00:00 Behind me is a 2008 Honda Accord EX. Under hood is an all aluminum, double overhead cam,
00:07 16 valve, inline 4 cylinder that makes 190 horsepower and 162 pound feet of torque. It's
00:16 made it to a 5 speed automatic. The Accord we have here is the EX trim level. That's
00:21 only one down from the top, which would be the EXL with a leather interior. This one
00:25 does have cloth seats, they're nice and sporty. And like most Hondas, it is very well equipped.
00:30 The base price for this model is $23,860 and as tested it's $24,495. So just under $25,000.
00:37 So the Accord is all new for 2008. It's the 8th generation of the line and to be honest,
00:44 the styling is quite polarizing. On our staff in particular, there's several people that
00:48 really don't like the way it looks, while there's a whole other faction that thinks
00:50 it looks pretty good. Some of the complaints are that the headlights bulge too much, there's
00:54 too many of these lines that kind of go nowhere. But the other side of our staff believe that
00:59 this is a look that will remain timeless and actually improve with age. On the inside,
01:04 the Accord is very fresh looking, it's very futuristic. Again, it's also quite polarizing.
01:09 This one in particular is kind of dark, but it does have very nice seats and a lot of
01:13 really nice textures. But to some, the layout is a little bit confusing. It's kind of button
01:18 crazy and there's a number of staffers that were not really pleased with that. On the
01:22 road, the Accord is a pretty nice ride. It's in the minority here in that it features control
01:25 arm suspension, which even though it's a lot larger than previous generation Accords, it
01:29 handles really well. It turns tight, there's not a lot of body roll, it corners flat. It's
01:35 nice in comparison to some of the cars here that feel really big and really heavy. The
01:38 other nice thing about the Accord is how much power it has. At 190 horsepower, it's only
01:43 second to the turbocharged Passat in terms of output. On the road, that means it's very
01:47 quick off the line, the 5-speed automatic shifts very smoothly, although some people
01:51 have a problem with the way the transmission works. This is a 5-speed and you go right
01:55 into D for drive, but when you want to downshift, the gearbox puts you immediately into D3.
02:01 There's no option to go to 4th gear. There's sort of less control than some of the other
02:05 vehicles here that allow you to upshift and downshift by merely moving the lever over.
02:09 At the test track, the 2008 Honda Accord EX went 0-60 in 8.2 seconds and ran the quarter
02:14 mile at 16.3 seconds at 87 mph. It stopped from 0-60 in 130 feet and did the figure 8
02:21 in 28.3 seconds at 0.58 g. The maximum lateral acceleration achieved at the skid pad was
02:34 an average of .083. So overall, the Accord represents a great balance of power and handling.
02:42 It's also good value. There's a lot of standard features here. You don't have to add on a
02:46 lot of extras. It's a nicely loaded vehicle. There are some things we don't like. Again,
02:50 some of our staffers are not really in love with the styling, both on the outside and
02:53 on the inside. I like it. I mean, I don't mind how it looks. I think the interior is
02:57 great. There's a lot of high-quality components in there. It feels good. And even amongst
03:02 our staff, when we bicker about the Accord, we always agree that it definitely is a player
03:06 in the segment and that this vehicle is representative of Honda's years of experience in the game.
03:11 [Music]
03:16 (upbeat music)
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