Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on the forum, and I would just like to share some of my thoughts after driving the car for about 8k km and also get the opinion of other accord owners. As the title says, it is the 2019 Touring 2.0t, pearl white with the tan interior, and the car is a lease. I feel like most reviewers do not mention the things I describe here so I hope this post helps people that are planning on buying one.
First, I would like to say that I think this car is one of the best values in the market right now and I really enjoy most of its features, power, handling, and aesthetics. However, a few things are bothering me since I got the car, and I am not sure if it is me or the car. The only thing I know is that I did not have some of these issues with any other car I had before. I also drive different cars from work and never experienced any of the problems I am about to describe.
So the main issue for me is the driving position and seat comfort. For reference, I am skinny, 1.82m height and weight about 76kg with long legs and a shorter torso. For some reason, I just can't find a position that I don't feel pain in my lower back, outside thighs, butt chicks, and left knee. I find the seat cushion too hard. It feels like I am sitting on a hard surface, especially so on the left side. Maybe it has something to do with the ventilated seats? The seat also feels strangely narrow for such a big car. I feel like my left thigh is sitting on top of the seat bolster which seems too high. That creates a terrible pressure point, which makes me want to move my left leg constantly. It does not help the fact that the footrest is on a strange angle/position and is not big enough for my foot. Besides being narrow, the seat is also too far from the left armrest to allow for keeping the hand on the wheel while resting the arm. Moving on, the lumbar support feels strange for some reason and seems to "deflate" after some time. Not sure if that is really happening or not, but I find myself having to adjust it constantly. As I mentioned, I have long legs, and that means I need to push the seat almost to the back, but when I do that, the steering wheel gets too far to reach comfortably. The depth range of movement of the steering wheel is abysmal, and for that reason, I can never find a proper seat adjustment. I have to choose between sitting closer and having my knees bent too much to the point of causing pain or sitting farther back and having to reach for the steering wheel with my arms almost fully extended, which after some time, can cause fatigue. Still, on the topic of the steering wheel, does anybody else feel like it is too hard? The palm of my hands gets sore after some time driving. Because of all that, I can never feel comfortable when driving the car, and that is really disappointing. I feel like I have to keep moving to relieve pressure points and pain across my body. It just doesn't feel right. And before anyone say it, I did a test drive the car before I bought it, but in the short time that I drove it, I was too busy having fun with the powerful engine and did not notice the seat comfort.
Other smaller issues and complaints I have:
- Android Auto and Google Maps cannot start navigation and always gives an error message. You can find more about it, searching on Google.
he Bluetooth connection is a bit unreliable, but I am not sure if it is the car or my Pixel 3 XL. I just know that sometimes I have to turn off the car, right after having turned it on, because the phone does not connect. I think the problem is the car because I tried rebooting the phone, and that does not fix the problem. Only turning the car off and on again fixes it.
- The ventilated seat is a hit or miss. Sometimes I feel like it is doing something, and other times is just making noise. Waiting for the ac to cool down the cabin before turning it on, definitely makes a difference and I couldn't figure out if the seat ventilation turns on when you turn the car on remotely.
- The cup holders are too big and do not keep taller bottles and cups securely in place.
- This one does not bother me too much but I did notice panel gaps outside that are too wide for my taste. My front doors do not align flush with the back doors. The front hood also does not align properly. But like I said, these things don't bother me as much but they are noticeable.
- Now, this next one maybe somebody could test and let me know. When using the lane keep assist, the system does not handle curves to the right as well as it does to the left. I had a 2017 Civic before that had the same behaviour. I am not sure if there is a reason for that or if it needs calibration but it is something that I noticed.
- The armrest padding could be better. It seems the trend with this car is that every surface that you touch is hard.
- The subwoofer rattles. It was a known issue with the Civic and it is with this car. I tried a few things but can't get rid of it completely so I end up avoiding some songs. But overall I don't find the system that bad. It could definitely be better if the subwoofer was placed somewhere else.
- The automatic gearbox is not the smoothest. People say it gets better the more you drive it so let's see. But you can definitely feel it from second to third or the other way around in some situations. It does not happen all the time though.
- The infotainment crashes from time to time. It can be annoying if you are using navigation. The screen turns black and the system reboots. I tried checking for updates over the air but didn't find any.
- No sensor in the back doors is a bit of a hassle.
- No mirror adjustment memory linked with the seats.
- No height adjustment for the passenger seat.
- It is hard to keep the phone in the right place when using the wireless charger. The surface area is too wide but the actual spot where it charges is way narrower and there is nothing to keep it in place. The phone can also get very hot and stop charging.
- The car has too much power to be front-wheel drive only. It is easy to spin the front tires under stronger acceleration. An all-wheel-drive system would make it way better.
Now the pros:
- The car is quick and the handling is very good. I actually like the pumped in engine noise. It makes the car feel sportier. Too bad I can almost never use all of its power. The traffic and roads here in Toronto are not the best.
- The heated seats and steering wheel have worked very well so far but the winter hasn't really started yet so we will see.
- I love Honda sensing and I think it works pretty well. It is definitely an improvement over the system in the 2017 Civic that I had. ACC works way better than in the Civic. Some people complain about the automatic emergency breaking being too sensitive but I didn't have any issues with that.
- The automatic dual-zone climate control is awesome.
- The steering wheel design is one of the best and I love the easy to use controls.
- I love the remote control and walk away to lock features. Although the walk away to lock can get in the way when filling up the gas. If you wait too long the car locks and you can't open the fuel door so you have to touch the handle again or use the remote.
- The LED headlights and fog lights are amazing.
- The trunk is huge and the space for passengers in the back seats is great.
- Having two keys linked to the different memory seats presets is very cool.
- The head-up display is big and shows lots of information. I just wish it also showed the blind spot alert. I think some new Hyundai/Kia products include that.
- Road noise is very acceptable when driving on good asphalt. Over rough pavement, it can get noisy though. I am not sure how much the noise canceling is actually blocking and how much is just the insulation.
- The buttons and knobs feel nice and clicky and are well labeled and organized throughout the cabin.
- I love how the climate control lowers the fan speed when using voice commands. I am not sure if other cars also do that.
- The rain-sensing wipers are better than what I had on the Civic, but there is room for improvement. Sometimes they take too long to wipe or to detect the rain even in the highest setting.
- The honda link app worked fairly well while I had the trial activated. I just wish we could link it to a Google home so we could start the car with a voice command.
- I get lots of compliments!
I think I got everything but if somebody has any questions about the car please feel free to ask. And please let me know what you think about the seats and driving position. I know everybody is different but maybe somebody feels the same way I do.
Thank you!
