[Ash_vtec]

Took delivery of a Tafetta White Accord v6 in October '05, and have covered around 15k kms in it. In fact, the odo today reads 15010.

A very comfortable, effortlessly fast, well built car, its decent value for what you get. Mine is the 2005 model, so its sans parking sensors & stability control, and has the lumpy american rear with the long tail lamps. More or less a head turner shod with delicious looking 16inch Enkeis. The car looks imposing at almost 5 metres long.

LIKES
- looks
- performance
- well put together
- interior quality
- good highway car
- refinement (EXTREMELY)
- Grade logic auto box responsive
- Front seats very comfy with LONG travel
- special mention for the superb looking dials. A joy to read !
- Very reasonable spares for a D segment car.
- Easy to drive in urban conditions due to light controls
- Dual zone climate control puts an end to arguments about A/c being too cold/ not cooling enough.
- Classy design
DISLIKES
- skinny 205 tyres (rubbish)
- gremlins in interior... the panel that allows access to the boot from the cabin behind the rear armrest rattles. NOT what you expect at this price point. On that note, the cubby hole in the rear arm rest does not close either and cost 4k to change !!
- Leather is atrocious and seems to be sourced from a sun burnt ox. It's not as plush as it should be for this price point.
- rear bench lacks sufficient cushioning & bolstering.
- love the auto tranny for BLR traffic but a manual is missed at times.
- speaker quality low.
- Over enthusiastic ABS

The car is extremely effortless at masking speeds and have touched a speedo indicated 220kph, and 170 is crossed without breaking a sweat. It's relatively composed at the magic 2 ton mark except for the RUBBISH 205 tyres that take road roar to a new level. They run out of grip easily which makes the ESP light up a little too often on the highways.

Its also equally at home pottering around town thanks only to the auto tranny which makes piloting this barge in town hassel free. Parking takes getting used to and i feel atleast rear park assist should have been provided atleast as an option by Honda. Small issue with all the aftermarket parts available.
The car is absolutely stock except i removed that ugly black number plate holder in front, and now have the famous "IND" plates. And however hard the salesman said its as solid as a german car, there exists a fine line between being well put together and being well built. This falls in the former category and while its extremely tactile to use and everything feels and sounds refined, you cant escape the "orientalness" each time you shut the door, use the keyless entry buttons, use the power windows, and the amount of the auto rickshaw you hear when he passes you. Its extremely well put together, but its no Euro marque. But one thing i absolutely love about this car is the engine and more over its refined stress free manner. My neighbours E240 is gruff compared to this cars velvety smooth idle, and the way it revs through the power band with its butter coated pistons is simply addictive. It may not look the part, but it whips the boy racers at traffic signals. Honda products, you just cant go wrong with them.
WISHLIST
- I pod interface; better speakers
- park sensors

And for the burning question of mileage, 5.2kmpl in town. I did not list this a dislike because its but natural for it to guzzle the unleaded being a 3 litre V6 with auto tranny. This figure becomes a magical 7 odd kmpl on the highway.

[csentil]

Man, a V6 !! What more does one want !! Its a driver's delight. Good write up. We've tried to chase a few on the highways and they just disappear into the horizon.

One of the things that I've noticed is there are a lot of 2.4's here in Bangalore, whereas Chennai seems to have more V6.

[humyum]

Very well written review Ash.
7kmpl on the highway.i guess i would need a personal loan if i owned this car to go from mumbai to bangalore.

[ashthedivx]

Very well written up review my friend !! A friend picked up a V6 just before launching of new accord, off course due to high discount available at the time of new Accord launching up. And i must admit it sheer pleasure to drive such massive V6 on delhi-karnal highway.

Congrates once again, do post some interior/exterior photographs and keep the thread updated periodically

[ashish22]

its a great car with an insanely free revving engine. My only wish is if this was manual it would have been a delicious car to rip..and traction control is pretty annoying sometimes!

[Lalvaz]

Good review indeed, but looks like you've been using her sparingly. Would have thought you would be crunching those miles with a V6.

[abhinav.gupta88]

Pretty True Ashish

Manual Tranny , better tyres , and a button to control traction control off.
The v6 will rock and will definitely be faster than the vRs then.

Nice Review
Enjoy!

[Ash_vtec]

@lalvaz: yeah its sparingly used, gas guzzler :P

@abhinav: there is a button to turn it off, and yeah manual tranny would have sweetened the package.

[kutlee]

good report. you can add tyres to the wishlist..

[ImmortalZ]

I do not believe an Accord V6 with a Honda 3L V6 VTEC making a stonking 226PS needs anything in Abhinav's list to be faster than the vRS with a VW mild turbo 1.8 :P

[Ash_vtec]

The guzzler's been around a bit on the South Indian highways, a trip to tirupathi, ooty and chennai. Stress free commuting is the only thing that rings a bell when you're piloting this car. The "light" build lets it down a bit and is not as planted to the road as i like, and the car has developed a brake judder when one feathers the brakes at high speeds which can be quite unnerving if you're not used to it. Wheel alignment? Brake pads? Need to get it checked.
All thats needed is tiny little flex of the right foot and it assaults the horizon pretty well for a car of this price. Of course after driving around a friends 530d for a while, the slight premium paid for the german marques seem justified. Rock steady + neck pinning acceleration + RWD grip & poise keeps you beaming
Must add that 've come back very impressed with the accord's build after the trip to ooty, as the roads after gundulpet are non existent. Take the worse road you've ever been on, throw in some proper monsoon ravaging, then litter it with gravel and stones, add some craters for variety and there you have it, the stretch after gundulpet while going towards ooty. All the qualises/ taveras/ scorpios etc that i flew past on the BLR- mysore highway drove past me rather smugly on this stretch as i eased along at 10kph. Bone jarring to say the least, but NOT A RATTLE after i went over this bit twice, and if some common sense and better discretion is used, the ground clearance is adequate if you know what to crab and what to avoid.
The famed Seagur Ghat, where most cars run out of steam as they trundle up the 36 hairpins to Ooty, posed no threat at all to this car. With 221 Bhp and 30 odd kgm of torque, it made a pretty good impression of a mountain goat as it scaled up the ghat without even breaking a sweat. Yes D3 had to be used. Same story on the descent, with judicious use of the superb auto tranny, i did not smoke my brakes. Have to add, the last time i came up here was in the Ol' Vtec, and some strain was observed by the time this welterweight champ reached the top. The heavy weight on the other hand breezed through.
Gremlins: None, except a small rattle from that stupid door that provides access to the boot from the rear seat. Human ingenuity and some paper have stopped that temporarily.
O and the brake judder. Will need to get that checked.

All in all a good product if you can bear the fuel costs. D segment comfort, c segment service bills, decent performance, and a badge thats not too hard to live with. Good going Honda, except you cheap penny pinching Japs need to attend to features as much as you do to the engine ! Conspicuous by their absence,
-trip computer
-fatter tyres
-sunroof (the CR-V gets one, why can't I !!)
-I Pod connectivity
-Cool box, my red bull was a nice soup temp. (my little fabia has one, all you need is a vent into the glove box)

[Ash_vtec]

Found out what causes the brake judder....natural phenomenon. Felt it even in the vtec but not to this extent as the rear were drums.
here is the link...
Disc brake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Ash_vtec]

possibly the only pic of the car.

[Dippy]

Nice to see you enjoying the V6. I heard the current newly launched V6 is not as fun as the old one. I have driven the old one and I loved it. What is a normal pais sernice cost for your V6? Is it true that the brake pads wear out fast in this car?

Some more pictures please

[Ash_vtec]

Hi, I have not had the chance to drive the new one yet, so i wouldn't know. A regular paid service (OIL change etc) ranges b/w 800 & 1200.
Brake pads wear out fast in any automatic car if you keep your foot on them at a signal or when you're stopped for long when its in 'D'. 20k kms up and no issues so far. Another 325i in the family had its brake pads chewed through in 3500 kms as the driver used to keep riding the brakes at signals.
Will have to take more, 'm quite a klutz with the camera :P