| Product: |
Honda Accord i-CTDi Ex Saloon |
| Date: |
06/12/06 (3288 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: All the gadgets a modern car needs
Disadvantages: Cheap looking fake wood effect interior
You may have read about my useless car which I wrote about some time ago. Well a few months ago I finally got rid of my MGTF and bought myself a decent car instead. I use the word 'decent' to describe the build quality of my new car and not as a comparison in design, handling, and features etc. I realise that a direct comparison is impossible as the 2 cars are completely different both in terms of the type of person they are aimed at and the uses to which they would be put to.
My new car is a 2005 Honda Accord 2.2 i-CTDi Executive and I bought it mostly because of how comfortable and feature rich it was during the test drive but also because of the excellent review written by RichadA who I think should receive at least a small amount of commission :). He certainly gets my thanks for nudging me in the direction of the Accord because I was initially thinking of getting a VW Passat or a Toyota Prius. I bought my 18 month old Accord with 8000 miles on the clock. In the 5 months that I've owned it I've already added another 9,000 miles because of the amount of driving my new job requires me to do.
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The Specs
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The Executive comes with an awful lot of equipment as standard and I'll try and describe each item and how useful it is to me.
Once in the car, the first thing you'll notice is the level of comfort offered by the Leather Seats. After my MGTF, I decided whatever car I bought, it would have to have leather seats. I suffer from constant lower back pain and the seats have to be as comfortable as possible and leather seats give you this comfort. In addition to this, the front seats are electrically heated with a high and low setting. When driving long distances I often switch on the heating and the back pain just disappears after about 5 minutes and I find that for several hours afterwards I'm a lot less stiff than I would normally be.
Both front seats are adjusted electrically and the driving position can be changed by way of a couple of buttons on the right-hand side of the seat near the bottom. These allow the seat to be moved backwards/forwards, up/down and both the back of the seat and the seat itself can be tilted backwards and forwards. The passenger seat for some reason cannot be adjusted up or down but apart from that works in the same way as the drivers' seat. The steering wheel can also be adjusted both in terms of the tilt and also can be pulled forwards or pushed towards the dashboard. This allows you to find the perfect driving position.
Comfort is further enhanced by a centre armrest which can be extended forwards if required. Underneath the armrest is a storage area and Honda have thoughtfully included a 12v power socket which I use to charge my laptop and phone when on the move. A coin-box/sunglasses holder is also provided along with a cup holder that can hold two cups. There are another couple of cup holders provided for the rear passengers in the middle of the rear seats.
It comes with electric windows all round and these can be controlled by the driver using the buttons on the armrest on the door. The heated door mirrors can also be controlled from here.
On the ceiling are a couple of map lights that also function as driver 'welcome' lights which come on automatically when you unlock the door using the remote key and also when you turn the ignition off and take the key out. There's also a welcome light at the back for the rear passengers.
In terms of instrumentation, you have the usual stuff directly in front of you including a rev counter and open door indicator that also tells you which door is actually open. Although the dashboard has a trip computer and tells you the outside temperature, Honda have neglected to include a fuel consumption monitor so you have to work it all out yourself. In fact I hesitate to use the word 'computer'; it's more of a 'Trip Abacus'.
What makes the instrumentation so unique as far as I can tell is the inclusion of a 7 inch touch-screen on the dashboard between the driver and passenger. This touch screen is used to control the air-conditioning, radio, CD player, Sat-Nav system and a few general settings for the car. Of course some of these can also be controlled from the steering wheel but the system really comes into its own when using the Sat-Nav which I'll come to later.
The car comes with Dual Control air-conditioning allowing driver and passenger to optionally adjust the airflow around them to their own desired temperature. The air-conditioning can be set to automatic or alternatively by using the touch screen the driver can go to manual and direct the air to wherever they want it, at the speed that they want it.
An RDS radio player combined with a CD player capable of loading up to 6 CD's provides the in-car entertainment with some pretty good quality speakers dotted around the car though they are not the best I've heard. There is a really annoying slight vibration coming from my side of the door when the volume gets to a certain level and I hope to have this looked at during the next service. The aerial is built into the rear windscreen and is a nice touch because it means the very beautiful lines of the car are left unspoilt from the outside. Both the CD and Radio can be controlled from the steering wheel but if you want to adjust bass/treble, balance etc or use some of the more advanced controls you need to use the touch-screen which incidentally is very intuitive to use.
The Sat-Nav system is probably one of the best I've seen in terms of the software used and the massive bright 7 inch screen enhances this even more. The map detail that can be shown on this screen is impressive and much, much better than the tiny portable third party devices that you have to buy for other cars. As it's all integrated into the entertainment system it also means that no one is likely to steal it. The largest growing area in car crime at the moment is the theft of portable Sat-Nav systems and DVD players.
To program in a destination all you need to do is enter the first part of the post code and then locate the street. You can optionally enter the house number too. Once the address has been input you can opt for the shortest or fastest route. You also select whether or not you wish to use toll roads and also to avoid certain roads. The map data provided in my car is dated 2004 which is annoying for a car registered in the second quarter of 2005 and means that there's a few routes that it gets wrong slightly because of inaccurate information in its database which also covers the whole of Europe by the way. This is not a huge problem because whilst driving it is constantly keeping track of where you are and as soon as you go off route, it will recalculate a new route to your destination. On the map you can also decide to display petrol stations, hotels/restaurants, hospitals and even Honda dealerships. The petrol station option is extremely useful as you can always find your nearest point to fill up if you happen to be in an unfamiliar area. The system also contains a huge database of 'Points of Interest' such as shopping centres, tourist attractions, businesses and such like. On the map you can zoom in and out depending on differing needs for level of detail. At any point it can also tell you what road you are on, your lat/long co-ordinates and altitude! The map data itself is held in a DVD which is read from a drive located just above the ash tray. This disk is updatable but you have to fork out about £100. I'm just going to try and copy a DVD from a 2007 model next year. If anyone gets one of these as a result of reading this review then please lend me your DVD :)
When using the Sat-Nav, a nice lady tells you well in advance of what new directions you will require and these messages are further enhanced by the system splitting the screen in half with one half showing you the map and the other showing a close-up of the slip road, roundabout etc that you will need to navigate to continue on your journey. The system allows you to vary the volume of the directions and optionally allows the information to come out of either the left or right speakers or both. You can also mute it if you wish.
The system also allows you to save destinations and then retrieve them later. This is absolutely essential for me. I'm required to visit clients all around the UK and being new to the company I have no idea how to get to them all. So instead I've programmed in their addresses and simply call them up when I next need to visit them. I could go on about the functionality included in just this system but the review is about the car not the Sat-Nav so I'll carry on with the rest of the car now.
Rain sensitive wipers are standard in the Executive model and this replaces the intermittent wiper setting that most cars have. It works quite well too, much better than the ones on a Peugeot 206 my wife owned a few years ago. When in this mode (which is 90% of the time) the wipers automatically come on when rain hits the windscreen. The more it rains the faster the wipers go. It's as simple as that. The automatic button also has a speed selector to make the wipers go faster in this mode so that in light drizzle for example you can increase or decrease the time interval between wipes. When you use the washer button, the 4 jets spread a huge amount of water onto the windscreen and if you happen to do this at night with the lights on, then a couple of jets pop out of the front bumper to clean the headlights too.
The headlights offer a powerful wide beam and visibility is excellent at night. The Accord comes with both front and back fog lights but I've not had to use these yet.
There's not much more to say about the interior. The look and feel of most of it is that of luxury but unfortunately this is all let down by some cheap looking plastic and fake wood effects. That is the only negative thing I can think of regarding the interior apart from that this is the first car I've been in where a regular 3 hour drive in heavy traffic has not been at all tiring.
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The Drive
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Having only ever driven a petrol car before, the change to a diesel takes a little getting used to. The car is very sluggish at low speeds in the wrong gear. My other cars have always managed to move forwards in 4th gear for example at speeds below say 20mph. The Honda 2.2 Diesel doesn't. So if you are used to being a lazy driver like me and don't change gears at the appropriate times at low speeds then the Honda will certainly let you know about it. However when you are driving in the correct gear for the speed that you are travelling in and you put your foot down then you will surprise other drivers near you because the car shoots forward and leaves most other cars standing. On motorways it can accelerate effortlessly from 60 or 70 mph to 90-100 within seconds. From a standing start, the turbo charged diesel engine will get you to 60mph in just over 9 seconds which is actually only a couple of seconds slower than my old MG. Not at all bad for a car that must weigh twice as much.
Engine noise is practically non-existent even when idling and when moving you'd be forgiven for not realising that you're in a diesel from engine noise alone which turns into a weird whining noise instead of the usual rattle that you get from other diesels.
Honda claim that you can get 52mpg which must be in an airless environment on a downhill slope or something because I don't get anywhere near that. I'm lucky if I get 43mpg and most times I seem to get about 41mpg (about 500 miles on 55 litres of diesel). Still that's 100 miles more than I used to get in my MG. I'll get this checked at the next service due in another 3500 miles.
Most of my driving is done on motorways but I've still had to do plenty of miles on A and B roads. Here the car sticks to the road and you feel very secure going around bends. In the rain the car is assisted by the Honda VSA system (Vehicle Stability Assist) which applies gentle brakes to any wheel that it detects has lost grip. It means that it is very difficult to lose control in this car and my confidence in it growing and growing. ABS comes as standard so does EBA (Emergency Brake Assist) which increases the brake force applied to the wheels when it detects that you are trying to brake hard. Front and side driver and passenger airbags also come as standard and all of this will give you an excellent feeling of security and you know you'll be looked after in the unfortunate event of crashing your car.
The only negative thing about the drive is probably not the fault of Honda the manufacturer but the Honda Dealer. The car was an ex-demonstrator and had 17 inch wheels put on which would normally cost extra if you were buying this car brand new. They look great but are a nightmare on uneven roads if you are not used to them. They tend to be very sensitive to the quality of the road you're on so any unevenness results in the steering wheel having a life of its own and turning suddenly to the left or right, especially when applying the brakes. I've gotten used to it now but it caught both me and my wife off-guard when we drove the car for the first time. It's quite scary but after a while you can start to enjoy it as it gives real feedback to your hands as to the type of road you're on.
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Nice touches
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Every car has a little something that makes it that much more special but the Honda Accord has a number of little features that show the designers had the driver and practicality in mind when putting the Accord together on paper.
The boot can be opened from the remote key fob which is great when you've got lots of stuff in your hands.
The car beeps when you leave your headlights on and open the driver door.
It beeps again when you don't wear your seatbelt
There's a keyhole near on the floor near the drivers seat which you can use to lock the boot. That way even if someone smashes your window and opens the car doors, the boot will remain locked and inaccessible.
The interior lights come on when you open the door or turn the engine off and take the key out.
The power socket in the centre armrest means that you can charge your mobile phone without cluttering up your dashboard with those unsightly in-car kits that you buy from carphonewarehouse.
Volume controls at your fingertip on the steering wheel.
The front seats provide support not just for your back but under your thighs too.
Heat absorbing tinted windows
Door mirrors have indicator lights built into them
Every now and again even 5 months later I still come across a nice touch that brings a smile to my face when I think about someone at Honda actually thinking ahead and putting themselves in my position. For instance just the other week I decided to check the tyre pressures and I got the information out of the manual that I keep in the glove box. Then a few days ago I noticed a white sticker on the body where the front driver's door closes and this had the tyre pressures shown on it so now I know that next time I won't have to dig the manual out. It's a minor thing but it shows that the manufacturer cares about the people that drive their cars.
The Accord has now become the best car I've ever bought and I hope to drive it for many, many more thousands of miles.
Summary: A fantastic car with affordable luxury
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