Let’s do a good/bad style mini review. I’ll say something I like, followed by something I don’t like. And so on...
Good- Air Conditioning. Quite literally just in time for the heat wave, and the sole reason I haven’t driven the Miata once in the past 4 days. Also nice, whatever setting I set it to will be the same one I return to each time I start the car.
Bad- No telescopic or tilt functions on the wheel. Absolutely unforgivable. It’s a mid-tier modern ccord, not an 80's Lada. I’m unable to find a driving position where my elbows are adequately bent, legs are straight enough to be comfortable, body is low enough to see below the roofline, and I’m able to see all the gauges. At best I can get 2/4, and I’m not some crazy outlier, at 6'1”. Shame Honda. Shame.
Good- eco mode is on by default.
“what? Why’s that in the good section?!”
It’s simple. This Accord has absolutely zero sporting pretenses, regardless of what modes you select. As such the decision to focus on fuel economy by default was the correct one.
Bad- abysmal fuel economy for short around town driving. I’m talking drives in the 1/4 - 2 mile range, lots of stop lights. According to the trip computer I’m averaging 14 mpg in those circumstances. That’s bad because, well... Those short local drives make up the majority of my driving time. For reference, in the same situations, my turbo manual 850 wagon that had the boost turned up averaged 23 mpg in the exact same driving situations. EXACT SAME. And the Volvo was not a lightweight either, packed with all the most advanced safety tech of the time, including the very first instance of side-curtain airbags (the more you know!). Anyways, the massive gap in fuel economy is even more impressive when you consider the fact that I had the Volvo months ago when winter gas was still being used, AND the fact that I wasn’t shy about getting into the turbo.
Good- Rear view camera is much better than average. Nice, high res image with accurate colors.
Bad- the fact that I need a rear view camera for a mid-size sedan. New car problems. By that I mean the door sills are SUPER high. I look comical trying to rest my arm on the sill. Also, rear visibility is terrible, due to the increasingly common small greenhouse and upward slope of the body. The B and C pillars may not be as bad as in some cars that are universally hated for their lacking visibility, but they’re still large and make hefty blindspots. Get rid of the greatest safety feature out there—visibility—and replace it with better crash protection. Seems like more of a lateral move than a forward one. Or even a step backwards if you consider the driving behavior these changes can produce...
Good- 100% physical HVAC buttons. Physical radio buttons on the steering wheel that are intuitive and simple.
Bad- this one hurts to say, as the Honda of the late 80's and 90's was the absolute king in this regard, but... Cheap looking/feeling interior. Tacky carbon fiber accents, an incredibly cheap-feeling leather that’s exponentially worsened by how loosely it’s wrapped around the interior panels, glossy chrome trim that reflects the sun into your eyes at numerous different angles, steering wheel that feels like a thin rubber rope left outside for a few years, plastic paddle shifters that I can bend with minimal force.... The list goes on. And again, this is an Accord. Noone would call the 90's civics luxurious, but the interiors were well thought out and ergonomic. They also weren’t ashamed of their low-cost materials, which manifested itself in a simple, timeless design compared to the Accord that tries to do 5 series luxury on a 1 series budget.
Good- power seems perfectly adequate for what it is. You can go up to highway speeds reasonably quickly.
Bad- manual shifting is a joke. The paddles will seemingly arbitrarily skip 1, 2, or 3 gears, you can’t switch gears from a stop if you want to choose between starting in 1st or 2nd, if you stop using the paddles for like 5 seconds the transmission takes over and will start shifting again....
Good- I’m running out of good. Uh... It doesn’t need premium? (I hope)
Bad- you’ve got less steering feel than a GameCube controller. Suspension was clearly designed in the accounting department. Separate unlock and trunk unlock buttons (personal preference. I like one button that unlocks everything, and a physical handle that can then release the trunk, as apposed to a dedicated key fob button that pops the trunk). Oh and as with most modern cars there are multiple screens. A few of them are dot-matrix in the Accord. I didn’t realize we were still doing those. Would it really have been that much to ask for tiny LCD panels?
Good- wait! I thought of one that’s legitimately great! One touch up and down windows.
So yeah. A throughly disappointing car, and yet because of AC I’m still driving it everyday. Sometimes it’s all about that one killer feature. I’ve got it for another week or so, and with any luck I’ll be getting around town on an infinitely more exciting Ducati by then. Until then, I’ll continue to cruise around in Honda’s shining example of mediocrity.
I’m unsure of the year or any trim info, and I’m so uninterested that I’m not going to bother going outside to check the owners manual. It has active safety features like self-parking, lane assist, and a fancy cruise-control, but they all seem to be a combination of buggy and unintuitive. With the exception of emergency braking, which I got to see in action and was very impressed with (credit where it’s due!)
So... Questions?