Accord's Warm Glow
Newcastle Herald
Saturday July 19, 2008
THE first question drivers of Honda's latest Accord V6 will ask themselves will be whether or not they are driving the whole car or just its engine.
Sound silly? It really is not, and I have to admit that, after a little while, thoughts of being a Honda-driving eco-warrior do tend to worm their way out of the subconscious to assert themselves in reality.All of which is prompted by nothing more than a green light spelling out the word ECO on the instrument panel.'ECO' is for 'ECOnomy' and also 'ECOlogy', with Honda going green with a clever set of engine electronics that can shut down some of the six cylinders to turn it into a four-or even three-cylinder vehicle.Variable displacement engines are not exactly new but Honda's V6 is the first to offer variable displacement that is itself, well, variable.While the 'ECO' light comes on to tell you you are doing your bit to save the planet, there is no indication how good you are being. The system operates independently of all driver input save for the position of the right foot on the throttle. So pushing a button and making what would effectively be a 1750-cc, three-cylinder engine haul 1.6 tonnes of Accord around is out of the question.The conditions have to be just right before some of the fires go out in the engine room. Generally the conditions seem to be ideal when the automatic transmission is in the tallest of its five ratios and the 3.5-litre V6 is ticking over at about 2200 rpm or less.In other words, not often while motoring through the suburbs and not at all when lots of hills and corners are involved. Get it on a freeway, though, and sit it on the legal limit and that green light will glow happily for kilometre after kilometre.The focus of boasting rights has shifted a little. With the Accord you find yourself talking not about its double overhead camshafts, its four valves per cylinder and its electronic variable valve timing, but about its ability to be a good member of the community.Kilowatts? Sure, it has 202 of the things (more than Ford's Falcon, Holden's Commodore, Hyundai's Grandeur, Nissan's Maxima and Toyota's Aurion), and its 339 Newton metres of torque puts it ahead of Maxima, Aurion and Commodore, with only Falcon outshining it. But sometimes there is almost a moral dilemma over whether you should use the quite strong and smooth engine to its fullest or whether you should make the light shine.Believe it or not there is a "rest of the car" to deal with as well, and in the Accord's case there is plenty of it.Let us not confuse Accord with Accord Euro because the two are very different. At 4945 mm overall Accord is 200 mm-plus longer than Euro, 5 mm wider, 35 mm taller and 100 mm longer in the wheelbase.In fact this is a car capable of running up against the mid-to high-end members of the locally built six-cylinder brigade because it is truly a large car inside and out. Interior room is excellent and even genuinely tall adults can get comfortable in the back seat. The seats themselves are quite plush and reasonably supportive, easily outlasting the standard two hours minimum duration used for the recently invented "Davison Standard Rule of Vehicular Comfort" measure.Interior appointments are also quite impressive with dual-zone, climate-control air-conditioning, cruise control, electrically adjustable driver's seat, power windows and mirrors, tilt and telescope steering wheel adjustment, front, side and curtain airbags, very competent six-speaker audio with six-disc CD stacker and steering wheel-mounted audio controls on the standard equipment list.The interior does look a bit plain, though, probably because of its size, and only a big and quite unattractive unit for the audio and air controls in the centre of the dash breaks up the landscape.No complaints with the instruments or other controls, though, and I did like the little steering wheel-mounted transmission shift buttons.If big boot space is needed for long items, the back seat folds. The boot itself does get a "could do better" notation because while it has an impressive floor area, it lacks any real height.Day-to-day operation of the car is good to a point. On the road any road it is smooth and flexible with a ride that has been softened adequately despite the fully independent suspension's configuration and appreciable suppression of road and wind noise.It also steers well but understeer is quite prominent and works against you in the restrictive confines of the average car park where it feels almost SUV-like in its bulk, given the number of in-back-in-back-in-and-straighten moves needed to make it fit in a standard bay. Or is that just a minor consideration for eco-warriors working hard to make the light shine?HONDAACCORD V6PRICE$38,490 (plus on-road costs)DIMENSIONSLength ........................................4945mmWidth ..........................................1845mmHeight ........................................1475mmWheelbase .................................2800mmTracks (f/r) .................1580mm/1580mmTurning circle .............................. 11.49mGround clearance ....................... 120mmWeight ...........................................1615kgMECHANICALFuel-injected, double overhead camshaft3471cc V6 with four valves per cylinder,variable valve timing and variable cylindermanagement. 202kW at 6200rpm, 339Nmat 5000rpm. Five-speed automatic.CHASSISFront, transverse engine, front-wheel-drive,power-assisted rack and pinion steering,power-assisted four-wheel disc brakeswith anti-lock and emergency brakeforcedistribution, 17x7.5-inch alloy wheels,225/50R17 tyres.SUSPENSIONIndependent double wishbones, coil springs,telescopic dampers and stabiliser bar front,independent multi-links, coil springs, telescopicdampers and stabiliser bar rear.FUEL TYPE/CAPACITY91RON/70litresFUEL ECONOMY10.0l/100km (ADR81/01 combined average)MAIN RIVALSFord Falcon, Holden Commodore, HyundaiGrandeur, Nissan Maxima, Toyota Aurion.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald