Vermillion06

I drove my sister-in-law's new 2007 Accord while I was in Las Vegas over last week and just wanted to share my thoughts about it. She was nice enough to let me borrow it to drive around and see the sights.

After reading so many reviews and hearing so many people gushing about how they are the finest example of the automobile built today, I found it nice, but there wasn't anything outstanding about it.

Normally I don't grope the plastics in an car's interior but after all the talk here about "high-quality" "soft touch" plastics, and the trash talk the S197 gets about it's "cheap" hard plastic interior, I had to find out what "quality" felt like.

I was shocked to find that the Accord has hard plastic door panels and dash. I have never read or heard anyone complain about the hard plastics in an Accord, yet it has just as much hard plastic in the interior as the S197.


The biggest difference I could see between the S197's hard plastic and the Accord's is that the S197 has a large, deep grain pattern on it's interior plastics and the Accord has a small, shallow grain pattern, so that the surface of the plastics is almost smooth. The door panels have a padded upholstery insert (velour in this particular car), like the S197 with the IUP , but the armrests were very padded and cloth covered in the Accord. I could also see the same amount of parting lines on the plastic parts as the S197.

There was a tiny rattle in the dash and rear package tray over rough pavement.

The other thing I was curious about was how I always hear how "refined" and "powerful" Honda engines are. I'd driven older Honda 4 cylinders and didn't really find anything super about them. The Accord V6 wasn't bad, and it felt like it had about as much "punch" as other V6's I have driven. Not outstanding, but still pretty good.

As for refinement, I couldn't hear the engine at all under normal driving. The engine was very quiet. But if I floored it and the automatic trans kicked down into a lower gear, then I could hear it revving. But when idling at a stop light I could feel the engine vibrating through the steering column and steering wheel. So that's what being "refined" means?

It was a strange contrast against my S197 GT, where I can hear the engine and exhaust, but the engine is very smooth running and I can never feel any vibrations though the steering column and wheel.

Hollywood_North GT

Really, what is there to say...?

Vermillion06

Oh yes, there's more: in the Accord, the accessory power plugs (cigarette lighter) aren't powered when the ignition is off, which sucks when you are trying to charge a device while the car is parked or your're trying to keep a device powered up while the ignition is off.

TomServo92

That always bugged me about my Acura. That and the fact the cam seals leaked oil onto the exhaust manifold, the power antenna never worked right, and the tranny shifted funny. Other than those things, it was a great car!

clockworks

Ha, that's a laugh riot. I mean, I've never heard "powerful" and "Honda" in the same sentence before.

I owned a "coveted" 2.2L Honda vtech powered car for 6 years... powerful... ha!

Hollywood_North GT

Well, I've driven the current generation Acura TL on several occasions. With 270 HP, its V6 has plenty of get-up-and-go...and smooth power delivery, too.

The trouble with that car is the FWD and attendant torque steer.

clockworks

Yeah, I know... I was just being silly kinda. It's just that we're all performance enthusiasts here and so we can snootily turn our noses up at sedans' sub 300 hp...

kevinb120

Heh, its funny when you actually LOOK at another car like I have thousands of times Wait till it gets a little older and the valvetrain gets obnoxiously noisy, and enough people breathe on it and it starts getting its typical door and rock dings all over them. 270 was the 'pre corrected' HP number in the TL, its like 258 or so.

Vermillion06

The Accord is a nice car but it's way overrated by the press and the public in general. It has as much hard plastic in the interior as an S197 does but I've never read or heard anyone complain about it. I could feel the engine vibrating the steering column and wheel at idle and yet its supposed to be "refined".

Hollywood_North GT

Yeah, the interior looks REALLY cruddy.





I hate Accords, too, but the interior is generally the one bright spot in these cars. And I have sat in several of them.

Hollywood_North GT

So you keep telling us...

Vermillion06

I didn't say the Accord's interior didn't look nice, I just said it has as much hard plastic as a Mustang does, but with a smaller, shallower grain pattern...

kevinb120

I have 8 03+ Accords and 3 TL's in stock if I need to check references

Gonna miss this one though On its way to Florida today, our time together was so short yet so sweet ....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=140137089379

Got another one and a used(i.e. driveable) SC281E on the way though.. I was gonna do some little photo essay on an accord's 'fine' details, but I don't feel like bothering sitting around and driving another accord. Its definitely far technologically superior to the Camry, and a fine car, but still just somewhat of an appliance. I do wish they would spend $5 and dump all the buttons and levers that have been carried over for roughly 15 years now.

clockworks

Is that a 2007? If so, ugh... it ****es me off when people bash the Mustang interior, thinking that that is better.

Hollywood_North GT

I don't think you can reasonably equate the interior quality of the current Accord with the S197 Mustang. The plastic, the panel gaps, the textures, the quality of the switchgear is all much better in that picture of the Honda I posted above.

It's very similar to the Acura TSX, a car that I considered as a city runabout a few years back. The TSX is very solidly built, and it's interior is better quality than that of the Mustang I purchased. I can freely admit it, even as a Mustang owner.

But interior alone obviously wasn't my deciding criteria.

But knowing that, I can honestly say that the Mustang interior needs significant improvement in certain areas. And I suspect the next generation will get those improvements.

Hollywood_North GT

Well, the design may not be better, but the materials used most definitely are. Take the seats as one example. Look at the quality of the leather...or the amount of side bolstering used...or the greater adjustability of the headrests.

Or the door panel pockets. They are actually usable, unlike the current Stang.

GRAYPNY

I have a 07 Honda Accord V6 4-door that is my daily driver for work. I put about 400 miles a week on it and have about 12000 miles. So far it has been a great car for $21000 and have had zero issues. BTW I am averaging 34.5 MPG so it makes up for my weekend warrior Mustang.

kevinb120

Well, when they charge 35k for a 4cyl car thats a glorified Civic, then the plastics should be above and beyond. Its a downgrade from the US Accord, smaller with a weaker engine. No stitched dash or aluminum in that car. Funny enough, the Honda leather is much better quality then Acura's. They hold up much better over time. Every 3 year old Acura we get in needs the leather repaired/re-dyed. The leather specialist specifically calls them out as always looking like **** after a few years.

Hollywood_North GT

Well, the TSX is much more than a glorified Civic. It's the Euro version of the Accord. Build quality and handling dynamics are superior to both the North American Civic and Accord. Yes, the engine is a four-banger instead of the six we get here in the Accord, but it doesn't compete with our Accord (that's the TL). The TSX has plenty of pep for its size and weight and is more economical. TSXs and RSXs - despite being FWD - have virtually no torque steer, which is amazing in and of itself. Same can't be said for the NA Accord.

As to interior quality between the NA Accord and the TSX; six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Vermillion06

I have never ready anyone mentioning the amount of hard plastics in the Accord: the dash and door panels, same as the Mustang. I could see some parting lines on the Accord's hard plastic panels in pretty much the same places the Mustang's.

The biggest difference is the the grain pattern. The Accord has a shallower, smaller grain pattern on it's hard plastics, that makes the plastic look almost smooth with semi-gloss texture. The Mustang has a deeper, larger grain pattern which makes the plastics have a flat, non-gloss texture. But they are both hard plastics.

The biggest complaint about the mustang interior I read here is about the "cheap hard plastics". So a larger grain pattern with a flat texture is "cheap" while hard plastic with a small grain pattern and a semi-gloss texture is "high quality"? And all the car mags told me that any hard plastics were "cheap" and that "soft touch" meant quality!

I have read reviews of the Accord touting the "precision" of the turn signal stalk as an example of the switch gear quality. In the Accord I drove the turn signal switch felt exactly the same as my Mustang's. No difference.

The climate control system switches didn't seem outstanding in the Accord either, although they seemed more complicated with more buttons than the three-**** setup in the Mustang. The stereo controls in Accord definitely don't conform to the DIN standard, so God help anyone wanting to install an aftermarket stereo upgrade.

The conclusion I have come to is that the 2007 Accord is a nice car, but it's overrated. It's quality is very good but not as outstanding as it's made out to be. The Mustang's interior is criticized for having hard plastics and the Accord has just as much hard plastic.