Honda Accord (2003 – 2008) Review

Honda Accord (2003 – 2008) At A Glance

Good Japanese build quality, all chain-cam engines.

Steering a bit light and feel-free. Best on 16" wheels because larger wheels with lower profile tyres diminish ride quality.

Reviews for Honda Accord (2003 – 2008)'s top 3 rivals

Mazda 6

A very enjoyable drive, with excellent handling and some fine engines. Large luggage bay. Brilliant 'Karakuri'...

Toyota Avensis

Solid car. Sophisticated multi-link suspension deliberately unstressed for long life. Quite quick T180...

Ford Mondeo

Very good to drive. Refined and comfortable to travel in. Massively roomy cabin and huge boot. Reasonable...

Honda Accord (2003 – 2008) handling and engines

• Engines range from 2.0 i-VTEC to 2.4 i-VTEC Automatic
• Readers report Real MPG to be between 25–59 mpg

Under the bonnet you get 155 or 190ps and 190 or 225Nm of torque. And you don't have to wait for that pulling power. Most of it is under your foot from very low revs due to Honda's clever VTEC variable valve timing. The engines are also quite clean, conforming to EU5 emissions regulations two years early without spoiling the drivers enjoyment.

The 2.0 litre gets a 5-speed manual box, or 5-speed Tiptronic style automatic, confusingly forward for upchanges and back for downchanges and opposite to the way Mazda went. But this is a very pleasant, smooth and viceless engine, with no boomy periods, as happy at 50 or 80 as it is at 100mph plus. A lot of drivers who miss the 85-93 Accords are going to be very happy indeed with this car.

The 2.4 with 6-speed box has real and usable power. Plus fine handling, good bump absorption and plenty of feel thanks to the light but not too light steering. The 5-speed autobox is also well suited to this engine, though, unless you pre-select the ratio, it can make the wrong decision for you half-way round a corner.

The Tourer is quite a bit heavier than the saloon as you can see from the figures, and on paper this blunts its performance somewhat. But not on the road. The 2.0 litre is lively in 5th even with the a/c on. The 2.4 Type S 6-speed is quite quick, but its stiffer suspension doesn't really suit the nature of the car. The 2.4 auto simply gels as the right combination of engine, gearbox, body and suspension. It's a bit softer than the Type S, obviously. But that helps rather than hinders. And the 5-speed autobox with Tiptronic style back-to-front shift works superbly well with a lovely feel to the chunky, precise shift lever.

Finally, safety. It's not enough to achieve a Four Star NCAP crash safety rating any more. These days, a carmaker has to go for the full Five Star treatment, which, with multiple airbags protecting the interior, Honda confidently expects to achieve. But they've gone a step further by considering people outside the car as well as inside. By leaving a space under the bonnet and wingtops they gives pedestrians unfortunate enough to be hit by the car a nice, soft place to land.

So Honda can tick all the boxes. With the new Accord they've got out of the mass-market D sector and back to where the Accord used to be. The engines are good to drive and environmentally friendly. The controls are light. The handling is excellent. Noise levels are low. And everyone is well protected. Not bad at all.

First off this all-new 2,204cc common rail diesel is a chain cammer, like the BMW, Mercedes, Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Vectra, SAAB 9-3 and Rover 75. On paper, with just 140PS, it doesn't come over as a winner in the power stakes. The BMW320d gets that accolade. But for Honda engineers to have signed it off at all it had to be to other diesels what Honda is to other petrol engines. The best in class for refinement. Honda wasn't going to put its name to some gruff and growly old oil burner.

Yes, from outside it sounds like a taxi. And from inside you can hear a muffled but familiar diesel knock. But the way it behaves is as un-diesel-like as the Toyota Yaris diesel. The torque is there by the bucket load (250 lb ft at 2,000rpm). But what you don't get is any sign of the catapult effect so many diesels are guilty of. What I mean is nothing at all under 1,000rpm, then everything at once as soon as you get close to 2,000, then nothing again from 4,000rpm onwards. The new Honda CDTI is smooth and punchy throughout its rev range. It's so flexible and free revving that on the 30mile climb of a thousand corners from Marbella to Ronda I left it in third most of the time.

Unlike the Avensis D-4D, there is enough grunt to unstick the front and no finger-wagging alarmist traction control system to heavy handedly starve the wheels of power if you do. But you soon find out how to handle that one.

Out on the autopista (which isn't Spanish for ‘car launch', by the way), the steering is a bit less happy than it is on a winding back-road. You're more conscious of its lightness and artificial self-centring. Then you look at the speedo and realise that though the engine is only doing 3,000 rpm, the car is clocking 100mph. That's very usefully long gearing. And means drivers who do have to spend a lot of time on the motorway should see mid 50's fuel economy.

Honda Accord (2003 – 2008) interior

• Boot space is 459 litres

The seats are ‘set them and forget them' superb. Honda has concentrated on ensuring that drivers sit properly, with their bums in a hole at the back of the squab and their thighs and back properly supported. The fact that you don't have to constantly fiddle to get comfortable on the move is testament to how good they are. Easily as good and maybe better than a SAAB's or Volvo's. Steering adjustment is up, down, in and out: the class norm these days.

Dash layout is exceptionally clear, with a huge central backlit speedometer, rev-counter to the side and everything else easily visible. Climate control, in-car entertainment and satnav controls fall easily to hand with minimum distraction from the road. And driver and front passenger can control their individual macro climates individually.

A great feature of the satnav is that it's touch-screen, so much less fiddly than these things usually are. Lose your way and you aren't likely to go flying off the route altogether while you try to reprogram it. Another nice touch is that in all models the driver and front passenger can separately control the temperature around them.

Quality is high with very fine shut-lines and doors that close with a quiet ‘plap' of expelled air. Even the handles are chunky and pleasant to touch. 53% of the body structure is high-tensile steel. Like you did with the 85-93 Accord, you just know this is a well-built car which will never let you down.

Back seats? Good, too, with plenty of leg and headroom. Boot? Enormous, with an extra-wide section at the back to accommodate the tallest of golfer's clubs.

There's also a Tourer station wagon in the UK from May 2003 at a straight £1,000 more than the saloon. For this, the interior designers have taken a few cues from their own Jazz and Mazda's 626 estate. Press the seatback button and not only does the 60/40 split backrest flop down, the seat squabs automatically jump up and out of the way. This leaves a completely flat floor, lower in the car than in a Volvo estate and nearly two metres long. Despite the low look of the roofline, loadspace inside is actually greater than a Mondeo or V70. So it's an excellent cargo carrier, surfboard transporter or emergency bedroom.

If you don't go for the £100 spare wheel option, there is a 50 litre lockable well underneath the rear load floor. And the tailgate itself is powered by concealed hydraulic struts with anti-trap and anti-foul sensors so it won't damage itself against a wall.

Honda Accord (2003 – 2008) models and specs

On sale until April 2008

On sale until June 2007

On sale until May 2007