Sulu

My wife just bought a new Accord yesterday. After the quick test drive, here are some of my first impressions:

1. It is a large car. It looks long and low (typical of the late model Accords) in person, and definitely looks larger than the 2007 (Gen6) Camry I had.

2. Typical of a Honda, it sits low to the ground. You definitely sit DOWN into the car.

3. There is a great distance over the top of the dashboard to the base of the windshield.

4. It felt narrower from the driver's seat than my old Camry but that may be just an impression and not fact. The cupholders are BEHIND the gearshift lever so that may make the car seem narrower.

5. Because the cupholders are behind the gearshift, the storage area under the armrest behind that is very small and looks to be smaller than the one in my current 2010 Corolla. The powerpoint and USB/Auxiliary input points in that storage bin take up a LOT of room; and the glove compartment was also smaller than I expected.

6. It drives well, like the large car that it is (but we have not taken it out on the highway yet). There is greater weight to the steering than the CR-V we also looked at.

7. It was quieter than I expected (but, again we have not had it out on the highway), and quieter than the CR-V. From what I had been reading (and experience from my wife's old Civic), I was expecting more road and wind noise, and also engine noise when accelerating (all of which the CR-V had). Perhaps the Earth Dreams 2.4-litre I4 is much better than the older 2.4-litre engine in the CR-V. It is probably not as quiet as Toyotas are, though (Toyota's new GR, AR and ZR engines are amazingly smooth and quiet engines).

If it drives as well and as quietly as I have now been led to believe (from the short drive time we have had behind the wheel), I could be attracted to the Dark Side (to Honda from Toyota).

spwolf

congrats and good luck!

Toys4RJill

Saw and sat in the new Accord, a very good example of what Honda can do when they want to. Interior was very nice.

Not sure if I like it better than the new Camry, but they will do good in a head to head comparison.

seanlee

people often say: picture doesn't do justice. this cannot be more true to the newer accord. i saw one when i was visiting my dentist and i have to say the car look very premium in grey. it looks like it belongs to a different class than altima/camry.
you got to see it in person before passing the judgement, it is that good.

Mookie254

iTrader: (2)

Most of my car buddies are 8th gen accord owner including my brother. I went to a BBQ with them yesterday and there was a bunch 8th gen out there and a few 9th gen sedan and coupe. The coupe was really ugly especially the rear. But man Honda killed it with the design on the sedan with the led headlights. Definitely make a great VIP theme car.

TF109B

The SPORT model is great looking. Didn't test drive it though.

Sulu

We picked up my wife's new 2013 Honda Accord LX (the lowest trim level available here in Canada) this afternoon, and so after a half-day of city and highway driving, here are my first real impressions of how the new Accord drives.

My wife traded in her 2001 Honda Civic for the 2013 Accord, so while it is not fair to compare a Civic to an Accord and not fair to compare a 12-year old car with a brand new car (and brand new model), they are both Hondas and because I did the driving this afternoon, it is the car I drove immediately before driving the Accord (I did not drive my 2010 Corolla at all today). I will also try to compare the new Accord with the 2013 Honda CR-V we test drove 2 weeks ago.

Let me start from the inside, as the sales representative did his usual initial explanation of features. The LX comes with a power driver's seat; not ever having owned a car with such a feature, it is nice to be able to make fine little changes to the seating position rather than the coarse changes that I am forced to make in the Corolla. It is also nice to be able to raise the driver's seat high enough (without only raising the rear portion, thereby losing front thigh support) so that I do not get the sitting-in-a-bathtub feeling I get in new cars with high beltlines.

The Accord also has its version of COMAND / iDrive / etc. (as I suppose all new cars now do) with its "mouse" in the middle of the audio system. Both my wife and I became somewhat overwhelmed as the salesman went through pairing my phone with the HandsFreeLink Bluetooth link (and I work on computers everyday). There is a lot more like it, with quite a few menus to play through; we will have to get used to it, I guess, but the frequently used controls -- audio and climate controls among them -- all have their traditional controls so we may only have to drill down the menus only infrequently. Well, if this is what eliminated the sea of buttons, I am very happy; and the audio system controls are now much better -- and visibly -- separated from the climate system controls, which makes the driver interface much better, in my opinion (I could not stand the sea of buttons in the Acura TSX my wife looked at 2 years ago). I am happy to see Honda give up that gimmick it has clung to for so long.

Hondas used to have low cowls (the base of the windshield) but new Hondas -- the new Accord and CR-V among them -- have high cowls. The instruments are high -- higher than Toyotas -- forcing the steering wheel to be high up also. If I set the wheel to a height I like, I cannot see the top of the instruments so I have to set it high which makes it a bit uncomfortable for me; my forearms and shoulders are somewhat tired after an afternoon of city and highway driving. If I set the seat up high, I feel a bit too close to the airbag for my liking. Oh, and what I said about a great expanse of dashboard between the driver and the windshield only seems that way from the lower passenger seat; from the higher driver's seat, it does not seem any greater than my Corolla.

So how does it drive? My wife got upset at me for comparing it to the Civic (which I will admit is not fair); she wants me to compare it to Toyotas. The Earth Dreams engine and CVT are much better than what I expected coming from the Civic, the 2013 CR-V and the reviews that I have read. It is a very smooth and quiet drivetrain, and comparable -- in my opinion -- with Toyota's new AR and ZR engines. Older Honda engines -- including the older-generation 2.4-litre 4-cylinder engine in the CR-V -- are not very quiet nor very smooth. At constant city speeds in this new Accord, however, the tachometer reads only 1250 rpm; at highway cruise, it reads 1750 rpm, which does its part at keeping noise, vibration and harshness down. The CVT acts like you would expect a CVT to act while in the city, with a little bit of a rubber-banding effect with a light foot on the accelerator, like the car cannot accelerate fast enough (perhaps the ECO mode helped to give that feeling). At highway speeds and a heavier foot on the accelerator, however, it seemed to act more like a "normal" automatic transmission, with the speed increasing as the engine RPM increased and I thought I felt a gear change also!

But all is not sweetness and light. Out on the highway, my 4-year old son asked if there was a problem with the tires. There definitely is road noise and suspension noise -- they are noticeable but not that bad and not as bad as I was led to expect from the reviews. I could get used to it.

We passed a Genesis on the road. My wife thought it was another 2013 Accord until she noticed it was a Hyundai and not a Honda; she remarked that it looked much like the Accord. I told her that the Accord looked like the Hyundai because the Genesis came out a few years ago now.

So how do I like it? I suppose if I can find a comfortable driving position -- seat in relation to the steering wheel -- I could come to like it as a long-distance car. It is quiet, smooth, comfortable and refined with a well-sorted out suspension. It may not be a corner-carver, even with the firm-but-not-harsh suspension but that is not what we expect or need. But I want a hybrid car when the lease expires on my Corolla and if you want hybrid you can't beat Toyota or Lexus, can you? There is my justification for staying with Toyota; and if Toyota starts offering more models with optional hybrid drivetrains (give me a wagon!) I do not have to look to the Accord.

bruce van

Congrats on the new car. I saw the me Accord in person a few weeks ago and thought Honda did an outstanding job with the redesign. It's much more upscale.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I saw a white one on the road today. Looked like an LX model, but it did look elegant. Didn't get a chance to look at the interior though.

GFerg

Congrats! Not surprisingly I have seen so many of these already. I do agree that it is a pretty classy design for its class. However, I have also seen a couple of them modified with chrome wheels and chrome window trim that made me want to throw up.

TRDFantasy

Well I take back what I said earlier about the car. In pictures this looked pretty good, but having seen it in person now, pictures were misleading.

Sorry to say, but IMHO, in person the design is awkward and even tacky in some ways. The best part of the car is the rear, which is understated and elegant. As you get to the sides and the front, it just gets worse and worse. The side character lines look a bit tacky in comparison to the elegant rear, and last but not least the front is the worst part for me IMHO. The christmas tree LED lights totally ruin the front for me, and makes the car look really cheap. Also not really a fan of the front grille either.

Camry SE still has a more cohesive and less tacky design IMHO.

Interior is cohesive, but that doesn't mean much since it is styled from circa 1995. The interior just has very outdated styling, positioning, layout, and colors.

pman6

can't please everyone.

Lexus has their own xmas tree lights running along the bottom edge of the headlamps too.
if you say that doesn't make it look cheap, that's being hypocritical.

LexFather

Uhhh you are the same guy trying to compare a 5 series to an accord lol.

Lexus had had LED headlights and DRLs for ages now including world firsts. The Lexus LEds are designed to look like an L and the new LS is an led tube. It's not just some random design. It has a true purpose.

In typical fashion honda/acura are late and in another slap to Acura a Honda has led DRLs before they do.

My advice.. lets not worry about Lexus here.

TRDFantasy

Sorry, try again.

Christmas lights:


Accord lights:


Lexus (ES) lights:


So clearly there is a difference to how Lexus and Honda implemented LEDs. All the Lexus vehicles use an LED tube, with integrated LEDs. Also noticed how clean and integrated the LED tube looks with the rest of the headlamp assembly, and notice the tight spacing between the LED lights themselves. Now look at the Honda implementation. It is NOT an LED tube, but a simple basic strip of LEDs on the bottom of the headlamp assembly. The LEDs are spaced farther apart, giving them a cheap tacky appearance, and also makes it look like a tacked-on aftermarket accessory.

IS350jet

I actually like the look of the LED's on the Honda better. Of course, that's just my opinion. While the Lexus LED's are in fact true LED bulbs they almost look like tiny incandescent bulbs lined up in a row. IOW, they don't look like a true LED, like the ones on Audi's, for example.