I have just come back from a Christmas New Year break in Cape Town. I ended up hiring a petrol Honda Accord with a gearbox which could be driven fully automatic or indeed switching over and changing gear by pressing the button on top of the gear stick. I just stuck with the automatic ( only the second time I had driven automatic). I ended up being impressed by the car ( charcoal colour with shiny black seats). Genuinely it felt very well assembled.
In all the road tests I read on this car, they don't mention that the ride is quite hard ( mine had hard sports seats in the front. Very supportive though). If you have squease three adults in to the back, the middle seat is harder as it is in fact an armrest ( you get that with much posher bigger cars though).I would prefer a propper middle rear seat and no spare armrest. I imagine that one can buy an Accord with a softer ride.Mine probably had a sports set up.
I did some very interesting drives. One day I drove all the way out to Worcester in the Cape . Comng back the temperature was 38 C, ( In Worcester itself it had been around 40 C.) A lot of the time Cape Town was in the 20s C. Arund 30 or so one day.
The main South African roads are pretty good with a speed limit of 120 kph on freeways.There was quite a heavy police presence around the Cape, so I behaved and watched speed limits. Gong out the N1 to Worcester one drives through a long mountain tunnel de Toits Kloof. Drivng Chapman's Peak Drive on other days and various other areas was superb.
All in all I was extremely fond of the Honda Accord. I was very sorry to have to return it to the hire company at Cape Town Airprt.
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Which company did you hire from Cattleman? We go every year and I've found that hiring anything bigger than Focus-size is prohibitively expensive.
Driving in SA is a pleasant change from the crowded South of England: the traffic even keeps moving in central Cape Town if you avoid the rush hour (earlier than ours - I think the working day tends to be 8-4 rather than 9-5).
Although I think you come from Ireland where you can also get away from traffic quite easily. Ireland and SA are the only countries I know where they have the useful yellow line near the edge of single-carriageway roads where most people willingly pull in and allow themselves to be overtaken. Someone may know if there are others.
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Ireland and SA are the only countries I know where they have the
useful yellow line near the edge of single-carriageway roads where most people willingly pull in and allow themselves to be overtaken. Someone may know if there are others.
Certainly appreciate this in Eire. My father's family all live in West Cork, and the practice you mention of pulling over is a great help to progress on a journey. Many highways in the Unites States have a wide margin at each side; however, the camber can be quite excessive at times, and you need to be careful if you are the one pulling in.
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"drivewell".
It is incredibly useful. I have driven a great deal in South Africa and I was thrilled at that practise. I notice though one has to be so careful of pedestrians. In South Africa they have appalling carnage on the roads. Some pedestrians have no awareness of danger. Driving back on the N1 Freeway from Worcester, one dear lady with a tiny child, just walked out in front of the car in front of me. She was so casual and you could see it was her way of life.
The police came in force to Cape town and it's surrounds over the Christmas New Year period. ( apparently they did the same to the troubled Durban area). They cut the crime greatly in Cape Town. I also saw quite a few speed traps on the N2 and N1 Freeways. Years ago people drove like blazes out there and rarely got caught. Like flat out through the central Karoo!!!!
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>Years ago people drove like blazes out there and rarely got caught. Like flat out through the central Karoo!!!!
I got caught in the middle of nowhere on the N7 about 100km south of Springbok. Long, flat straight road with visiblity for miles and I get caught by a traffic cop sat in the shade of a roadside reststop with his car parked behind the only tree for 50km. Very embarassing.
I love Southern Africa but they really need to get a grip on the level of violent crime.
The photo in yesterdays papers of the two girls who witnessed their father being murdered during a robbery is harrowing.
tinyurl.com/3xl2qf
Kevin...
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Kevin.
I totally agree with you. Two wonderful friends of mine were murdered there: One was in Durban North some years ago when he was just chaining his car in to his garage (I heard officially about chaining the car). A gang suddenly appeared and shot him. The other was living in former Boputoswana(spelling)? in a house not far from Sun City Miss World contest. He was dragged out of his house in the middle of the night and necklaced with a burning tyre in the local township.He was extremely intelligent and minding his own business.(I heard the black people were enraged because there was a failed right wing take over bid of formerBoputoswana).
When one is on holiday at Christmas staying naturally at the better hotels in Cape Town with excellent round the clock security and lots of police specially placed there to guard tourists, you are vastly safer than in other parts of the country. At Christmas the place was packed and local people I spoke to were delightful.
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>because there was a failed right wing take over bid of formerBoputoswana..
That was the AWB in 1994.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaner_Weerstandsbeweging
The AWB are(were) a bunch of mentally-challenged Afrikaaners who despise(d) English-speaking South Africans almost as much as they did the black and coloured population. I received threats a number of times from idiots claiming to be AWB who didn't like the fact that I started training locals in basic electronic and process control skills.
They were dangerous because they were armed and unpredictable.
Kevin...
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Kevin.
You are quite right, they were a terrible group!! Both my dear friends were American orchestra players. They had absolutely nothing to do with those horid groups or indeed politics.
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"Avant".
We actually booked through carhire 3000. I think they are based in Manchester. A very helpful man in England went to a great deal of trouble for us. From Ireland, their web address is: reservations@carhire3000.ie They send you a list of companies to choose from. this time we chose Alamo National. They orrigionally had an incredible deal on a 3 series BMW automatic. When I arrived at Cape Town Airport they were incredibly pleasant to me. They highly recommended the Honda Accord to me, as it is a more roomy car and the girl in the office genuinely loved driving it.A lot of people in South Africa obviously love Mercedes and 3 series BMW ( loads of them). I remember years ago they used to sell Honda in Mercedes showrooms in South Africa. At that time that helped Hondas prestige out there!!!!!! I noticed even at our hotel, the security man obviously liked the Honda. He took the trouble to show me certain buttons and knobs etc. It came with an excellent book manual. So I made sure I knew the buttons.
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" Avant".
I actually found out last night, that in fact we hired a 2.4 petrol automatic ( sequential gearbox I think- choice of normal automatic and also the push button grarchange when needed) Honda Accord in Cape Town at an amazingly low price. I am not boasting; but it is no wonder I was pleased with the car!!!! I was lazy to take it out of the normal automatic on D. It did all the steep hills with so much ease on the normal D setting. I never used the D3 or indeed the sequential side with push button changes. I liked that car!!
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" Avant".
I actually lived and worked for ten years in East Devon. I loved the place;but I hated the risks on tiny little Devon lanes in bad weather. Twice cars skidded on a wet road and very nearly hit me.I am not a nervous driver,but they missed me litterally by inches. Both times they were the old style Ford Focus. Once near West Buckland in North devon and once near Ottery St Mary. They go far too fast in the wet.
It is true, once I got out properly in the countryside on the way to Worcester South Africa, traffic was light. Coming back near Kraefontein, Belville things were busy. Around the coast near Campsbay the traffic was terrible. Also going to a restaurant on the warmer wetter side of the mountain at Breakers near Simonstown, I had to give up due to no parking and I spent 4 hours crawling and stopping in very bad queues on that trip.Near Christmas and New Year there is far more traffic naturally; but going to Cape Town this Christmas and New Year was worth every cent. I truly loved it. As I said before, getting the petrol automatic and sequential gearbox Honda Accord was a real treat.
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Jut be aware of some hazards. Whatch signs such as:-
anamericaninpretoria.blogspot.com/2007/12/south-af...l
or " "Dynamite Blasting on 20 December at 14h00; Drive Responsibly!"
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I actually put in this new thread to find out about what people's experiences and thoughts about the Honda Accord.( naturally I still love Mercedes E Classes etc; but they will have to wait some years. The new shape one for 2009-10 looks fantastic in Autocar).
1. The ride seemed pretty hard in my hired Accord. It did have well body contoured quite hard sports seats in the front. I think the car had low profile tyres.
I ask, is there an Accord with a much softer comfortable ride?
2. I think my hired Accord had a sequential gearbox. Fully automatic on left and press button gear changes by button on toof gear stick. Very useful. The automatic side had a D3 setting as well as the normal D for pulling heavy things up hill and for getting more engine breaking on steep hills. I was very lazy and left it on D. It coped very well. Being petrol it probably was 2.2 litres.
Another strange thing we found was that a front passenger knocked the gear stick accidentally. I found it had slipped accross in to the M sequential mode, luckily it slipped straight back to D easily even when I was driving. Do other people have experience of this?
3. I really hope they give more room and comfort for the middle rear passenger when the new Accord comes out.
All in all I loved the car. It seemed beautifully built and good looking. So easy to drive. I would give this car almost full marks!!!!
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I just wonder, do people have similar experiences with the Honda Accord, as I mentioned in my last bit on this thread ? Personally I think it a jolly good car. I see reports in the UK claim the pricing is a bit high. I won't repeat my last letter, that has all the details.
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I apologise, I actually wanted this thred to be directed towards what people thought of the new Honda Accord. I probably hired a 2 litre petrol. I was wrong before. I asked all the questions within this thred yesterday ie. 1. Do they all have a hardish ride quality, or was it my particular model with sports seats? 2. A passenger pushed the gearleaver from D on the automatic side to M on the push button sequential side when I was driving at speed. Luckily I slid it straight back without slowing down ( those controls are lovely and light). As I said before I was really impressed with the Honda Accord. I saw pictures on Google of what the next model Accord may look like. It looked nice in one of the pictures. I hope they improve the comfort of the middle rear seat passenger.
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Try doing a forum search - top right hand side.
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barchettaman.
I did do plenty of forum research and have read the varios roadtests etc. I just genuinely wanted to know what the general public felt about the poorer things such as ride quality and gearshift being accidentally knocked by front passenger from fully automatic D to sequential M at speed. I am not a nervous driver. I was surprised when that happened. My wife knocked it accidentally out of place, as my usual 1999 Seat Toledo has a folding central armrest.
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cattleman6,
The Accord is now sold as a semi-premium car against the Passat; it'll cost approx ?40,000 in Ireland for a 2.2 diesel. As far as I know, lower models don't have the sporty suspension so are more comfortable to drive.
Have a close look at the Civic saloon if you're drawn to Honda - its very close in size and spec to the Accord, but almost ?10K cheaper (rather like the Passat/Jetta and Avensis/Corolla). We can get standard petrol and diesel versions in the Irish market, whereas its offered as a hybrid only in the UK.
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Gromit{P}.
Thanks very much for the tip about the Civic saloon. In South Africa I actually saw Civic saloons which looked almost like the Accord. I know the new Civic hatchback is a good car; but I have never got used to the space age looks. I would never get a sports set up in Ireland. The potholes would kill it!! Yesterday I drove up in Northern Ireland and there are also plenty of potholes from all the rain up there. I would definitely get a diesel if I went for Honda. I can't believe I was up graded to a Honda Accord 2.4 in Cape town. What a treat!!
The inside lanes on their N1 and N2 Freeways ( they have two lanes each side) near Cape Town have some nasty potholes.Probably from the heavy trucks etc.
I printed in to the Google search " new shape Honda Accord 2008". If you click on "Spy Photos 2008 Honda Accord" it shows what the new one will look like. A bit more room in the rear seat etc ( one needs more shoulder room in the middle rear seat). I found the rear headroom was good in the present Accord though. The new shape one borrows a little from the 5 series BMW. The back doesn't look too exciting. It will still be a jolly nice car though.
I just hope they will come with the same extras in the Irish Republic as they do in the Uk.
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Cattleman6
And with grateful thanks to you, I have now hired a car in Capetown for a month with full CDW Theft and PAI insurance, unlimited "kilometrage", all tourist charges for £400 less than I would otherwise have had to pay for the same vehicle with a £425 excess, no PAI and only 100 kilometres per day - and from a multinational company, namely National. Another success for HJ and the BR!
As you said, very helpful on the telephone too, following receipt of an online quotation, and a very interesting pricing structure rather like a lastminute.com or laterooms.com for car hire rather than hotel room hire, including a huge variation in costs between the same vehicle coming from different companies.
With renewed thanks and good wishes.
Jack
Edited by Union Jack on 18/01/2008 at 19:56
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Jack,
I am absolutely thrilled that our little experience has helped you so much. My wife found carhire3000. We used them before in Nice and also in Lisbon.
Have a great time!!
Herbert.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 19/01/2008 at 09:28
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