Car reviews: Honda Accord

Honda Accord

Modified Honda Accord - part of Honda success

For 2003 Honda has suggested a new direction for the Accord. The company tells the car is now more "passionate" and "emotional." Its styling and demeanor are supposed to capture the spirit of a cheetah. There have even been industry trade stories reporting that Honda used Volkswagen's Passat as inspiration on how to give the company's volume sedan an appealing aura that goes beyond pure logic.

2003 Honda Accord still the segment benchmark in terms of ergonomic design, that can't be fully seen at pictures and our pics, interior roominess and overall ride quality; and it still won't derail Passat intenders.

Graphite Pearl Accord LX sedan equipped with the 3.0-liter V6 and five-speed automatic transmission, as the LX trim is the volume seller in the Honda Accord line and it can be had with either a 2.4-liter iVTEC four-cylinder or the larger V6. The smaller four makes 160 peak horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 161 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm. It can be mated to either a five-speed manual or five-speed automatic, but if you go with the V6 in either the LX or EX sedan, you must let the larger engine shift itself. (A V6 mated to a short-throw six-speed manual transmission is available in the Accord EX coupe.)

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the Honda car Accord's 240-horsepower V6 is how the engine masks its performance capabilities. Acceleration showed that the car had strong off-the-line power followed by consistent pull all the way up to its 6,500 rpm shift points (redline is 6,800 rpm). There was little of the high-end rush we've come to expect from Honda's variable valve timing equipped engines. Upshifts from the five-speed automatic were consistently crisp, and the overall sensation was one of highly refined and wholly adequate performance. Checking the numbers show that it was doing zero to 60 mph in seven seconds flat.

For comparison's sake Nissan Altima SE, equipped with that model's 240-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 and a four-speed automatic, felt far quicker than the Accord due to increased engine roar and vibration, we could only manage a 6.8-second 0-to-60-mph time. It would appear that, while the new Accord isn't setting the performance pace in the midsize sedan category, it's certainly keeping up with the front-runners.

Actually, the Accord keeps pace with the segment's fastest sedans in terms of straight-line acceleration, but when it comes to outright handling prowess, the Passat, Altima and new Mazda 6 have it beat. Honda continues to utilize a double wishbone suspension front and rear on the new Accord, and refinements to suspension geometry at both ends, plus a rise in torsional rigidity of 27 percent, have further improved the car's ride quality. Steering weight, and associated road feel, has risen to near Germanic levels, and confidence under relaxed - or even moderately aggressive - driving conditions is again on par with anything in the segment.

However, Honda has foregone offering a sport package on the Accord, meaning a trip to your local wheel shop is necessary if you want something more than the 16-inch alloys offered on the top-of-the-line EX V6 sedan (our LX test car had 16-inch steel wheels). Of course, you could buy an EX coupe if you really want an Accord with factory 17-inch alloy wheels, but getting the kids into and out of their child safety seats just got a lot tougher. Or, you could buy a Nissan Altima SE and get four doors and 17-inch wheels (17s are standard equipment on the Altima SE). As a company that wants us to believe the Accord is getting more "passionate" and "cheetahlike," the absence of a sport package makes no sense.

Honda Accord fully adequate at up to seven-tenths driving. Body roll is nicely controlled and the suspension manages to soak up most bumps without feeling overly harsh or too floaty. Push it harder and the tires are the first components to leave the party. The P205/60R Michelin MXV4s simply aren't meant for serious road holding and tended to "wash out" easily on twisty roads. We also noticed a bit more rear-end movement than we'd like, especially during quick transitions (we suspect this would be less of an issue for better-balanced Accord sedans equipped with the lighter four-cylinder engine).

But throwing away Honda's rhetoric about the new Accord's performance (as 95-plus percent of likely buyers will) allows one to see the car's true strengths and weaknesses. For instance, its driver's chair is one of the best. On LX sedans equipped with a V6 the driver seat has power adjustments for legroom, seat-bottom height and angle and seatback angle, but there's no way to alter lumbar support. You'd think this would be a glaring omission, but the Honda seat engineers spent time analyzing how people sit in cars and designed the lower seat back angle to properly orient the driver's torso for maximum comfort.

he rear seating arrangements were similarly top notch, particularly with regards to headroom and toe-/footroom (there's plenty under the front seats). The lower rear seatbacks aren't quite as supportive as those in the Camry (though the Camry offers less headroom), but overall the Accord's rear seating accommodations are, once again, equal to or better than anything in the segment.

Interior design and material qualities continue the high-caliber standards established by previous-generation Accords. The first thing a driver will likely notice is the large and crystal-clear gauge cluster. Lexuslike in appearance, the electroluminescent gauges are tied to the interior lights, meaning they come on, minus needles, by simply opening the door. Once the key is inserted, the gauges further brighten, as if to say "ready." Turn the key and all warning lights, plus each gauge needle, illuminates as the engine fires. This same lighting pattern happens in reverse when shutting the Accord down, including a slow fade of the gauge cluster and interior lights after hitting the remote key fob's "lock" button.

Interior materials, whether you're talking the cloth seat covers in a base DX sedan or our LX test car, along with the leather seats found in EX models, are better than you'll find in Nissan's Altima or Mazda's new 6. We weren't fond of the foam rubber headliner in our test vehicle, but otherwise there was little to gripe about. Overall, only the current Camry equals the Accord in terms of high-quality materials, but the Passat still beats them both for pure "premium-ness."

If there's an area where the Accord stomps the competition, it has to be in cupholder design. For 2003 the Accord offers a total of eight, including one in each lower door panel. Seven of these can accommodate one-liter bottles with ease (there are two cupholders in the rear seat's fold-down center armrest, but one of them is too small to house a one-liter bottle). The two primary cupholders, ideally located in the center console, use spring-loaded tabs to secure drinks in the one design point that does indeed smack of BMW-ness. There's also a two-tier center console, complete with a power point in the lower section, and a large center stack bin with a spring-loaded door. The glovebox is also quite large as midsize sedans go.

Functional control layout and high-quality switchgear are both Honda hallmarks, and the new Accord generally sticks with tradition. Whether you're taking about the meaty headlight/turn signal stalk or the large combination power button/volume knob for the audio system, you'll find most controls easy to master. We did miss a tuning knob for the radio and we questioned the use of so many buttons for the ventilation controls when a simple dial could have replaced most of them. There's also no simple "off" button for the system, though turning the fan speed dial all the way to the left accomplishes the same effect. You'll also find a one-touch down and up driver window, but all others require you to hold the button for either direction.

The steering wheel controls offered both audio and cruise control functions - including the main cruise control on-off button. Honda has placed this button on the lower left of the dash for years. The display for the sweet sounding audio system is also improved this year. It's larger and easier to read, and it uses a circular graphical display, along with numbers, to represent volume, bass, treble, fader and balance levels. In LX models with the V6 you also get a six-disc in-dash changer.

If you really want to experience high-tech nirvana in a midsize, nonpremium sedan, you'll want to step up to an Honda Accord EX with an available DVD-based navigation system. This year the system not only includes a responsive touchscreen and the entire North American continent's roads on a single disc (as it has in years past), but also a voice-activated feature, a calculator and an event calendar. You can even specify a male or female voice as your own personal tour guide. "Direct me to the nearest Texaco station, Hal:no, make that Halle."

An area we've yet to discuss is the Accord's new "skin." We don't normally spend much time focussing on aesthetics because, in the end, there is simply no way to qualify a vehicle's beauty:or lack thereof. We did, however, drive this Accord alongside the current Camry and Altima, not to mention the new Mazda 6. After studying all four midsize players from various angles it became apparent that no one on staff liked the new Accord's exterior styling. The front end lacks a true grille or any formal hood line, and there's barely a hint of a bodyline running from the fender to the quarter panel. What might be dubbed as "simple and clean" by some was collectively identified as antiseptic and droopy (even as mainstream sedans go) by our staff.

It's important to note that the percentage of Accord buyers seeking a sexy shell is probably about as high as the percentage looking to compete in local SCCA events every weekend. Sure, as driving enthusiasts we'd like the Accord to offer sportier handling and a more seductive appearance. We'd also like Ferraris to be cheaper and SUVs to be purchased only by those people who really need them. At the end of the day, we don't always get what we want:but we're betting most 2003 Accord buyers will.