Lovely car but too thirsty! (Honda Accord (1994-98))

Member Name: HelenHancox

Product:	Honda Accord (1994-98)
Date:	26/06/02 (1344 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: comfort, driving experience, looks pretty smart

Disadvantages: fuel consumption, fuel consumption, fuel consumption

I am one of those awkward people who has to have an automatic car, which is very limiting on choice. I also want an estate for the two large dogs. But I want decent performance, comfort and fuel economy.

With my Honda Accord Aerodeck 2.2i ES I get everything but the fuel economy. Sadly, I have been very disappointed in the economy - we get about 23mpg on average, although it is almost always short journeys. Our diesel automatic Audi A4 gets to go on any long journeys as it rewards us with 50mpg.

Apart from the fuel (which sadly can be a big thing) the car is wonderful. Ours is pretty old - an M reg - and has done 81,000 miles, and it's great to drive for such a big car. The auto box is fairly well behaved, although can get a bit surprised when you go up sudden hills. The cruise control is a boon, the safety equipment (ABS, airbags) is respectable, and although a big car I don't find it unwieldy to park.

Niggles? Well, for an M reg car, nothing I should really complain about. But I'll give you an idea - the remote central locking has two gadgets, one of which has died (it's not the battery), and you can't stop the alarm going off without unlocking it with the remote if you've locked it that way. OK for now, but when the second one goes...

We had a leak in the power steering pump which we eventually had repaired (after topping it up over six months with just £12 worth of fluid). That was with the local brand new Honda dealer and was an acceptable £150.

At the moment the car sounds very sporty - cracked exhaust manifold, we reckon - but we'll just live with that for a bit until we get inspired to fix it.

But the car is great. It fits 5 people and two large dogs in. The boot is enormous (slight encroachment of wheel arches, but not too bad), and our second hand car came with a plastic-moulded boot liner which is fantastic to protect the boot from dog debris. The velour cloth of
the seats is OK but over winter gets to look a bit sad due to excess mud from dogwalks, but it does clean up OKayish, when I can bother!

Oh, and we fitted a towbar and it tows the boat fine.

If it weren't for the fuel consumption this would be almost an ideal car, but the fuel sadly is significant these days. Only 250 miles on a 60 litre tank is scary!

Summary: