Honda's executive estate
18/05/09 17:11 Filed in: Road
tests
The Honda Accord Tourer is probably
not the first car that comes to mind when you are looking for an
executive estate car. But maybe it should be.
Parked in front of the house the Honda Accord Tourer looked smart in a conservative way. Inside and out it is more smart pinstripes than jeans and trainers. But more Marks & Spencers than Saville Row, too.
It’s a big car, with plenty of room for four or five passengers and a good big load floor. The driving position is great and all the controls seem logical.
My test model was the Honda Accord tourer 2.0 iVTEC at £21,545 in manual form. It had the five-speed auto gearbox, which adds £1,300, plus the £1,100 combination of sat-nav with a neat little rear-view camera.
The Honda Accord tourer proved to be an effortless companion on my daily commutes. Refinement standards are great and the ride is generally very smooth and unruffled. This is a car in which you could imagine eat up the miles on a long-distance trans-continental drive, leaving driver and passengers feeling quite refreshed.
That said it is happier on the dual carriageways, than it is on twisty B-roads.
Although precise and accurate, the steering feels a little lifeless. The suspension is clearly set up more for comfort than for sporting handling (let’s face it, that’s the way most buyers would want it anyway). But, I felt a very slight softness and floatiness that robbed the Accord of ultimate driver enjoyment. The auto box also needs a fairly firm stamp on the throttle to kick it into a lower gear.
But, I should point out that for those who want more responsiveness and power there is the 2.4 litre version, in addition to several 2.2-litre diesel models. To get more responsiveness from the auto gearbox, too, Honda thoughtfully include racing style gearchange paddles behind the steering wheel. With the aid of these you can do your own downshifts to boost the power, or settle the car for a corner.
The Honda Accord Tourer takes 10.7 seconds to sprint from 0-62 mph. CO2 emissions are 187 g/km, while the official combined consumption is 35.8 mpg. In my normal driving I found the consumption hovered around 25 to 27 mpg for a mixture of country and city driving.
Parked in front of the house the Honda Accord Tourer looked smart in a conservative way. Inside and out it is more smart pinstripes than jeans and trainers. But more Marks & Spencers than Saville Row, too.
It’s a big car, with plenty of room for four or five passengers and a good big load floor. The driving position is great and all the controls seem logical.
My test model was the Honda Accord tourer 2.0 iVTEC at £21,545 in manual form. It had the five-speed auto gearbox, which adds £1,300, plus the £1,100 combination of sat-nav with a neat little rear-view camera.
The Honda Accord tourer proved to be an effortless companion on my daily commutes. Refinement standards are great and the ride is generally very smooth and unruffled. This is a car in which you could imagine eat up the miles on a long-distance trans-continental drive, leaving driver and passengers feeling quite refreshed.
That said it is happier on the dual carriageways, than it is on twisty B-roads.
Although precise and accurate, the steering feels a little lifeless. The suspension is clearly set up more for comfort than for sporting handling (let’s face it, that’s the way most buyers would want it anyway). But, I felt a very slight softness and floatiness that robbed the Accord of ultimate driver enjoyment. The auto box also needs a fairly firm stamp on the throttle to kick it into a lower gear.
But, I should point out that for those who want more responsiveness and power there is the 2.4 litre version, in addition to several 2.2-litre diesel models. To get more responsiveness from the auto gearbox, too, Honda thoughtfully include racing style gearchange paddles behind the steering wheel. With the aid of these you can do your own downshifts to boost the power, or settle the car for a corner.
The Honda Accord Tourer takes 10.7 seconds to sprint from 0-62 mph. CO2 emissions are 187 g/km, while the official combined consumption is 35.8 mpg. In my normal driving I found the consumption hovered around 25 to 27 mpg for a mixture of country and city driving.