120,000 Hondas!

Yesterday the Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour came east both physically and figuratively. But first a couple of house cleaning issues.

1) Yesterday I mentioned the Red Sox were 2 and 10 after their win, but they were actually 3 and 10. After today’s 8 to 1 win over Toronto they still have the worst record in baseball at 4 – 10, but jumped to second to last in run differential.

2) Somewhere near Riverwatch Parkway and I-20 on the way home from Augusta yesterday the Emperor eased past the 120,000 mile mark. That is an average of 1.85 miles for every hour we’ve owned it.

Our last car test drive event was over in Augusta and consisted of all Korean cars, yesterday we stayed closer to home and shopped Japanese at Honda Cars of Aiken. And while there actually were only 106 new Hondas on the lot, it seemed like there were 120,000 to choose from. As we walked through the showroom door we were instantly greeted by someone and we said we were there to test drive a couple cars. He said he was a manager of some sort and he would get us a salesman. True to his word, within seconds, Brad arrived and asked what were we interested in. We wanted to drive a Civic Coupe and an Accord Coupe. Brad asked what color and we told him it didn’t matter as long as it was a base LX model, but when we buy one it’ll be blue. He came back in less than five minutes with a dealer plate and a key (we like this experience better already.)

First up was a Civic in Royal Blue Pearl. This is the smaller car and the equivalent to Hyundai’s Elantra and while not nearly as swoopy in styling it is still a nice looking car. We are both instantly 100% more comfortable in it than the Elantra. Right legroom for me as the driver is acceptable, but the left leg is stopped short by the dead pedal (which should be easliy remedied by just taking it out.) There is a large digital speedometer above and forward (almost a HUD) of the large tach and other gauges, interesting and slightly quirky. We start our drive and I take a turn off US1 towards Graniteville and at the stop sign I ask what is considered a reasonable test drive. Brad replies from the back, “Whatever you want.” I briefly consider a left turn up Chalk Bed Rd, but Donna says we need to cross some railroad tracks (a convertible’s nemesis), so I take a right and drive through “downtown” Graniteville. This is a great test because along with those railroad tracks there is one section of road that probably started life as concrete sections, like those found on some interstates, so we got to drive over all those seams, cluh-thunk, cluh-thunk, clu-thunk. Each transition is felt and heard in the car, not as rough as a Miata, but definitely inexpensive, small car-like. Overall we both like the car, it is small, but really the right size for us. Donna is almost sold, but I have a couple of reservations. Including the very lame, “They are too common.” On any given day, there are probably 150 cars in our company parking lot and 3 or 4 recent vintage Civic Coupes and at least twice as many as that of Civic Sedans.

Next up we drive an Alabaster Silver Metallic Accord Coupe. For a car that appears to dwarf the Civic, the interior room in the front of the Accord feels exactly the same size as the Civic (and the numbers bear it out.) The dash is more my old school liking in that there are a two large circular analog gauges (tach & speedo) surrounded by a temp and fuel gauge with an odometer in the middle bottom. The extra 600 pounds of this car make drive through bumpy Graniteville much smoother and quieter, more what I was looking for in a new car. That extra 600 pounds of the Accord over the Civic is almost exactly offset by the 50 extra horsepower it has, so the seat of the pants acceleration feel is about the same. Neither is probably much quicker than the Miata in a straight line, but there is not the same sense of speed as in the open topped car (which is both good and bad.) When we get back to the dealer I pull it along side the previously driven Civic. Donna jumps in the driver’s seat of each car for crucial short driver test. Amazingly she feels she has a better sense of the knowing where the front of the larger Accord is compared to the Civic. We look inside at each trunk and just like in the interior, there doesn’t appear to be any more room in the Accord’s than the Civic and the Civic’s is shaped better. We both like this car too, me more than Donna.

We thank Brad profusely and take home a Civic and an Accord brochure along with two of his business cards, one for me to call if we decide on the Accord and one for Donna to call if we opt for the Civic.

It is a tough call between the two. We both like the looks of the Civic better and the Civic’s blue is nicer shade too. The Civic is the right size car and really all we need. As a plus it is $5k less in price, but to me it rides much choppier and noisier, sort of like it is $5k less. Now, comparing the Accord Coupe to the Genesis Coupe, is where the whole thing falls apart. The Hyundai is about the same size car, but doesn’t look as bloated. The Genesis is a rear wheel drive with 210 HP and because it is turbo charged, a much flatter torque curve with the peak appearing at half the RPM of the Accord. The Genesis Coupe is a sports car and the Accord Coupe is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.