Honda Accord i-DTEC Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Honda Accord i-DTEC range
Prices: £22,835-£29,280 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 10 - 11
Emissions: 148-157g/km
Performance: Max Speed 131mph / 0-60mph 9.3s
Fuel Consumption: [Tourer] (urban) 37.7mpg / (extra urban) 56.5mpg / (combined) 47.9mpg
Safety: Twin front, side and curtain airbags / ABS with EBD
Dimensions: (saloon) Length/Width/Height mm 4930/1847/1476 WHO TO SEE:

REFINED AND REDEFINED

Our Rating: 7.9 / 10

If Honda is to chase the premium market, it needs a top notch diesel engine in its latest Accord. Andy Enright takes a look at the 2.2 i-DTEC version.

It’s getting there, but the Honda Accord i-DTEC diesel isn’t quite on touching terms with the German premium compact executive models. It wins a few battles in key areas but as an overall proposition, it’ll still appeal to those who dislike the German marques and want a high-tech alternative at a keener price.

Put yourself in Honda’s position for a moment. The company has seen sales of medium range cars dwindle as more and more buyers realise that the low depreciation of premium models like the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 often makes them cheaper to own. In this predicament, a company has three options. It can do what Nissan did and give up on that market sector, it can do what Ford has done with the current Mondeo and attempt to build a product too good to ignore or it can try to crash the premium party. Honda has chosen a combination of the latter two strategies.

It’s a risky move. If a company’s badge equity isn’t up to snuff, buyers will laugh at its naked ambition and sales will go through the floor. Many have tried going head to head with the Germans and almost all of them have failed. Armed with a punchy 149bhp diesel engine in its latest Accord, Honda thinks it’s in with a shout.

Honda has waved goodbye to its i-CTDi diesel engine design and instead thrown its lot in with another bunch of acronyms – i-DTEC. Generating 149bhp at 4,000rpm, this unit is more refined than the old 138bhp i-CTDi engine and also beats it in terms of emissions and fuel economy. With a peak torque figure of 350Nm, it’s also extremely punchy. This powerplant is mated to six-speed manual gearbox. Perhaps the most significant difference is in terms of engine flexibility. Where the old diesel engine felt strong but a bit peaky, forcing you to stay right on top of gear changing duties, the i-DTEC spreads its torque rather more generously and will pull from low revs with less turbo lag; handy for when you need to zip out onto a busy roundabout.

Honda benchmarked the BMW 3 Series in the development of the Accord, but then most manufacturers do. It’s how close they came that matters. The centre of gravity of the latest Accord is lower, the track across the axles is wider, body rigidity is improved and variable rate damping and revised multilink rear suspension also assist agility. A quicker ratio steering rack also features. These are all solid improvements but none are ground breaking. The Accord differentiates itself from the opposition in other ways.

There’s little doubt that the latest Accord looks a more substantial car than its predecessor. Despite being a completely fresh design from the ground up, the latest Accord shares many styling cues with its progenitor. Park the two cars side by side and you’ll see that the latest generation is lower and far wider, has a more aggressive, hunkered down stance, and more pugnacious wheel arches. The V-shaped front grille and sculpted headlamps give the Accord some serious rear-view mirror presence while the Tourer’s rising window line gives it an edgier, more dynamic look. It’s a neat piece of design work.

The cabin has been improved, ridding the Accord of the rather reedy, lightweight feel of older versions. The dashboard extends from the centre console to sweep around the front seats, giving the Accord’s interior some character. The dash features floating backlit instruments with an LCD information screen housed in the middle of the speedometer dial. The cabin badly needs a central controller system like Audi’s MMI, Mercedes’ COMAND and not like BMW’s infernal iDrive. Instead the Accord perseveres with lots of buttons which give a bitty look to the fascia.

Prices for the diesel Accord are, model for model, around £2,000 less than for an equivalent Audi A4, so while the Japanese may be pushing the premium quality angle with some enthusiasm, they’re smart enough to realise that parity on price is, for the time being at least, a non starter. The Accord i-DTEC