My pre-owned 2010 Honda Accord 3.5 V6: Ownership experience

The fuel efficiency of my 272 BHP Accord was not a concern for me because I planned to hold on to my Volkswagen Jetta for my primary commutes.

BHPian nissar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Felt compelled to post my experience as there is no other ownership report on this car on the forum and less material in general (apart from bashing Honda for the high pricing for the V6. I wonder how we all feel in retrospect?). Hope this helps someone that comes across an opportunity to own this car. I refer to the Jetta a lot so that I can compare the Accord to a car that many of us already understand due to the excellent content already available on the forum.

Background

It was 2019, I had driven my 2013 Jetta Comfortline MT TDI for about 5 years now (was my dad's car but I was pretty much the only one using it after its 2nd year). The Jetta was a wonderful vehicle and was serving my purposes well. My usage was ~20km commute in Bangalore + highway and out-of-station trips almost monthly. The beauty of the TDI is excellent power with excellent mileage. In the city (in my case 14-16 kmpl) and on the highway (16-18 kmpl) with a heavy foot. On a light foot, I even got 27 kmpl on the drive from Bangalore to Kodaikanal once! On a personal front, I had recently completed my part-time master's program and it had been a few years since my father's passing and having worked for 5 years by then there was an itch and the ability to have another car. My itch involved aimlessly scrolling through used cars listings looking for anything interesting. I had made peace with the higher prices in KA in general. Once I came across the Accord it did seem rational to me due to the following reasons (and my opinion or learning in retrospect in brackets):

• I was terrified of the costs of maintenance of luxury brands. And this was just a Honda. (this is true that the parts and service are very reasonable being close to the Jetta but the service advisers almost apologize to me about the parts being expensive compare to other Hondas).
• I didn't want anything flashy (but the Accord also turns heads due to its sheer size and rarity these days).
• I love the low seating position of sedans and was not nervous about ground clearance issues. I figured I can live with it (compare to the Jetta which I almost never scrape, need to be sure to slow down with the Accord, else the soft suspension can bounce causing an avoidable scrape, otherwise no problems, if you are careful).
• Fuel efficiency was not a concern as I planned to hold on to the Jetta and still use it as my primary for commutes (turns out I love the Accord so much that I use it more than I should cause me some shockers in my month-end expense checks).
• It was a significant power upgrade over the Jetta that is quite hard / impossible to find in the budget (with the Accord I actually enjoy when I need to slow down due to slow overtaking vehicles because this just means I get a reason to accelerate to speed again).
• Naturally-aspirated V6 petrol engines are a dying (already dead in India) bread. Will probably not have a reason/chance to own one in the future (the warm sound and the smooth reeving is something I still appreciate after owning the car for a while now).
• I have the extra parking and another car for city runs (this is not the one practical do-it-all car).

So I knew I was only looking for more reasons just to rationalize my decision. From here, it was quick. The car was a 2010 first owner company maintained car sitting on a used dealer's lot, it had done 84,000 km at this point. Was allowed to take it to Honda and do a full inspection and was able to see the full history. The car mostly had a clean history (except one left fender accident which was fixed under insurance and didn't seem serious). The alternator was replaced once (saved me the potential headache). The front dampers were nearing the end of their lives but I didn't feel any concern in the test drive. What was bad was the steering rack and pump needed an immediate fix and it was bothersome.

Front tires also were almost bald and needed immediate replacement. Honda provided me with an estimate of around 2L after a thorough half-day inspection and road test. This estimate was used to negotiate the price down by 1L (kudos to Honda for being so thorough and the used car dealer for the transparency). The dealer keen to close the deal provided me with a reference to an independent garage to get another quotation. The quotation was not much lower but he was offering to repair the steering rack pump if possible. Lucky for me that worked saving me almost 50,000. I replaced the front tires with a set of "sporty" Micheline Pilot Sport 4. Also changed the engine oil. All in all, after around 80k post-purchase the car was all good and felt good too!

Pros and Cons (from the perspective of 2022)

Pros

• 272 bhp is still a good number today. (Hust cruising on the highway but that <read huge SUV> driving too close? You obviously don't want to do illegal speeds so you just wait till all of you need to slow down at the next truck or speed breaker, floor it and problem solved, he ain't catching you).
• Big engines are not always bad for efficiency! Highway mileage is 9kmpl and under similar driving style, even a similar 2.0 turbo petrol would not be much better. Given the same power, there exists a driving style where a naturally aspirated 3.5L V6 provides the same efficiency as a 2.0 turbo 4 cylinder. If you are that driver the bonus is you get to enjoy that warm engine note of the V6 guilt-free while revving it to 6500 rpm!
• Soft suspension and low ride height eat highway. And with power whenever you need to overtake even two-lane state highways also make a comfortable journey.
• The ride is not sporty but very stable. The rear multilink suspension keeps that car planted at high speed and even when you make quick manoeuvres so you can still enjoy those spirited drives. (I would say it is as planted as the Jetta but not as confidence-inspiring)
• The benefit of naturally aspirated engines apply. Immediate response at low RPM. Linear and gradual acceleration on a light foot. I have had many novice drivers who claim there are scared to cross 100kmph touch 160kmph without realizing how the speed crept upon them. I do have to put a lot of attention on that speedo do not do illegal speeds.
• Used car values are low (if you can find one that is not shady but still expect to pay some premium over the 4 cylinders. After all the few first owners paid 6L more initially). Also, Honda's service has been great in my experience, and unless the dealer wants you to replace something that can be repaired you will find the cost to be similar to a Jetta let's say.
• Wide car gives a sense of space width-wise, dash sits low adding to the effect.
• Powerful AC and blowers feel like a breeze through the cabin.
• Headlights have a great throw.
• Front parking sensors (really useful for large cars).
• Real leather seats and soft-touch material on the door feel good.
• 6 airbags, ABS, VSA (stability control) ensure the car is not significantly lacking in comparison to modern cars.
• Ration wheel size at 17 inches for the V6, tire size is 225R50 17, I may not be comfortable with let's say 225R45 18 driving over our roads.
• Minimal technology - no turbo, no dual-clutch auto, no infotainment, no digital console, no drive modes. The less there is less that can go wrong, this is all old school. Aftermarket android auto unit gives 90% of the utility of modern infotainment without the potential complications of integrating car settings directly to the infotainment.
• This generation of the Accord seems to be reliable globally that provides some comfort for long term ownership.
• In the age of turbo petrols, not clear on the impact of ethanol blends and diesels with DPF complications, the Accord V6 is E10 ready and doesn't need any premium fuel, so I will not be filling premium fuels for a few more years at least.

Cons

• City mileage can be between 6-8kmpl (smaller turbo petrol will do better here - personally I use my Jetta for city runs). Highway mileage will probably not be any better than 10kmpl, it's better to just drive it at a swift pace and still get 9kmpl! But I have noticed that very hard highway driving (keeping it in the 4000-6500 rpm band) can even drop mileage to 6kmpl (not a real-world case though).
• Car is hard to manoeuvre in the city and to park.
• Even though the car is huge you find the back seat legroom the same as a Jetta and boot space has a high floor making it overall smaller than Jetta. Poor use of space.
• Apart from the leather on the seats and soft-touch door, the dashboard feels much less premium than the Jetta. As a buyer during 2012, it would have been hard to choose the Accord over the Jetta if interiors were important to you.
• If you are a sedate driver and do not drive above 100kmph the V6 offers little performance advantage over the diesel Jetta and a lot worse mileage. Let me explain. The V6 when floored responds with more instant torque compared to the diesel up to 2000rpm, from 2000 to 3000rpm both give the same performance, with maybe the diesel punch a little stronger. 3000rpm-4000rpm the diesel continues to give power but the power/noise ratio drops hence most of us prefer to gear up at this point as the fun is over. But here is when the V6 starts to breathe, as the rpm climbs up from 4000rpm you get even increasing power till the redline at 6500rpm. So if you drive with the light foot speed gradually increases, whereas in a diesel even with a light foot you get the mid-range punch. In this use case, the V6 feels slower even with almost twice the power on paper.
• Even though the car is very planted and smooth at high speed on the highway, I feel sound insulation could have been better to complement that. I think the Jetta has marginally lesser wind sound. One of the factors could be the Accord is lesser covered up underneath compared to Jetta.
• This model comes with active cylinder deactivation up to 3 cylinders, and also sounds the part in this mode which is not great. I also read on US forums this can cause uneven cylinder wear when driven at a constant speed. Luckily this is India so I don't see long periods of constant speed so the engine just pops in and out of ECO mode, so hopefully should be lesser of an issue for my case.
• Even though I mentioned the lack of technology as a pro, it is also a con, you miss out on the latest active safety systems that started appearing on newer cars like brake boost, automatic emergency braking. Also, you cannot compare the crash test rating of 2008 with 2022, so we do not really know how safe the Accord is compared to the new Honda City, for example.
• One con with my particular car - lumbar seat adjustment is dead and stuck at max setting, I have used a seat cushion to avoid back pain and it's all good since then.

Exterior

Personally, I loved the look of the Accord when it came out back in 2008. Even today, the car doesn't look that dated. It is a well proportioned 3 box design from a side profile, the long bonnet, and the 17-inch wheels (not a fan of the design of the wheel though) of the V6 with the low overall height looks great. Only the front gives away the age as the headlights are large and the grill is small. Love the dual-side exhaust tips that jut out ahead of the bumper. And yes, I use my car to carry my bikes and in general, don't mind a few dings and scratches and don't take particularly good care of the exteriors apart from washing it.

Interior

The low swopping dash wraps around you giving a sense of space. The window line is low giving great visibility all around. Though the dash looks great, on closer look it's all hard plastics (my Jetta has a soft touch dash). The center console is from the early 2000s with all analog gauges and just the odo/trip being digital. Apart from the dash all the doors are soft touch with leather inserts (my Jetta is all hard plastic), the seats are also real leather but they haven't aged that well in my opinion (my Jetta has leatherette and they still look new at almost 8 years old). The driver seat is power-adjustable while the passenger seat while being manual doesn't have a height adjustment (I really appreciate the height adjustment on the passenger side in the Jetta). Move to the back you will find it spacious but no more legroom than the Jetta. Move to the boot and floor is quite high making the space lesser and less usable than the Jetta, but still my bicycle with the wheels off fits completely in the boot. The overall width certainly helps.

Minor Mods

• Removed the mud flaps in the front and modified the rear one by cutting so that it is not visible. Just prefer the look this way also the flaps were discolored.
• Removed the outer door trip as I preferred a cleaner look.
• Replaced factory stereo with an Android auto unit (sony ax5000). I don't care about audio quality just wanted Google maps. Apparently, the stock audio had a noise cancellation system to reduce the 3 cylinder noise whenever it switched on cylinder deactivation. This may have worked to some extent but I didn't really miss it.
• Removed the engine insulation under the hood as it was sagging and I didn't mind more of that warm V6 note.
• Replaced the stock air filter with a K&N. Can't say it helped much because the existing one was pretty bad when I replaced it so not sure if the increased mileage and response was due to stock vs K&N. But I definitely got more induction sound after the replacement which I appreciate.
• The boot floor was all heavy wood, and seemed to have warped out of shape, ripped out the carpet from the original, and stuck it over corrugated plastic which is much lighter instead (my Jetta has a similar corrugated plastic as boot floor).
• Patched steering leather which was worn through completely.

Continue reading nissar's ownership experience for BHPian comments, insights and more information.