An 08 V6 PDI & first impressions

[princess]

Today my prince did his first PDI on an '08 V6 Accord with Nav. AT.

Out of the hole (from a stop) is slower than mine, seems D-tuned.
The pep picks up after that & is more than mine.
The feeling is floaty.
The center armrest/glovebox has a removable shelf that's ackward.
The seat sits low (good for taller people) he had to move the seat north!! That's a first!
The touchless Nav was easier than it first appeared.
It has a trip computer.
The 6 CD changer isn't with the Nav & has a cheaper (aftermarket) appearance.
It has the tire pressure monitor. Which may cause havoc with hypermilers wanting more air. They might have to have a light lit up to telling them there's something wrong.
The seat is more cushy.
The seat heater switch isn't visable with the e-brake off.
They now have bluetooth for cell phones.
The CD player also play MP3s.


That's all I can remember him saying.....:dunno:

So there's a few things he feels are on the plus side & some that aren't.

[princess]

He also said it seemed bigger inside & the sticker now calls it a "large" car.
The visability seemed worse than mine.
I personally don't like the chopped off look of the rear door window, but I'm sure I'll get used to seeing it.:)

[Cups]

I'm guessing many of the current and previous gens owners will stay away from the 08 because of the "large" size. I'm one of them, I think the current gen size is just perfect as-is. Seats are good for tall people (I know, I'm 6' 5"), enough room for the kids, and a huge trunk space. Why did they have to add more to this?!? I already know many accord owners moved to the civic because they find the current gen enough.

[anysia]

i'm sure part of the reasoning for moving the accord size up was because the civic size was moved up. i'm not sure why cars have to keep getting bigger though. and then each car co inevitably releases the super-duper compact car (ie the fit in this case). i understand needing to add more features into cars to keep people's attention, but why does that also have to equal a size increase? :dunno:

[princess]

According to the stats, people are getting bigger!!

If I were in the market, I don't think I'd bother with the '08. There's not enough changes to temp me. I do like the bluetooth though!

I kinda like the interiors getting bigger. More room as the boys grow. It's amazing how the size of a kids feet seem to determine where it's comfy to sit!!:lmao: The biggest one likes to be behind me.... um, wonder why!:paranoid:

I'm still happy with mine. :yes:

[benjamming]

Another part of the reason is due to the age of the average buyer. Typically as people get older they want a larger car for whatever reason, can afford one, etc. With the average age of the Accord buyer now at 50, Honda wants to keep these same folks happy with a car they have "grown old with". I better quit, that sounds too much like marketing. :)

[anysia]

not all 50 year olds are looking to increase car size to boat size though.... :lmao:

some are looking to downsize even! talk to the parents who have been trapped in minivans and station wagons to haul their kids around and they're oh so happy to be able to go back to a sedan that doesn't feel like a boat. :lmao:

and seriously, who wants the half blind senior citizen who refuses to give up their license or keys behind the wheel of bigger cars to do more damage when they hit someone?? :paranoid:

you still have to watch and be careful about aging any car too much with it's current demographic. if you age it too much, you don't pull new younger buyers in. and that results in your core buyer dying off and having nothing to replace it with. and then you have a car that became a caddy or buick or oldsmobile. and you struggle to regain your footing.

[benjamming]

Oh, I agree with you completely. I was simply stating another reason, in addition to the post by princess (which I think is the #1 reason) why I think cars are getting larger.

[anysia]

i think it's to satisfy the bigger is better mentality that too many americans have....provide the alternative to the suv's people are ditching due to gas prices. (the same reason i think the "cross-over" suddenly came into play! :lmao: that one really cracks me up! we've re-classified small suv's as "cross-over's" now. i think it's all a very annoying mind game.... :paranoid: )

[Accordlover]

I really thought it was increased in size because of the effort to convince people that two SUV's might not be necessary, if one person has the 2-3 kids most of the time. I know a few men who dumped their Utes for family sedans due to gas prices. If people think they can fit their family in the car alright, get better gas mileage, and enjoy the car when their alone, they're more likely to switch.

[08exl]

I really thought it was increased in size because of the effort to convince people that two SUV's might not be necessary, if one person has the 2-3 kids most of the time. I know a few men who dumped their Utes for family sedans due to gas prices. If people think they can fit their family in the car alright, get better gas mileage, and enjoy the car when their alone, they're more likely to switch.

I am an new accord owner who used to have an suv. It will still be in the family and there when I need it but the accord will be the everyday driver for me. I'm not sure that the accord doesn't have close to as much space as the suv does (06 saturn vue), whatever space it has is sufficient and then some. It was time to get a new car and we didn't even consider another suv but I know there are a few SUVs where gas mileage is close to the car. The vue is one of them, it got 20mpg in the city and 28 on the highway while boasting ALOT more power (248hp) and the accord has 190hp but gets 21 in the city and 31 on the highway (or so the sticker says)...not that big of a difference in my case between the 2

[Accordlover]

I feel the need to drive one of the GM Saturn Honda Powered VUE's....

If it felt like a Honda in the straightline drivetrain wise, I'd feel very confused I think. :dunno: :lmao:

[08exl]

I feel the need to drive one of the GM Saturn Honda Powered VUE's....

If it felt like a Honda in the straightline drivetrain wise, I'd feel very confused I think. :dunno: :lmao:


I don't really know if it feels like a honda when driving? Guess you'd have to compare to a CR-V or something like it. But I do know you'd have to find a used one to try it out or maybe there are still some new 07s out there...No more honda engines in the new 08' vues though.

[princess]

Well, I finally looked at the 08 for myself..... I don't like the front end of the L4, but I'm OK with the V6. It's shaped totally different at the bottom. Different grille. Now the V6 comes with foglight lights, chrome handles & the rear blumper is made for the duel exhaust with oval chrome tips. The inset/shaded Nav screen is a plus. It hasn't been a big problem for us, but there have been a few times that the sun coming in the side messed up the view of the screen.:yes:

I don't like the chopped off look of the rear door window wing on the sedan. It's angled all wrong & messes up the window's lines.

On the coupe, I don't like the L4's front bumper foglight holes without the foglights. It looks odd. The window lines are a little better, but still look a bit choppy to me.

I think it's funny how the rename things.... now instead of a DX, there's LX & LX premium.:D

Could you always get V6 without leather? I was sure that when you went with a V6, it went to leather before. I know it was that way in '02 & '03... did they change before the '08s?

Like in '03 they changed the engine AND body at the same time so I guess the '03 wasn't a fluke. I thought it took longer to work out the bugs & that's why there was 5 years of the gen 6 body instead of 4 like all the rest. They used to do a powertrain change mid body gen.

My prince love the fact they put the VCM in the V6s. That should help people get better mpg on trips!!

I'm not going to buy one. Not enough things to love yet..... Still no memeory seats!!:thumbsdow So I'll just wait till I can afford the RL.:D

[stevel]

Could you always get V6 without leather? I was sure that when you went with a V6, it went to leather before. I know it was that way in '02 & '03... did they change before the '08s?
they called it the LX-V6 before..... cloth, no sunroof, etc.

[princess]

Ah, I see..... I wouldn't have even noticed it without the moonroof!:D

[anysia]

nope, the v6 was always stuck with leather. i hated that. i wish they'd offer cloth on more vehicles on higher trims. i'm still not sold on leather! i prefer NOT sticking to seats when it's hot out! :lmao: im glad they offer the exv6 with cloth. they still remove a chunk of features though. it would be nice if the exv6 with leather and cloth were identical, just the material on the seats is different.....

(in the ody's you loose the sunroof in the ex without leather!!! they might as well call that trim level the lx-p. :mad: :dunno: )

[Aviography]

i'm still not sold on leather!

I tend to agree, with the exception of one aspect, I found as I was cleaning up my 96' GSR for sale that the cloth surface had trapped so much dust over the years that when I brushed the fabric surface of the seats with a sitff bristol scrubbing brush, there was the equivalent of a major dust storm cloud that enveloped the inside of the car, so much so that I had to re-clean all the vinyl surface I had already cleaned earlier!

Don't think leather surface will do THAT.

I will live with the leather seats! :)

[princess]

I hated the idea of leather until Honda "forced" me to get it.... now I love it & will never want cloth again! It's easier to cool & heat. It's easier to clean. Better wear & resale. More bells & whistles!:thmsup:

I think my negative feelings came from cars I'd been in over the years with vinyl seats. Leather is softer & comfier. Less "sticky". I wear shorts, scooter, & minis most of the year & all I have to do to not be toasted from the car sitting in the sun is to remember to open the windows before I get in. The leather cools fast enough to only be warm to the touch in seconds. I'm talking 105 degree days. Once inside the skin doesn't seem to get scorched at all. If I forget, then the buns are toast!:lmao::paranoid:

Maybe stickiness has to do with the cleaning products used......:dunno: Until this week mine had only had either Honda's or Zaino's on it. I tried Macguires & hated it. It was thick & harder to de-gloss. I don't like glossy dashes or seats. I want them clean, but not slimy looking.

Now the steering wheel in another story......:D It stays hot & cold longer!!

[anysia]

regular vacuuming of the seats with a high quality vacuum helps! :thmsup: i didn't like how the black cloth in the coupe attracted every piece of lint, hair, fuzz, but i did figure out how to sweep it out very effectively. i loved feeling like my butt could breathe on those hot & humid days on the cloth versus the sweat/sticky stuck mess on the leather! when i'm wearing pants, it doesn't matter. but shorts/skirts, cloth wins, hands down for me. i always find myself prying my legs off of the leather seats. :lmao: it's like removing a bandaid each time i get out of the car. :lmao:

as far as resale, it seems like the cloth benefits it more... atleast when comparing stevel's 04 ex leather manual trans coupe with less miles and newer when traded than my 04 ex cloth man. trans with more miles, and accident repair crud.... he got 16500 trade in mid-05. i got 14k in late 06. he paid a nice chunk more than me for his car. both traded in at the same dealership even. (and without the accident in the history of mine, i wouldve gotten 14.5k). some of the variance had to do with exterior color too apparently. the sapphire blue is harder to sell than nighthawk black apparently.

[dgs]

I'm guessing many of the current and previous gens owners will stay away from the 08 because of the "large" size. I'm one of them, I think the current gen size is just perfect as-is. Seats are good for tall people (I know, I'm 6' 5"), enough room for the kids, and a huge trunk space. Why did they have to add more to this?!? I already know many accord owners moved to the civic because they find the current gen enough.

Count me in too. I do not like the size and weight increase at all. I personally wish my coupe was a little shorter. Now the coupe is as big as the previous gen sedan, and for what reason? It lost a cubic foot of trunk space, and it lost and an inch of front leg room? So it got bigger and heavier so it could add another 1.5 gallons worth of space for gas? That was pointless. It also got wider by 1.5 inches and again, that was pointless, the current coupe is plenty wide enough. It also looks like the current coupe lost the sporty perforated leather seats and steering wheel, now they are just straight leather from all the pictures I have seen. Perforated leather breathes better, it's not just for show. Plus the current car gets worse gas mileage then the 7th gen. And the big slap in the face is for all of the horsepower and torque increase it has identical performance to the 7th gen six speed coupe.

What do I like about the 8th gen six speed coupe? Well for one it looks a heck of a lot better then the 7th gen. I also like the fact the car finally has an AUX port and plays MP3's. Lastly, I also like that the moonroof in one-touch open/close. I hate having to hold the button on my car. But, besides those things, that's it. If I was in the market for a new car I would look at the 8th gen, but I would get a 7th gen first if they still had one in stock. I don't like big cars, and my coupe is about as big as I ever want to go on a car. Which means by the time I'm ready to buy another car, which won't be for another 10 to 15 years, a Honda Accord probably won't be a viable choice, since God knows how big the car will have gotten by then.

Also, what the hell is a "hypermiler?"

[voltron1011]

Are the seat bottoms big or small? My biggest gripe about car seats (and I'm 6'4") is that seat bottom is usually too short. My leg tends to hang off the short edge, which causes my let to start to cramp... My wife's RAV-4 seats are notorious for this, and if feels like I'm sitting in a booster seat made for a 5 foot person.

[Succinct]

they called it the LX-V6 before..... cloth, no sunroof, etc.
Steve - the (2007) V6 LX had the sunroof, the 17" wheels/tire, and cloth interior. What it lacked was XM, heated seats (with leather), and Homelink.

[stevel]

Steve - the (2007) V6 LX had the sunroof, the 17" wheels/tire, and cloth interior. What it lacked was XM, heated seats (with leather), and Homelink.

didn't they call it an SE V6 at that point?