Jul 15, 2004 03:36 PM
16109 Views
(Updated Jul 15, 2004 03:37 PM)
Bought my first car Honda Accord LX about four years ago in USA for almost half the price of that sold in India. Honda Accord is one of the best selling car in USA after Toyota Camry in the mid-size Sedan segment. Went through a usual procedure of searching for information on Internet, talking to friends and dealers about their views and pricing etc.
Initially I was not willing to put too much of money in car buying and was considering other options like Honda Civic (similar to Honda City in India) or Honda CRV. I was impressed by the CRV?s looks and being a short guy, most of the people recommended me to go for a SUV rather than a sedan.
Fortunately, I got to experience the ride of Special Edition CRV but to my disappointment, I did not at all enjoy the ride considering the same price that I had to pay as of Camry or Accord. Many of my friends had bought Honda Civic and I knew what this machine was. It was noisy, not as safe as the mid-size cars and with very little comfort and features.
Next choice was between Camry and Accord. Camry was obvious choice because Toyotas are much quieter to ride and do not have stiff steering as that of Hondas. After visiting a Toyota dealer and taking a test drive of Camry, I was not very much happy with the interiors and thought it was not as roomier as it looked to be. On the other hand, Toyotas follow a high trunk design reduces rear visibility (I had experienced this problem while driving Toyota Corolla) and thus Camry was out of question. Next was Accord. I had not done a lot of research on Accord but one of my roommates had one, so I knew about the space it provided and handling it had.
After visiting the dealer and taking a test drive of a brand new Accord, I fell in love with it. It felt to be much more roomier than Camry. I must admit that Accord is one of the best-designed vehicles after Jaguar as far as all round visibility is concerned. Lower height, low trunk design and wide windows are the best things that you can notice when you sit first time in an Accord.
Wider, roomier, luxurious sedan comes with Honda promise that the car will never let you down if you follow the regular maintenance schedules. And they are certainly up to what they promise. I have had the Accord for about four years now and I never had to pay for anything than replacing a light bulb in this period. Don?t you think that it is just fantastic? I have more than 32,000 miles on the car and I have driven it in the worst weather conditions like snow-clad winters when temperatures were up to 20 degrees below zero and extremely heavy rains but HONDAS WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN if you care for them.
Apart from reliability that Hondas offer, Accord has many other features like powerful four cylinder engine (LX model comes with four cylinder and EX with 6 cylinder), which produces 149 HP. Other features are like AM/FM radio with tape, cruise control, power windows, power steering, driver and passenger air bags, adjustable seats both front/back and height etc. Accord also offers a big trunk, glove boxes and nice storage space for cassettes and other stuff.
Controls are very easy to locate and handle. Another feature that I like about Accord is that the rear seat folds completely, which makes it easier to transport longer objects in it. Rear passengers have a good legroom and lower car height makes it even comfortable for old people to get into the car. Two adults can sit comfortably after putting a child seat in the rear.
Honda Accord was rated the best against Rollover and when I heard that, I felt proud to own one. As far as bad part, Hondas are noisy and have a stiff steering and do not offer a THRILL after few years of driving. If you are looking to buy something, which is luxurious, spacious and suffices your family needs, Accord is the best choice. But I would not recommend you to buy a new Accord because Japanese cars are good looking beauties and do not offer the level of safety as that of German cars like Volvos, BMWs or Mercs. For the money that you spend on buying a new Accord, you may as well decide to go for a used BMW or a Mercedes C or a Volvo S80 so that you get better engineering and a safer car.
