a slick, cushy, refined feel to them.
Be aware that the DX and LX interiors are not as visually appealing. They do without the accents—faux titanium in the gray interior and faux wood in the tan interior—that liven up the EX. Though I usually prefer the warmth of a tan interior, I don’t care for faux wood (which was in the car this time around), so interior color is a difficult call.
In general this is your typical Honda interior, rationally laid out and tastefully executed. Nothing much to offend anyone. That said, there were a couple of details I didn’t care for. The first involved the upside-down pentagon shape of the controls in the center stack. I’ve seen this in Mazdas before, and didn’t care for the look there either. It just seems pointlessly quirky to me, a strange thing to have in a Honda interior. I guess this was Honda’s way of escaping a vanilla image?
My second complaint involves the instruments. These are always lit, and in fact light up in stages when you first get in the car. In this manner they resemble the fancy gauges that got everyone excited in the first big Lexus back in 1989. No problems here, even if the novelty is long gone. No, my problem is that big gauges are generally a good idea, but at some point they become too big. The speedometer here has gone well past that point. It’s flat out huge. I suppose this aids readability, but those who can’t easily read a speedometer 75% the size of this one shouldn’t be driving.
Accommodations
The Honda Accord's front seats fit well with the character of the car. The are moderately firm and provide good support. In leather they feel a bit plusher, thought this might just be the psychological effect of the leather rather than any change in the padding. The side bolsters are usefully larger and firmer than those in the Altima and Camry, providing enough lateral support for moderately aggressive driving.
The cowl (base of the windshield) isn’t nearly as low as it used to be in past Accords, but its upward creep over the years has only taken it from extremely low to average. The Altima’s cowl is lower relative to the driver, while the Camry’s is about the same. Between its lower driving position and interior design the Accord feels the most “premium” of the three, especially compared to the Altima. The rear pillars are a touch wide, but this is common. A standard tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel should enable everyone to find the perfect relationship to all of the major controls. If you want a seat that tilts you need a V6 model and/or leather. Other models have either a manual or power height adjustment, but I can’t imagine that many people will want the seat much if any higher than its base setting.
The rear seat, despite the competitive stats, is not as good as those in the Camry and Altima. It’s a bit too low to provide thigh support for someone of my very average size, and legroom isn’t quite as generous as in the other two cars. It’s a good seat for two adults, but the other two cars have great rear seats.
The other two sedans also have larger trunks than that of the Honda Accord. Still, the Accord’s trunk is certainly decently sized. It can be expanded by folding down the rear seat. Unlike in most other sedans with this function, in the Accord this seat is not split—you have to fold the whole thing down in one piece. The opening is fairly tall, unlike that in the Camry, but extends only about two-thirds the width of the trunk. If the opening must be reduced in one dimension for body strength reasons, this is the way to go at least. LX and EX sedans also have a smaller pass through for skis and such in the center armrest hole.
On the Road
In the early 1980s, when Honda Accords first became popular, they got by on a below-average 75 horsepower. Back then I would never have imagined that one would someday be among the quickest sedans you can buy. Power simply was not what the Accord was about. Not till 1995 did Honda cave to consumer demand and offer a V6 engine at all. That engine added a lot of weight and produced "only" 170 horsepower (just ten more than the 2003's base four cylinder), so it increased refinement more than acceleration. And refinement is what the Accord has always been about. Acceleration got some attention when the Accord was redesigned for 1998. A new 200-horsepower 3.0 liter six was developed for that car.
For the 2003 redesign Honda has totally caved to consumers' interest in horsepower. Its world-class powertrain engineers have managed to match the 240 horsepower of the 2002 Altima V6 (250 for 2005) with half a liter less displacement--the six remains a 3.0. (Unlike Nissan, Honda plans to continue offering slightly larger engines in its premium brand cars. The TL gets a related 3.2.) Since less displacement means less torque, the way this must be done is by maintaining this lower torque output to a higher RPM. Still, the engine isn’t too much peakier than the Nissan unit, with the power peak 450 RPM higher. The super smooth, well-geared five-speed automatic helps here. The extra gear vs. the Altima is used to get the engine up to its powerband quicker, such that the accelerates at about the same rate as the current V6/automatic Nissan and Camry SE. Figure seven seconds to sixty. Another sign this engine isn’t too peaky: it always felt plenty strong, even at low RPM, as if however much power I needed was just a slight tip of throttle away.
The Honda Accord's V6 is very quiet. Magazine test results bear this out: the six at full throttle never makes more noise than many cars do when cruising. The muffled sound that does exist sounds quite rich, more luxurious but less sporty than Nissan’s six. Honda's engineers may have done their job here too well. I suspect many people will wish the engine were a bit louder.
This engine becomes even more amazing when you consider its fuel economy. It manages to get slightly higher EPA ratings than either the Altima or Camry, and the latter has nearly fifty fewer horsepower. And then here’s the kicker: the Accord is the only one of the three designed to run on regular gas.
All of this praise notwithstanding, I suspect that many people would be very satisfied with just the four even in the EX. Based on my drive in a manual transmission coupe last year it’s a very good four, and I encourage most people who think they need the six to at least give it a try.
Honda claims to have developed the new Accord to appeal to drivers, but it’s still not quite what I’d call a sports sedan. The steering and general handling are more luxury car fluid than sharp. Lean in turns is greater than that in either the Camry SE or Altima SE, and those are hardly hard-edged sport sedans themselves. That said, the Accord handled everything I threw at it without complaint. Though it wasn’t exactly happy, it wasn’t unhappy either. It was composed. In this way it reminded me of the Lexus LS: competent when thrown hard into a curve, but certainly not asking to be thrown into a curve, and generally tuned for smooth cruising. In general, the chassis reinforced the impression of the V6 that this is a luxury car nearly equal in refinement to much more expensive sedans.
The ride in the Honda Accord EX sedan is smooth, falling between the Altima and Camry in quality. I’ve already mentioned that the tires clomp almost continuously along poorly maintained roads, lending the impression that the ride is much harsher than it is. This is easily the largest fault of the Accord EX, and one that should not be hard to fix. Aside from the tires on patchy pavement, noise levels are very low, reinforcing the generally premium character of the car.
Honda Accord EX Price Comparisons and Pricing
For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.
When I reviewed the 2003 Honda Accord it was less expensive than any major competitor. In the interim Toyota has lowered the Camry’s price and influenced its dealers to more heavily discount the car even while boosting its powertrain performance, such that it is now about $500 less than the Accord after the typical dealer discount. The Accord EX V6 lists for $26,890, and tends to sell for about $24,800 after the typical discount according to Edmunds. Other Japanese midsize sedans, especially the Altima, are at least as expensive as the Accord. For details see my Mitsubishi Galant review for V6 prices and my Nissan Altima review for four-cylinder prices.
To spend much less money consider the Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata, about $22,100 and $18,200, respectively, after discounts and rebates.
If your top priority is luxury then the Kia Amanti might be worth a look. It doesn’t perform or handle as well as the Accord, and has an “older” look, but it also has the nicest interior I’ve experienced in a car that lists for less than $30,000 fully equipped. With leather and sunroof the list price is $28,240, and Edmunds suggests that dealers typically knock off about $1,000. A $1,500 rebate was just announced, bringing the price down to about $26,700.
Final Words
For the price the Honda Accord is an excellent car, especially in terms of powertrain performance and premium ambiance. Enthusiasts would like handling with more of an edge to it, but most midsize sedan buyers aren’t enthusiasts. Which is why Mazda sells far fewer midsize sedans than Honda. The Accord’s main weaknesses for most buyers, assuming they like the styling, are the overly vocal tires and a rear seat less comfortable than those in many competitors. It’s easy to see why for many people the choice is between this car and the Camry. The Accord has more character (hey, it’s all relative) while the Camry is more polished.
A Note on Honda Accord Reliability
I cannot practically cover reliability within the context of this review. However, many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.
Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy an Accord rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in Honda Accord reliability comparisons.
Before I can report results, I need reliability data on all cars--not just the Accord--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.
For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.
A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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