October 23, 2007

Test Drive: 2008 Honda Accord EX-L sedan four-cylinder

2008 Honda Accord EX-L four-cylinder. Click image to enlarge

Review and photos by Andrew McCredie

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Photo Gallery: 2008 Honda Accord

North Vancouver, British Columbia - You can't open a newspaper these days without reading about overweight children. The blubber-building combo of a fatty diet and a sedentary lifestyle in some our kids has spawned a cottage-industry of professional dietitians, psychologists and childhood weight-watching groups dedicated to eradicating this super-size scourge of society.

Well, there's another group that should be on the treadmill - automobiles. Despite ever-increasing fuel prices, space-age material advances and overcrowded roadways, cars that began life have as compacts have grown - and I mean grown - into thunder-thighed 30-somethings.

Take the Honda Accord. At age 32 and tipping the scales at 1518 kg (3,347 lbs.), the all-new 2008 Accord L4, at a parking-stall stretching 4930 mm (194.1 in.), is now officially categorized as a 'full-size' vehicle by the U.S. EPA based on it interior volume.

2008 Honda Accord EX-L four-cylinder. Click image to enlarge

Compare that to the tidy 4114 mm (162 in.) of the first generation Accord of 1976, the 'compact' that, along with the smaller still Civic, would propel the Japanese automaker from regional player status to global behemoth.

And just as cute little babies who began life in 1976 as sub-10 pounders, burst their britches in their teen years and now shop at big men and women shops, the Accord was a compact until the age of 17, a mid-size from 1994 to 2007, and now a full-size sedan.

The 2008 Accord is much wider, taller and more powerful than its younger incarnations. Compared to the 2007 Accord sedan, the 2008 model is 76 mm (3 in.) longer, 26 mm (1.1 in.) wider and 23 mm (0.9 in.) taller with a wheelbase that's 60 mm (2.3 in.) longer. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does make one wonder why the ever expanding creep.

As CanadianDriver Editor-in-Chief Greg Wilson noted in his test drive of the V6-equipped 2008 Honda: "A bigger Accord does have some advantages: a roomier passenger cabin, greater crash protection, improved stability, and a more comfortable ride - but there are some disadvantages too: more vehicle weight, less manoeuvrability, and more difficulty parking."

2008 Honda Accord EX-L four-cylinder. Click image to enlarge

Engine choices include a 177-horsepower 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine (up 11 horsepower); a new 190-horsepower 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine; and a brand new 268-horsepower 3.5-litre V6 with a standard five-speed automatic transmission. The four-cylinder engines are available with a standard five-speed manual transmission or optional five-speed automatic transmission. Those horsepower figures, incidentally, are the highest of any Accord six- or four-cylinder powerplants ever. The new six-cylinder gets the best fuel efficiency of any conventional Honda V6 engine, and all three engines offer lower emissions from higher-performance power plants. The six-cylinder is badged as an L6, while the four-bangers are L4s.

Apart from a bigger footprint, the new Accord is packed with new advancements and a number of firsts. On the safety front, the new Accord is the first Accord to receive Honda's revolutionary ACE body structure for crash compatibility; the 2008 model is the first to offer four-wheel disc brakes across the entire model range; and likewise, the first use of Vehicle Stability Assist on all models. Other new features include a lower floor, a dynamic engine mounting system - resulting in a lower centre of gravity - and Variable Gear Ratio (VGR) steering.

2008 Honda Accord EX-L four-cylinder. Click image to enlarge

Additional firsts for the 2008 Accord include: largest fuel tank (at 70 litres); first full use of steering-wheel audio controls across the entire model range; first Accord to offer a power lumbar support, auto-dimming inside mirror, compass, multi-line display CD/MP3 player, auxiliary-input jack and subwoofer.

There's more. Other benchmarks include: largest interior volume in Accord history; first use of Active Noise Control (ANC) in a non-hybrid Accord; first use of 17-inch wheels on four-cylinder Accord models.

So the eighth generation Accord is a wholesale update to what was already a very accomplished and well-respected automobile. It just goes to show how competitive the family sedan market is, particularly between the perennial top dogs of the segment: the Accord, the Toyota Camry and the Nissan Altima. The Camry was the top-seller in Canada in 2006 (according to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association), but the Accord and Altima were not far behind. And with Nissan's fourth-generation Altima debuting this year (2007) on the heels of Camry's sixth-generation unveiling in 2006, Honda engineers had no choice to build a bigger, more powerful and feature-packed 2008 Accord, to, as CanadianDriver editor Wilson notes, "keep up with the Jones's."

Driving impressions

2008 Honda Accord EX-L four-cylinder. Click image to enlarge

Despite being the biggest Accord ever, the 2008 four-cylinder doesn't feel or drive like much of the competition in the full-size sedan category. For all intents and purposes, it performs and handles like a mid-size sedan. My test car was equipped with the 177-horsepower four-cylinder engine mated to the five-speed automatic, and despite being the least powerful of the three engine choices, it provided more than enough giddy up and go. (Consider the first-ever Accord sedan had a twig-pulling 76 ponies, and the 'least' powerful new Accord seems like a flat-out dragster). Acceleration is good, and the standard ABS brakes provide full confidence when stopping in the wet.

It's true that the Accord isn't, and never has been, a performance-oriented vehicle. There's no throaty exhaust note to get your blood racing; there's no pinned-to-your-seat off-the-line launch speed; and there's no real sense of sport handling in a tight corner. But the buyer of an Accord, or for that matter a Camry or an Altima, isn't in the market for a car that will help them emulate Kimi Raikkonen on a city boulevard. Rather, they're looking for reliability, value-for-money and safety features that will keep them and their most treasured assets safe.

In that regard, the 2008 Accord picks up right where the 2007 left off, and the 2006, and the 2005, and the 2004 …It's a well-built, well-designed four-door sedan that won't thrill the thrill-seeker but will wholly satisfy the pragmatic.

And when dropping the kind of money one needs to these days to purchase a quality car such as the Accord - figure at least half a year's after-tax wages for the average Canadian - being pragmatic makes much more sense than seeking thrills.

Pricing: 2008 Honda Accord EX-L Navi four-cylinder sedan

• Base price: $32,690
• Options: $1,200 (5-speed automatic transmission)
• Freight: $1,390
• A/C tax: $100
• Price as tested: $35,380 Click here for options, dealer invoice prices and factory incentives

Specifications

• Click here for complete specifications

Competitors

• Chrysler Sebring 2008
• Dodge Avenger 2008
• Ford Fusion 2008
• Hyundai Sonata 2008
• Nissan Altima 2008
• Saturn Aura 2008
• Toyota Camry 2008
• Volkswagen Passat 2008

Related stories on CanadianDriver

• First Drive: 2008 Honda Accord
• Test Drive: 2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6 sedan
• Auto Tech: Honda's crash safety technology
• Used Vehicle Review: Honda Accord, 2003-2007

Crash test results

• www.safercar.gov, www.hwysafety.org

Manufacturer's web site

• Honda Canada

More Test Drives....