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Comments
Yes, the 4 cylinder is powerful enough to be a commuter car.
It will just make more noise accelerating than the V6 will.
If the difference between the acceleration of the 4 cylinder and V6 is an issue, you are driving recklessly trying to cut in front of cars on the freeway.
I'm sure it is at least as fast a Taurus with the base standard V6 engine and people who drive those manage fine.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/030203/autos_top20_table_1.html
bamacar - you are correct. I didn't see the breakdown of how they measured interior volume.
Also did further investigation and found that some specs list the Sonata's passenger volume at 102 cubic ft (vs. 102.7 for the Accord) instead of 100 cubic ft.
In this case, however, I believe that Accord sales do prove that the Accord is a superior product. This is because there are almost no incentives placed on the car, and almost all of the vehicles purchased are by private buyers.
In other words, Honda sold over 27,000 Accords to mostly private buyers with virtually no incentives. Do you honestly think, that given the available incentives and vehicle choices on the market today, that these people would buy the Accord if it were an inferior product?? Get real.
Besides, Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, and Road and Track ALL named the Accord the best family sedan. Are they all wrong??
Drop by the 6-vs-Accord forum so we can discuss this better.
Dinu
~alpha
Also, I'm a big fan of a firm ride, a quality that the Accord made popular in mid-sized sedans. But a firm ride doesn't have to preclude some measure of comfort. Over rough roads, I thought that the 6's ride was extremely harsh. Even bordering on excessively harsh. I didn't expect this based on the magazine reports, but I have to disagree with their assessment of the ride.
That being said, though, the car obviously loves to be pushed on curves. My Accord stays quite flat on curves, but the 6 even has that beat.
So overall, I prefer the Accord's steering... still very accurate but better feedback. And I definitely prefer the Accord's ride. In both ride and handling, Mazda has taken the 6 to near sports car levels. Fine for handling, but the ride would get pretty tiring on a long trip. And the Accord is still a very fine handling car... just check all of the latest reports and see how highly it was ranked... just behind the 6. IMO, unless you are adamant about a "true" sports car experience, I think the Accord's balance of ride and handling make it a better choice. But clearly the Accord doesn't provide the banzai sporty experience of the 6. Different strokes and all that.
As for the interior, the quality seems to be better than the Altima's, but the Accord still has it beat. Some of the plastics in some areas feel a bit cheaper than the Accord's, and the overall look is a bit on the spartan side. Probably appropriate with its sports sedan leanings, but I like a little more luxury personally.
Other than the fact that its aggressive suspension tuning is not to my taste due to the harsh ride, I think the 6 is a welcome addition to the ranks of mid-sized cars. It certainly will make harder core sports sedan enthusiasts who want a more affordable alternative to the high priced players very happy. Ultimately, though, it will probably be a niche player... I think most mid-sized buyers looking for a sportier ride will find the Accord and the Altima to be enough on the sporty side to satisfy while still giving some consideration to ride comfort. Anyway, I mean no criticism about the 6's design... it's obviously exactly what Mazda wanted it to be, and they should be very proud. It's just not the car for me.
And before any 6 fans come in with one of the "over 50 crowd" comments about the Accord, I'm not talking about sporty styling... more about suspension tuning and chassis dynamics.
Say if I were buying a piece of electronics (aside from a pc), which I don't know much about - I'd buy either Sony or Phillips (or the cheapest/best deal heh) regardless of whether they are actually the best or not just because I perceive that they are accepted as good products and I probably won't go wrong. Whether or not they actually are the best product, I'll never know and really don't care as long as it does what I want it to do. On top of that, I've had good experiences with Phillips in particular so it makes it that much easier.
Anyways, thats how I take sales into account. If I'm purchasing something that I actually care about researching, sales do not really matter much accept as a comparison or affirmation - to see where I stand, because it won't really influence my decision either way.
Actually my example has more to do with brand recognition than actual sales #s. But for me, the outcome is the same.
I just prefer white light, in my house I only use flourescent lights, but the white light ones not the yellow lights.
Alex
Did you replace both the high and the lows on each side and do you think they are brighter?
Rich
I have priorities, and I will choose a car based on them. If the Accord is the best at nothing, then it obviously can't be the best at what I enjoy, regardless of what that is.
Conversely, since it then sucks for no one, you can at least count on high resale.
Some people for extra brightness use the high beams in the low beam socket, you need to cut some clips off the bulb to make it fit but it works. I don't know how legal this is but they say its ok since the beams are pointing down like normal and HID lights are bright anyway and people don't complain about those. I wouldn't do this because I would be afraid of frying the wiring or the fuse, etc.
Good luck, I would definitely change out the bulbs because I think the car looks nicer with white lights, also remember to not touch the bulb when changing, you always hear about people complaining that the bulb only lasted a couple of months and the reason is that they touched the bulb. A good headlight should last at least 5 years.
Alex
So it's not best at nothing.
And the quality that makes the Accord so successful is that it's the best or nearly the best at everything. For example, it can provide excellent handling without having to settle for a harsh ride to accomplish it. Many people prefer an excellent overall performer to a car that's so relentlessly purpose-built that it sacrifices other desireable characteristics to reach its goal.
And yes my sonata is more fun to drive.
"The only tough competition for the 6i in cornering prowess comes from the excellent Accord. It, too, has great steering and a stiff chassis/suspension setup, but it also has an ace: a freer-revving 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine. The Honda's motor just beats the Mazda's for ear-pleasing friendliness and a seeming willingness to rev without fear that you're doing damage. Not that we fear the Mazda motor is fragile. The assessment is more visceral than intellectual.
And the race is close, by the way. For winding-road kicks, we'd be very happy with the Mazda--and marginally happier still with the Honda."
As with Car and Driver, I guess Forbes didn't think the Accord was plain vanilla. Nor any kind of compromise.
All quotes are from page 57 of the February 2003 issue of Car & Driver. But I guess if your idea of fun-to-drive is going straight on a perfect highway at pretty low speeds the Hyundai is your cup of tea.
Since I like upgrading my vehicles every 3 or 4 years, and use - not keep - the current vehicle as a downpayment source, sales volume of the current vehicle's model becomes a factor.
Reason here is that if the "brand image" of my current vehicle is strong, it'll likely be sold or traded at a better price.
Consequently, there's a financial advantage in buying a "popular car" under this scenario.
Admittedly this mindset tones down my passion factor for a car, but that might change when I get more 000s into my bank account.
You gotta love the addition of the 5 speed automatic to the accord my biggest complaint about 4's has always been the busyness at cruising speed. The 4 Cyl 5 speed Auto turns about 2200 RPM at 70.
My understanding of "passion" must be very different. I can't imagine becoming a benchmark without having passion instilled into it.
And yes my sonata is more fun to drive.
Then I must have missed that fun part in my 5000+ mile experience in a Sonata. Or may be, carving the twisties at 10 mph below posted speed limit while getting the feel of going 10 mph above the speed limit is considered fun.
I have tried to enter Edmund's "Cost-to-Own" but its appears to be down. When might it be back up?
May God bless America in these trying times.
If you don't suffer from heart problems, it should be fun.
-a former subscriber who wasn't impressed
If the car company is a perpetual advertiser, improved reviews. If they advertise occasionally during Push campaigns, better.
Also follow what type of audience the mag wants to sell to; whatever they want to read will affect the review.
The mag doesn't want to alienate paying customers. They also don't want to lose that image that the mag has.
There are many cars that have sold a lot of cars year after year and have sold a lot of repeat buyers cars. Many of these don't get any review worthwhile from magazines (even _The_ penultimate consumer report), but they are doing something right -- or their dealers are handling things rather than fluffing the customer off.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
But personally, I don't understand all this talk about passion. I've never associated passion with cars. The prime example would be the BMW 3-Series...everyone raves about its performance, its looks, its passion. To me, it's just a performance sedan wearing a rather conservative shell.
We just went through all of this a few weeks ago... somebody pulled up an example where the manufacturer of the worst rated car in a comparison had by far the most advertising in the magazine, and the top rated car had 1 ad.
This argument is pure conjecture, and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Nice try.
Had they even tied in this category, the '6 would have won by a larger margin than it lost by.
They said in the article that they were surprised by how well the '6 did. They didn't expect it to score so well. I don't think they were bought- I think they were so surprised, they went back and fudged some of the scores.
Honestly, how does that trunk score make sense at all?
Hyundia Snotta, Please! Not in here dog.
If you can win on the track you can win on the street.
They work out the kinks and you buy the finished product. Any questions?
And if you notice the Mazda's best attribute seems to be its MSRP. The price independent rating had the Accord ahead by nearly 4 points.
Why the heck race in any family sedan to begin with??? Get yourself an old MR2!
Perhaps it'd be an interesting discussion to talk about what happened to make you finally 'click' with the car and sign the paperwork.
http://www.epinions.com/content_89007165060
Also, I'm semi-trying to keep the M6 out of this, since it's the Accord forum. We do enough bickering about that in the Accord v. 6 thread.
Excuse me the R@T test was only automatics. They don't offer a 4 door Accord in manual transmission. But the Auto V6 Accord will dispatch a V6 6 also.
Well I guess you are right then. But if you are talking manual why do it here since they don't offer it in the Accord? You point?
The Accord is good overall, but is not great at anything (except resale). And yes, there are better choices for specific buyers (power or cushy or handling type of buyers), but if the buyers actually knows what is most important to him/her, then the Accord cannot be the first choice.
Dinu
And so they vote with their dollars. The Accord the best selling to single consumer car for 9 of the past 10 years. Your point?
Not to mention one of the most sought after used cars. Resale? Oh yeah.
In a word.....Reliability!
I am an owner who knows what is most important to me and I bought an Accord after owning an Acura for 14 years.
Do you have a company in mind that can stack up against Honda in reliability? I didn't think so.
And don't even try Toyota my family has owned several and not one of them could come close to Honda. This is my second Honda, Acura... whatever and I have had only one minor problem outside of routine maintenance. One! That's roughly 16 years and 190,000 miles.
The Toyota's had lots, and lots of problems. LOTS!!!
The best part of the whole reveiw was that you kept stirring the question in regards to who you would reccomend the car to.. what a joke... Your entire premise devalued the accord because it didnt fit into a specific consumer group.
In concIusion I never take a review seriously when the reviewer is being subjective instead of objective.
Personally, I don't want a car that is "fast" all the time, nor "luxurious" all the time, nor "sporty" all the time. We are human, and our emotions and needs change constantly. For example, when I'm taking my parents or inlaws out, I want a quiet, comfortable ride. When commuting to work, I want a sporty ride, nimble handling, yet still comfortable. On the weekends, I want a fast, sports-car ride with the windows down and sunroof open, radio blaring.
Now, seeing that the Accord CAN do all of these (again, not best at any, but good at all), I find it very easy to recommend. It's also the reason I bought a Passat. I find my '02 Passat (those with a heavy V6 and/or Tiptronic auto don't count) to be able to support all three qualities. The Accord supports all 3 qualities. The Mazda 6, Camry, and Altima seem to NOT support all 3.
-Craig
Honda team racing is what I was referring to. They are racing by class of course but I have to tell you the competition on the track isn't as much Mazda and or Nissan..... It's BMW.
And Acura still places 1,2 and 3.