A Genteel Sports Sedan
A Genteel Sports Sedan
What a difference a clutch makes. The third pedal in Honda's lively Accord transforms it from a well-mannered four-door into a well-bred sports sedan. The opportunity to road test a Honda Accord isn't the Holly Grail of road testing that automotive journalists earnestly seek. Yet I came away from a week behind the wheel of my staid-looking tester with a renewed appreciation for the vehicle that put Honda on the map in the mid-size category. My bone-white example didn't excite me visually; fortunately it did that and more from behind the wheel.
The lines of Honda's latest generation Accord are pleasant enough, if not a tad on the boring side. Its interior architecture is sharp though, adding some much-needed flair to the overall package. Honda produces some of the best switchgear in the mid-market range, along with what may be the best leather-wrapped front perches in any market. You'll also find decent quality materials flooding the tightly assembled cabin. For all intents and purposes, the Accord's human space is a lesson in proper planning and packaging. From within its spaciousness, many a content motorist has administered this benchmark-setting, polished and refined five-passenger sedan. Until late, administrative duties did not include the management of six forward gears through a short throw stick. Prior to 2007, the exhilaration of shifting through a half dozen cogs in an Accord meant coping with two-doors rather than the much more practical arrangement of four. The Accord Coupe EX-V6 with its manual six-speed mixer has always been a favorite of mine due to its spirited driving dynamics, not its ability to accommodate passengers. Like leveraging strength from the perfect merger, adding the six-speed stick to the EX-L V6 sedan instills similar driving dynamics into a vehicle better suited to hauling the rest of the family when need be.
My leather-lined EX-L tester was powered by Honda's silk-smooth, 3.0 litre, 24-valve DOHC i-VTEC V6. This long-serving mill effortlessly spins-out 244 horsepower @ 6,250 rpm and 211 foot-pounds of torque @ 5,000 rpm but the real magic behind the performance is the wide range of gearing brought forth by the six-speed manual gearbox now available in the Accord Sedan. Related ArticlesRecent Articles
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2007 Honda Accord EX-L V6 6-Speed MT Road Test |
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