Honda Accord 2008 Review

Launched: Honda Accord

Despite instant experts across the land pronouncing the large car both dumb and doomed, Honda has reasons for believing its new Accord will sell strongly. One of them is that it's much bigger than the car it replaces. Another is that it packs some interesting fuel-efficiency tech (in both the updated 2.4-litre in-line four-cylinder and new 3.5-litre V6 engines). Thirdly, prices and specifications are very competitive (thanks in part to Australia's free-trade agreement with Thailand, where the car is built).

Add it all up, and Honda sees sales climbing to almost 10,000 per year, a 30-plus percent increase over the old Accord's 2007 Australian total. Even so, this is a drop in the bucket compared with the big sedan's major markets. In the USA, sales total around 400,000 a year, and the Accord has been a fixture on the best-seller charts for two decades. In flourishing China, sales of the new model are expected to reach and then exceed 200,000 a year.

Chitoshi Yokota, who, as Large Project Leader, was the man in charge of the new Accord program, says the car's size and style were determined by the needs and tastes of these two major markets. But American and Chinese preferences, he adds, didn't figure highly when it came to dynamics. "Our target is European driving," Yokota says. He points to the Accord's more direct variable-ratio steering as one among many improvements designed to make the big sedan feel more nimble.

And the new Honda is a bloody big car. With major increases in overall length and wheelbase, plus minor increases in width and height, the new Accord's external dimensions are similar to Falcon and Commodore, and bigger all round than the Aurion. The most distinctive feature of Accord's all-new body is its fat nose.

Deep and visually heavy, it's designed that way to accommodate a stronger frontal structure and pedestrian protection features.

The exterior is an accurate indicator of interior space. Anywhere you sit in the new Accord, even for those above average height, there are centimetres to spare. Especially impressive is the roomy rear seat. Knee room and head room are excellent, and the car's big rear door makes entry and exit easy.

And how does it drive? First impressions are of light and almost feel-free steering, impressive drivetrain refinement, strong performance from the 202kW 3.5-litre V6, smooth shifting from the standard five-speed auto, and much more coherent dynamics than the previous Accord. This new-found balance is back-stopped in all models by standard ESP, in this case labelled VSA (for vehicle stability assist).

Honda has a hard-earned reputation for engine expertise and, true to form, the V6 is a beauty. With a claimed 202kW it has, by a very slim margin, the highest power output in the six-cylinder large-car class (read about the 2.4-litre four in the adjacent panel). Fuel consumption, according to the ADR81 test, is exactly 10.0L/100km, a number bested - just - by only the Aurion.

Which makes you wonder about the value of the new Accord V6's vaunted cylinder-shutdown system. VCM (for variable cylinder management), can disable the transverse V6's rear bank of three cylinders to run as a 1.75-litre in-line triple, or one cylinder from each bank to operate as a 2.3-litre V4. In ideal conditions, say cruising at a steady 90km/h on a dead flat road, will the V6 in three-cylinder mode consume less than the Accord four? "I think so, yes," says Yokota. So, while VCM might do little for the new Accord V6's fuel consumption sticker result, it should provide real savings for sedate drivers on straight and level country roads.

From the driver's seat the V6's mode-shifting is practically undetectable. A green 'Eco' light glowing in the instrument cluster is the only sure way to tell that the engine is firing fewer than six cylinders.

The question of the Accord V6's real-world fuel consumption advantage, if any, must wait for a definitive answer until we've had a chance to run the inevitable comparison. And until a multi-car test, we can't be sure if the big sedan has the right stuff to achieve the sales boost Honda is forecasting. Until then, what we do know is that the new Accord is a better car in important ways than the model it replaces.

WINNING FOUR-MULA
You don't climb into a Commodore-sized sedan with a four-cylinder engine expecting to be startled by the car's performance. Sure enough, the 133kW (up 8kW) 2.4-litre in-line four of the new Accord VTi doesn't suddenly alter your heart rate. But neither does it prove annoyingly sluggish.

Overtaking ability, thanks to the reasonably responsive standard five-speed automatic, is okay. So too is the unfailingly smooth engine's acceleration from a standing start.

The payoff is good economy. The VTi's 8.8L/100km result in the official ADR81 fuel consumption tests is lower than any obvious competitor with a similar-size engine. The engine fairly bristles with features designed to enhance efficiency, most of them to be found in the four-valves-per-cylinder head. As well as the usual VTEC stuff on the inlet side, the engine can also operate just one, or both, of each cylinder's exhaust valves. Below 2500rpm, only one opens. This imparts a rotational motion to the exhaust gases, which helps curb pollutant emissions.

So the Accord VTi is both cleverer than you imagined, and not as bad as you'd expect. Of the 1500kg-plus cars with four-cylinder engines on the market, it may even be the best.

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