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Trip computer seems very handy!
Enjoy the EX.
Best, Tunku.
The 4 cyl Accord has the same air bag setup as the 6 cyl, at least it does in my '04
Mrbill
Mrbill
My '03EXV6 is slipping in 2nd gear occasionally. Just a matter of time.
I want to know how this oil change at the 5000 mile mark is going to affect my car, if at all. Is there something I should do to rectify??? Any advice / suggestion / experience?
Well, I've had my 06 LX V6 sedan for a little over 2 months and went over the 3000 mile mark. Here are my latest good & bad points about the car. Bad points, blind spots are pretty bad on this car. I really have to turn my head to make sure that no one is the corner of my left or right rear area. Another bad point is the turning radius when parking. It isn't as bad as the current model Maximas or Altimas, but you do have to plan your distance before making your turn, otherwise, you'll be backing up because you didn't give enough slack in the room area. Third point is the braking with this Grade Logic feature. Many times I lightly hit the brake pedal, and the car brakes way too forcefully. This is ridiculous, and Honda should really work on fixing this Break-My-Neck braking system. My final knock against this car is that lately, my girlfriend has been taking the car from me. She enjoys the car so much that I'm stuck with her Toyota Corolla. Don't get me wrong, I love the gas mileage on the Corolla, but I do miss the ride & comfort of my Accord.
Now to the good points. I recently took a 4+ hour trip in the Accord and found the seats to be quite comfortable. I never felt any back pain and the ride was smooth as silk. Passing power & acceleration was A+ good as there were many cars & trucks driving too slow on my trip. The car handled nicely in turns with a very balanced and controlled demeanor. Not performance oriented in turns, but very secured handling. Also, the ability to adjust the brightness on the odometer comes in very handy, and the clarity of the odometer during the nighttime is very good. There are many more good points, but I just thought I give a little review on how the 06 Accord Sedan was running.
Honda of America issued TSB 04-037 and a consumer recall notice to have retrofit work (oil jet kit or transmission replacement) done. My 03 fell into this recall, with the retrofit sufficing.
For a carmaker to issue a TSB and a recall, we know that human safety has to be a factor, and it is with this defect. Cases of 2nd gear seizure at speed have had the drivers frantically fighting for control of their suddenly swerving vehicles.
Driver competence or incompetence has little or nothing to do with this problem, although it's not hard to imagine the consumer initially being blamed by dealer and HOA. In fact, a defect analysis suggests that driving faster or harder could - in forcing better oil circulation - prevent gear failure.
Newcomers to the forum particularly stand to benefit from this thread because, when buying a pre-owned 03 or 04 - for example - they know to ask if the recall work has been done or not. It could save a life, considering the aforementioned cases of high-speed transmission failure.
Reference (source just started requiring a paid subscription to read entire TSB, but there's a TSB description):
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/24/032401ax.html
Sounds like something isn’t right.
Mrbill
Go online to www.crutchfield.com and enter your auto to determine what peripherals you want.
Last year at CES - Alpine was showing off their new navigation system with voice activation by Street address - e.g. go to 1402 wilshire blvd. You didn't have to have it as a personal address you could give it a totally new street address and it would recognize the address so virtually no typing - much safer for driving.
I believe Honda uses the Alpine navigation systems. I was tempted to get a new hybrid this year but I haven't read about them putting the new navigation systems in yet. Does anyone have any new info about new navigation systems for the Honda? This and the hybrid are the only reasons I want to upgrade/replace my Acura but I'll wait until I can have both. Rumor is that the acura tl hybrid isn't going to get better mileage just more speed. Frankly I can only drive so fast before I get a ticket and my TL goes MUCH faster than that so I have no idea why they are concerned about that. It has excellent acceleration so but crappy gas mileage - I'm not sure what they are thinking about.
20 mpg? Do your test again. I get 30 on the hwy, 25 all around. And a firm seat? Better than the other way around. Use a seat cushion.
Thanks for your help
My 2006 EX-L w/ Navi came in last week. I can confirm that the '06 Accord Navi (also the '06 Acura TSX Navi) accepts spoken addresses. And yes, it is an Alpine system. But you don't exactly say "1402 Wilshire Boulevard". It takes the information in smaller chunks like so:
1. (Only if needed) Change the destination state if driving out of the state you are presently in (the system detects the current state via the car's GPS position, a nice trick)
2. Choose "City" or "Street" next. The Navi manual recommends that if using the voice control, pick the city first. The system will again detect the current city via your GPS position and set it as the default. Otherwise, you can speak the destination city name, or spell it verbally a letter at a time, or enter it on the touchscreen via the keyboard, or use the joystick to move the cursor to type on the keyboard. If you speak the city name, the system will display its best guess list of city names for you to choose from, and you speak "1" or "2" to pick off this numbered list (hopefully, it guesses right and the correct choice appears at the top of the list).
3. Next enter the street. But this is not exactly what you'd expect. At this point, you only provide the main "stem" of the address. Ex: for the address "201 Northwest 32nd Street" you just say "thirty second". You leave off prefixes (like NW, SW, SE, NE, etc.) and suffixes (street, avenue, blvd, circle, court, etc.). As before, you can use the other methods of entry if you can't get the system to understand you.
4. Then speak/enter the house number (ex: 201)
5. The system will then show on another pick list all remaining addresses that fit. For example:
1 201 NW 32ND ST
2 201 SW 32ND ST
This updated Navi system can also speak street names in preparation for turns onto them (note: you have to change the system from "normal" voice guidance mode to "max" to make it do this).
Hope this helps. I really like this Navi system, it has to be the most advanced one so far, considering it can also control the radio, CD changer, XM radio, and climate control as well (even the dual zone mode, for example: "driver temperature 67 degrees passenger temperature 73 degrees")
This saying is very well known in Europe as well. If I did like most people do in France, I would then drop my Automatic V8 BMW 740i and get a 4 cyl diesel manual small Renault or Peugeot car. But I simply won't do this. I am looking for power, refinement and good manners. Honda 2.4 are plenty in China, and because of this, I am pushed towards a 6 Cyl model.
You are right that most (South) European strongly prefer a manual stick. I just don't appreciate changing speeds myself, whereas I know automatisms will do much better and smoother than I do.
Previous owned/driven cars were MB 280SE, MB 190 2.6, Nissan sunny 1.6, Nissan Primera Estate 2.0 , Peugeot 406 V6 Estate, MB C240 Estate, all automatic, all very rare cars in France. Those cars are much more common in Germany or UK. As I lived in UK for some time and that I also speak German, Those 2 countries influenced my driving and my tastes a lot.
waht you says makes sense and complements what Benny/Atlanta also said. I suppose the V6 model, although assembled in China, must have more imported components than the 4-Cyl models. You are also right, V6 has Side airbags but not 4-Cyl here. This is a point, considering the sky-high traffic accident rate. I will also inquire about the transmission and timing belt issues here. I really don't know to which extent US and China models are similar.
Everyone tells me not to buy second hand in the PROC. As I just have about 20K USD on hand, I have no choice than to thoroughly check this way. I also could buy a Honda Jazz/Fit as new, but 1500 cc is really a small engine for me.
anyway, seems 2.4 is the reasonable choice, whereas 3.0 means more passion (and money )involved
I will be buying the 4 or V6. Can anyone tell me if they have the same A/C system or if different, which is colder?
I hope you didnt get the Dodge with the bad 2.7 litre engine.
Mrbill
Our new '05, which was purchased in early August, has been doing a fine job cooling the inside on hot and humid days, and noticeably better than our previous car, the Volvo 850, used to.
And in general, I think Japanese cars have good A/C system, better than those European ones, 'cause Japan has a hot, humid weather, much worse than Europe's.
Yes it does. You are correct in that some of the climate controls don't have knobs / buttons, but there is a button - third down to the right of the Navi screen - labeled "A/C". You can press this button and you will get the controls for fan speed (1 thru 5), as well as airflow (from the front vents only, floor only, bi-level, or windshield vents + floor) on the Navi screen. You can then select the buttons via the touchscreen, or use the joystick to make your selection. Or, you can bypass using this screen altogether simply by pressing the "talk" button on the steering wheel and saying "fan speed five" (a number 1 thru 5) or "fan speed up".
But a word of caution: the Navi manual advises that you keep the fan on setting 1 or 2 for the system to "hear" you over the blowing air, and also recommends that you direct airflow from the center vents away from the microphone, right above the rear view mirror (i.e., don't point the center vents upward, but more toward the rear).
Of course, you can also use the "auto" mode, and it will blow hard at first to rapidly get to the target temperature, and as it reaches the target temperature, the fan will step down to lower fan speeds. There are also 2 nice voice commands you can't execute via buttons: "temperature max cold" and "temperature max hot". These will set the temp to the system min (57) or max (85) temperature.
The V6 has quicker pickup when you press it. The 4 is louder until you get up to speed and it feels lighter. I love them both, but my parents appreciate the V6 more. My spouse mainly drives the 4 cyl now and it's very economical, like a Civic upgrade. The EX-L seats are much better than the cloth seats in the 4cyl and I feel a bit more confident on the highway.
I did some research regarding US Accord vs China Accord. They are almost identical except the side airbags for 2.4 models in China (same engine, transmission, dimension, weight, equipments etc.). Hope the side airbags will become standard on the new 2006 2.4 models which should be available very soon.
If you have to buy a 2nd hand Accord, make sure the car is from a trustworthy source and do an independent inspection. Good luck!
Andy
Thanks in advance.
Mazda made in Japan but if you go to the Mazda 3 forum, "owners problems and solutions" you will see that there are numerous A/C issues. Some say it is ok some say what A/C. Google Mazda 3 A/C problems or something like that, you can do the same for the Accord and see what pops up.
I checked the specs : I can't believe the 2.4 Accord has rear Drum brakes! I feel like going back to the 80s! How dare they put such low-end brake technique on a 160 HP 1460Kg modern car! even my 1990 190E 2.6 had rear disk brakes. This choice would have been clearly slammed in Europe. Maybe the relax American driving style makes this option less an issue, but I am still speechless.
Despite this shortcomings, My purse is dictating me to lean towards a 2.4. There is a 2.0 Model in China that I don't even dare to consider.
checking some local adds, I found a white 2001 Accord 2.3
with dealer demanding a mighty 20k USD. Mileage not mentioned (means not low). I Can't believe a 4-year old model (nearly 5) is sold at such an outrageous price!
Seems I will have to mortgage my house to offer myself a decent car, which is against my principles.
Other alternative, a mazda 6 2.3 (3.0 6 cyl not available in China) they seem a little cheaper.
I found a web site in China advertising second hand cars for incredibly cheap prices, but I have been told it may be a scam or a trick.
http://auto.sina.com.cn/z/tohand/index.shtml
This ad offers a Honda Accord 2.0 for 7000 USD
http://post.sina.com.cn/show.php?uid=4400-6-20546&major=6&sub=189
But my chinese reading is limited so I just wonder where the catch is