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Apr 15, 2008 12:00 PM
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Wed Feb 10
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Exterior Design:**
In places the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe is woefully bland, in others awkwardly edgy. And what's with the rubber strip running across the hood? Having said that, it packs space for five and their luggage into a reasonably svelte shape, we suppose that's something.
Interior Design:**
As seen here in EX-L trim it's possitvly posh. The problem is, the grayish plastic and cornicopia of buttions clash with the nice leather. Too much that you touch is cheap plastic, while what you look at is awkwardly unintuitive. The Sat/Nav screen resides several inches behind a piece of prehensile plastic and can't be viewed anytime the sun is above the horizon. The high waist-line makes for huge blind spots.
Acceleration:****
The 268bhp V6 does 0-60 in 5.7 seconds. That's ridiculously fast for a practical, mid-size car. 15 years ago this would have outrun most Porsches. We just wish it didn't try and light up the front wheels with such ferocity every time your right foot starts feeling heavy.
Braking:***
Everything you'll ever need, provided you don't need an ideal brake/throttle relationship for heel and toeing.
Ride:****
Unremarkable in that you don't notice it as it competently goes about it's job, absorbing all but the worst New York's roads could throw at it.
Handling:**
The biggest problem. Floaty and imprecise at speed, the experience is dominated by understeer if you slow down. Still, it'll get you where you're going safely and quickly, just don't expect to enjoy the experience.
Gearbox:***
As unremarkable as a six-speed manual could be. But, it's not an automatic, and that's something. First gear is ridiculously short, most of the time, second is fine for pulling away.
Audio:****
EX-L trim brings with it every audio function you could want, in an unremarkable and very buttony way that is.
Toys:***
If we could award stars for the number of buttons on the dash, the Accord's would stretch across the page. When you can see it, the Sat/Nav works well, the center mounted dial spinning through menus with ease.
Value:*
Ours was specced up to $31,145 with delivery. We'll take our $30k-ish V6 coupes in 350Z form please.
Overall: ***
You can't question the Accord's competence at everything it sets out to achieve, but you can question its motivations.
All the V6's silly speed does is make us long for a simple, no frills, practical sedan or coupe with solid engineering, good handling, a reasonably sized interior and good build quality. A Honda Accord if you will. Oh, wait...
Send an email to Wes Siler, the author of this post, at wes@jalopnik.com.
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