The Accord at Thirty (Thousand Miles)
Twenty-three months ago, your humble author did what virtually nobody in this auto-journo game does — I went out and paid my own money for a thoroughly mass-market, middle-of-the-road vehicle. In just seven months, my 2014 Accord V6 Coupe 6MT and I made it to twelve thousand miles. Starting this spring, the pace at which I put miles on the big Honda slackened significantly as I diverted about 7,500 miles of commuting to my motorcycles.
Other than an oil change and imaginary tire rotation, the Accord didn’t require anything in 2015. Which bring us to January 2016, the 30,000-mile mark, a set of new shoes, and some long-term-style observations.
The second year in which I didn’t run snow tires was last year, because we have a Tahoe Z51 (edit: it’s a Z71, of course, the Z51 is a Corvette) in the fleet now and I didn’t drive the Accord when conditions were bad. I cannot express how much I hate driving the Tahoe. It can be useful for picking up Christmas presents:
For me, however, the definition of “Christmas” is “any day I don’t have to drive a truck”. The seats in the Tahoe also have the knack of poking me directly in various recently-fractured bones. Time to get snow tires for the Accord. I bypassed my old friend at the Goodyear store — he never actually got his life back together, losing his wife and children to divorce then sinking into chronic alcoholism — and ordered another winter package from the Rack. This time it’s Dunlop Wintersports on the no-name “Sport Edition” alloy wheels. They’re clearly Chinese garbage but they are light and the Rack was sold out of steelies. We’ll see how they do.
As I prepare to enter my third year with the Accord, I have the pleasant surprise of already being “in equity” on the car. KBB thinks I could sell it for about twenty grand, which is more than I owe. Needless to say, that was never the case with the various Phaetons and AMG Benzes and Land Rovers that littered my driveway throughout the first decade of the millennium.
Another pleasant surprise: nothing’s broken yet. Never in my life have I had a German or Swedish car that made it two whole years without an unscheduled trip to the dealer. The Accord shows no signs of requiring any extraordinary measures in the near future. It’s still on the original brake pads and rotors, although a few trips to racetracks have left them fairly wobbly. The in-dash service meter is calling for a third oil change. I’ll skip the tire rotation this time — it’s on the snows now, and they didn’t actually perform the service the last time anyway — which will make my total service cost for this car somewhere in the $200 range for 35,000 miles.
Come the spring, however, I’ll probably replace the three-season tires. The Michelin Primacy MXM4 that was supplied as standard equipment on 2014 Accords has a considerable fanbase in the Accord-enthusiast community — many owners of the previous-generation car replaced the OEM Michelin Pilots with Primacys, leading Honda to supply them as standard in a rather impressive example of listening to customer demand — but they don’t grip for shit. When the ground is wet that’s twice as true, the V-6 spinning the tires into oblivion during unexpected situations like “moderate throttle, second gear, 35 mph” and “up any meaningful hill.” They’ve also managed to nearly find their wear bars in 30,000 miles. Listen, I own a Porsche 993, the famous Kinematic Toe 4,000-Miler Eater Of Rear Tires, so I understand that rubber ain’t forever. I do, however, think it’s reasonable to get either high grip or reasonable wear from a modern tire.
The cast-aluminum OEM wheels also manage the trick of being both ugly and heavy, so, if I have the funds, I’ll swap in some OZ or Enkei wheels to take some of the lead out of all four corners. Also potentially on the agenda: the RV6 J-pipe. Why? Well …
… or sound mean, anyway.
As time goes on, I feel better and better about having chosen the two-door Accord over the four-door V-6 manual that didn’t exist anyway or the four-door Accord Sport that is a wonderful car and perfectly adequate for all needs. To begin with, the longer doors have been very helpful to me given that I’ve had some sort of fracture or ligament damage for about six of the twenty-three months I’ve owned the car. My son, who is six and a half and slightly above four-feet tall, clambers in and out without difficulty. I’ve had a few different full-sized adults in the back with said progeny for trips of up to four hours without diffculty. I don’t see any reason to buy the sedan unless you regularly travel four-up.
The V-6, as well, has proven to be thoroughly satisfying. It has more than enough power to operate independently of traffic and it surges up to about 110 mph with plenty of vigor (pun intended) which is all I’m going to do on public roads in my mid-40s unless I’m on my Interceptor or behind the wheel of my 993. Fuel economy in mixed use continues to hover in the 24-26 mpg range; on the freeway it can do a steady 30. It sounds good and, as is always the case, the joy of having more than enough power is worth the additional expense.
What don’t I like about the Marysville-built coupe? Well, the quality of the paint leaves a lot to be desired, but as a former Honda contractor I knew that going in for a variety of reasons, of which I am prohibited from discussing by a forged-steel non-disclosure agreement. The quality of the interior materials, as well, is only adequate. Some wear is apparent on the plastics and the leather. My Audi S5 was far superior in this respect; it also cost approximately twice as much as the Accord. The combination trunk/fuel door release feels cheap and worries me with its insubstantiality. That’s really about it.
To tell the truth, I’m so fond of my Honda that I’m considering replacing it. I know. Hear me out. I figure there’s no way that Honda will offer the V-6 in the 2018 car; it’ll be another one of these repugnant low-pressure turbo-fours in the engine bay by then. So if I want to extend my ownership of a V-6 coupe as far into the future as possible, it would be a sound idea to replace my current car with a 2016, thus resetting the mileage clock at the expense of submitting to the new Accord’s Wu-Tang-grille aesthetic. A more likely scenario is that I’ll wait until the very last V-6 stick-shift coupe is built and then buy that one, some time in late 2017, while keeping my current car as a kick-around commuter and first car for my son.
I’ll sum it up like so: The Accord EX-L V6 coupe does 95 percent of what a $60,000 German coupe does, at half the price, while probably lasting twice as long. It’s not a perfect car, but it’s good enough for the way I live now.
More by Jack Baruth
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- 1995 SC I remember when Elon could do no wrong. Then we learned his politics and he can now do no right. And we is SpaceX always left out of his list of companies?
- Steve Biro I’ll try one of these Tesla driverless taxis after Elon takes one to and from work each and every day for five years. Either he’ll prove to me they are safe… or he’ll be dead. Think he’ll be willing to try it?
- Theflyersfan After the first hard frost or freeze - if the 10 day forecast looks like winter is coming - that's when the winter tires go on. You can call me a convert to the summer performance tire and winter tire car owner. I like the feel of the tires that are meant to be used in that season, and winter tires make all of the difference in snowy conditions. Plus, how many crazy expensive Porsches and Land Rovers do we see crashed out after the first snow because there's a chance that the owner still kept their summer tires on. "But...but...but I have all wheel drive!!!" Yes, so all four tires that now have zero grip can move in unison together.
- Theflyersfan One thing the human brain can do very well (at least hopefully in most drivers) is quickly react to sudden changes in situations around them. Our eyes and brains can quickly detect another driving dangerously, a construction zone that popped up while we were at work, dense fog out of nowhere, conflicting lines and signs on some highways, kids darting out between cars, etc. All of this self driving tech has shown us that it is maybe 80% of the way there, but it's that last 20% that still scares the crap out of us. Self driving computers can have multiple cameras feeding the system constant information, but can it react in time or can it work through conflicting data - think of construction zones with lines everywhere, orange signs with new exit information by the existing green exit sign, etc. Plus, and I think it's just GM's test mules, some systems require preexisting "knowledge" of the routes taken and that's putting a lot of faith in a system that needs to be updated in real time. I think in the next 15-20 years, we'll have a basic system that can self drive along interstates and highways, but city streets and neighborhoods - the "last mile" - will still be self drive. Right now, I'd be happy with a system that can safely navigate the slog of rush hour and not require human input (tapping the wheel for example) to keep the system active.
- Kcflyer night and day difference. Good winter tires save lives or at least body work. And they are free. Spend a few hundred on spare wheels on tire rack. Mount the winter tires on them. They replace your regular tires and save a commensurate amount of wear. Thus, over the life of the vehicle the only added expense is the extra wheels. I can usually find a set of used wheels for less than 400 bucks all in on craigslist or marketplace. Then swap the wheels yourself twice a year. TPMS has added a wrinkle. Honda has the best system that requires little or no expense. Toyota/Lexus has a stupid system that requires a shop visit to program every stinking time. Ugh (worth it over a honda since your valves don't need to be cleaned every 60000 miles)
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Just closing in on 49K miles on the 2013 Impala 3.6 having acquired a new set of Goodyear Viva2 all season tires which work perfectly fine in Upstate, NY Winters where we can see 2-3' of snow in one dumping at a time. Never had to install snows on any of my FWD Impalas or any of my GM sedans thus far. Other than the new tires and a new set of wiper blades the Impala has been flawless and makes a terrific year round car for a very reasonable amount of coin. I have the extra cost red tin coat paint and it is holding up beautifully and still shines like new despite not one wax job to date this past 3 years. The brakes are still original all around but the fronts are starting to get wobbly when heated up so inspection this Summer it will be. The 3.6/6 speed combo makes this car a blast to drive when you put the hammer down and 31-32 highway MPG is pretty easy to obtain going around 72-74 MPH. My only complaint with the 3.6 is that it sounds a bit gruff when cold until it reaches temperature but I understand this same power train combo is quieter and more refined in the new Epsilon Impala. Other than that no issues to report. No rattles, no wear and it still drives like a brand new car. There will for sure be a new Impala in my driveway when the 2013 is due for trade in.
My wife had a Honda Accord hatchback with a 5 speed manual for 17 years--a great car. After the Accord she had a Escort wagon and a Taurus which were also good cars. About 3 years ago she bought a loaded CRV and it so far has been flawless. pouchoman49--My wife and I rented a 2014 Impala LTZ with leather interior, sunroof, and everything when we went to Napa Valley last Summer. That Impala was a really nice car and one of the few rental cars that I actually hated to return. It was a beautiful metallic red with a black leather interior.