I've had a new, improved Honda Accord diesel tourer for the last week while mine is being sorted by Honda. Post facelift, the car now has a six speed gearbox not five, and has various other minor improvements such as a speed sensitive radio.
I have to say I'm not at all convinced that the car has been improved. Despite a slight thirst, a major strength of this diesel is its enormous flexibility. The five-speed box is a delight, and is extremely long geared. This means that on twisting back roads you're unlikely to shift much other than between third and fourth, and on a motorway unlikely to need to change out of fifth unless dropping to fourth for extra acceleration. At 70, 5th gear pulls about 2100 RPM.
From my experience so far, the main effect of the new gearbox appears to be that gear changes are now needed far more frequently, especially in traffic. On the other hand, fifth now appears to be a top gear for a road cruising, and six only of use for the motorways, so there are positive aspects. Overall though, the gearchange itself is much nicer on the five-speed box, and it would remain my preference.
I hadn't driven an Accord on the 16? wheels since I had my original test drive. My recollection that the ride was very smooth and there wasn't any tramlining was entirely borne out. However, the car and definitely feels (very slightly) less surefooted than it does on the larger wheels, and as mentioned in another post, I've entirely cured the tramlining by changing to Pirelli's on my car. It also looks terrible on the small wheels IMHO.
Other than that, I don't personally find the volume adjustment on the radio to be useful, I still find myself adjusting it. The automatic lights are quite nice, but I overrode them several times. I'm very glad I didn't spend the extra money on the satellite navigation system. It is shiny, but it's not really terribly superior to my TomTom system, and was insistent on diverting around supposed traffic jams even when asked not to. My girlfriend and I are both unanimous that the new front grill is not an improvement.
So, I'm pleased to say that my conclusion is I'd rather keep my car. I may only have a five-speed gearbox, and I don't have the shiny satnav, but overall I don't feel the changes have improved the car.
Gord
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Thanks for this Gord.
When you say yours is being sorted by Honda - I hope it is nothing serious - can you enlighten us.
Are you being treated to the Customer Service that is usually associated with Honda ?
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Sorry Gord - ignore the above I have just come across your other recent thread.
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Honda made a feature out of the car only needing a 5 speed box but I guess the marketing people won. One of the reasons I didn't buy Accord was I really wanted an auto, but I reckoned that Accord was the one manual I drove that I could have lived with. It seemed capable of doing everything and anything while simply being left in 3rd gear!
The loaner I had did have Nav - I thought it *hugely* lifted the interior. Those big round knobs on the non sat nav versions are horrible. The system (its map data of course) was pretty rubbish - it couldn't find 2 out 3 addresses I needed in for a trip in Bristol, and one of them was Parkway railway station.
Probably hard to tell on a Tourer, but does it seem any quieter? The road roar from the back of the car was almost overwhelming on the saloon (16" wheels) that I tried. Funnily enough I thought the last Civic was the same too.
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See my recent thread 'How many do you need?'
Four-speed autos with lock-up (Honda as it happens) suit me fine and the old three-speed Borg Warner 35 on my Daimler and Rover V8s was brilliant too - just went up through into top and stayed there. The torque and the torque converter did the work.
Does the facelift include any improvement on the sideways-on appearance of the Tourer?
I ask because I have considered buying, but I won't drive anything that looks like the present one. It's a shame.
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a major strength of this diesel is its enormous flexibility. ....................This means that on twisting back roads you're unlikely to shift much other than between third and fourth, and on a motorway unlikely to need to change out of fifth ......................From my experience so far, the main effect of the new gearbox appears to be that gear changes are now needed far more frequently, especially in traffic. >>
Exactly my thoughts re the 6 speed box on the Mondeo, you partly forsake one of the key benefits of the diesel, flexibility. Likewise my experience last week with the new 177bhp D4D Avensis (reported in full elsewhere) where a 6th was only a worthwhile proposition well above 70 mph.
The two reasons for a 6 speed box on the Mondeo are marketing and BiK, re the latter, the long 6th offers lower C02 at motorway speeds thus lowering the Gov average CO2 slightly thus lowering the Bik one bracket however the real world consumption is really no better. Ditto Honda me thinks.
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Mike, almost no difference side on. They've added a spoiler on the one I've got, but don't know if that's an option.
I've always liked the looks, but opinion is certainly very split.
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Quieter? Hard to tell, especially as it's on smaller wheels, but possibly a bit. It's not a huge difference tho, hence my hesitation.
I prefer the huge knobs - they are far easier to work while driving, and remove the need to look. Ditto the radio station buttons, which are on the touchscreen on the nav version. I have to agree that it does make the car look more high tech having the screen tho, but I have ended up turning it off when I don't need the nav function - it's distracting.
Oh, and after another dusk drive last night, I'm no longer ambivilent about the auto lights - they are annoying and I turned them off - they came on under every flyover, dimming all the instruments for a few seconds then coming back on again. Car in front probably thought I was flashing him!
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Test drove a new Accord saloon week or two back, with the funky ADAS on it (automatic distance control from car in front via cruise, and automatic lane keeping on motorways - even steers you round corners).
Liked ADAS very much, satnav was ok although a bit idiosyncratic - but just couldn't sign the bottom line because of the road noise. It's SO noisy - completely put us off I'm afraid. Even had to raise our voices at 60, never mind 70.
Also it was going to cost us 27k, which seems a lot for what it is.
No idea what else to buy at the minute though!
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"Oh, and after another dusk drive last night, I'm no longer ambivilent about the auto lights - they are annoying and I turned them off - they came on under every flyover"
Another good idea which seems to have been badly executed on the Honda. The one's on the Audi only activate after it has detected reduced lighting levels for a good period of time. Flyovers etc do not make the lights come on - it needs to be a tunnel of some length - my experience of using the Leeds inner ring road bears out.
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I have some sympathy - what's the point if you still need to turn them on manually in short tunnels? I think it's just a pointless feature that will break at some point when the car's older.
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"Oh, and after another dusk drive last night, I'm no longer ambivilent about the auto lights - they are annoying and I turned them off - they came on under every flyover" Another good idea which seems to have been badly executed on the Honda. The one's on the Audi only activate after it has detected reduced lighting levels for a good period of time. Flyovers etc do not make the lights come on - it needs to be a tunnel of some length - my experience of using the Leeds inner ring road bears out.
There are somethings that the brain will simply always do better than any clever electronic gizmos, turning the lights and wipers on and off are but two examples.
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I bought the 06 Accord Tourer in May this year with the diesel engine and EX spec. I did add the 17" wheels, as like Gordon M, I thought the 16" did not look right. Tramlining on the standard Yoko tyres is there, but only on badly rutted surfaces. The roadholding is extremely good and I often wonder what the limits are, but will not be tempted too far!
I opted for the special deal of sat nav/Bluetooth for just £500 and been very pleased. The hands free Bluetooth system allows up to 5 mobiles to be paired with the car system, and this works very well. The sat nav is generally good but like some others I have found a few questionable areas in its use. The sat nav option includes voice activation which also extends to many functions, including the Bluetooth and other car controls such as climate control.
The auto lights are a bit of an overkill and I agree with the comments already made, but the auto wipers are a real benefit and now I do not have to keep changing the wiper speed as it is automatic. Anything to help keep attention just on driving must be good!
The six speed box works well and produces a very quiet run at speed (despite other comments!), and keeps CO2 down, but an auto option for the diesel must be top of Honda's list.
As for looks the 06 model has the rear roof spolier and roof bars in black as standard, and this helps make it look less bread van like! I like the shape now as it is different from most other alternatives.
The electric opening rear door is something of a gimmick until you return to the car with arms loaded and all you have to do is press the key fob button!
Still not sure about the lack of any spare wheel though. It just has the dreaded can and pump system, which is going to useful if a tyre gets shredded! Although I keep reassuring myself that I have had only one instance of deflated tyres in over 25 years of motoring. So fingers crossed!
All in all I am very pleased with the car and it has Honda reliability and back up, which has been excellent so far. I expect it to last well as I will keep it for about 3/4 years and cover around 100,000 miles in that time.
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I'm no longer ambivilent about the auto lights...they came on under every flyover, dimming all the instruments for a few seconds then coming back on again.
I drove the one I had for a few days in pretty yucky weather and I found the permanently illuminated dash meant I really didn't know if the lights were on or not, during the day - I don't think there's any other tell-tale?
Car in front probably thought I was flashing him!
That's why I don't use mine - you can imagine the peril of them coming on at just the wrong time.
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To remind you that the lights are on there is a green symbol on the dash. Also there is the warning buzzer if you switch off and get out with the lights left on!
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To remind you that the lights are on there is a green symbol on the dash.
It was more of an issue of remembering to turn them on in heavy rain - the dash being illuminated all the time makes you (me anyway) think that the lights are on. I guess you get used to it.
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If the dimmer setting is set all the way clockwise, the instruments are fully illuminated all the time. Move the dimmer anticlockwise past the detent and the instruments dim when the lights are on (at least I think they do - it's a while since I've had them set like this). Normally I just use the green light on the panel to tell when the lights are on.
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If you return to the car with both arms loaded with shopping how do you manage to press the keyfob button anyway? Just a thought.
Also, I guess the auto lights function could become a pain over time because the likelihood is that it won't stop working.
I suppose I shouldn't carp about the side view of the Tourer, where just a couple of inches more depth to the back windows would have transformed the appearance - just look what they've done with the new CRV!
Sometimes I just wish I could buy another late '80s Aerodeck but with 21st century systems (although the originals were pretty good) and have the ideal Honda.
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