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Owner Survey: 2003-2004 Honda Accord
So-so styling can’t hide the strengths of this best-seller.
This could be a first. We’ve been asking Road & Track readers to share experiences with their cars for more than three decades. And we can’t recall when our Owner Survey respondents didn’t put styling among their cars’ strong points. But with regard to Honda’s 2003–2005 Accord, styling somehow missed the list of the owner’s favorite features.
Indeed, it’s not just that these Honda owners were indifferent to the look of their cars; many actually disliked it. The owners placed “exterior styling” second on their list of the Accord’s five worst attributes — yet another first.
The most positive comment the owners could muster came from a San Franciscan who wrote, “We were going to buy a Camry, but the Accord won us over with its less boring styling.”
Not exactly a rousing endorsement of the Accord’s looks.
Ever since 1927, when General Motors revolutionized the automotive industry by establishing the GM Art and Color Section, it’s been the common wisdom that styling sells cars. “Styling puts punch into modern merchandizing. It is the subtle stuff of sales leadership,” said GM design guru Harley Earl.
Yet despite the car’s lackluster looks, buyers snap up Accords. The Honda continues to rank second among the best-selling passenger cars in the land, just as it has for the better part of a decade.
So does the Accord represent something of a paradigm shift? Probably not. There’s still no overestimating the emotional pull of beautiful styling when it comes to enticing car buyers. But the Accord’s many practical strengths — reliability, performance, value — simply trump styling, say our readers.
Which leads us to muse about what might happen should Honda ever add knock-out style to the list of Accord attributes. The company would likely rule the automotive world.
The subject of this Owner Survey is the seventh-generation Accord, which came to market when Honda performed a major makeover of the car for model year 2003. Styling of the Accord sedan was, as we said at the time, “cautiously evolutionary.” The Accord coupe’s design was a little more daring, as it borrowed cues from the S2000 roadster. Both the sedan and coupe remain essentially the same to this day, though for 2006, Honda gave them subtle facelifts — notably, new front and rear bumpers and restyled wheels.
Of the 300 Accords in this Owner Survey — one of the largest sample sizes we’ve ever had — about two-thirds of the cars were 2003 models and the remaining third were 2004 models. There were just a handful of 2005 editions. As always in our Owner Surveys, we asked the respondents to fill out our questionnaire only if they had purchased their car when new and had driven it a minimum of 10,000 miles. The vast majority — 78 percent — of the Hondas had accumulated between 10,000 and 30,000 miles.
Twenty-seven percent of the cars surveyed were coupes, and the remainder were sedans. Only 16 percent of the owners selected a manual transmission; the majority drove with Honda’s smooth-shifting 5-speed auto- matic. Both the sedan and coupe were available with either a fuel-miserly 160-bhp inline-4 or, for more performance-inclined buyers, a 240-bhp V-6; our readers split 60 percent/40 percent in favor of the V-6.
With regard to the hot topic of fuel economy in this age of expensive gasoline, we didn’t break out the survey results by engine. But 45 percent of all the owners reported finding their cars’ average fuel economy ranged between 21 and 25 mpg, while 40 percent reported economy between 26 and 30 mpg. We’d presume the 4-cylinder cars generally achieved the better fuel economy.
To say that our Honda owners were generally satisfied with their Accords is an understatement. Many — maybe even most — were downright ecstatic about their cars, judging by their written comments. From Columbus, Ohio: “I’ve owned 22 cars over the past 36 years, including many prestigious European marques. But this is the best car I have owned.”
From Gastonia, North Carolina: “This is the best car I have owned. It’s reliable, inexpensive and semi-sporty. Good fuel economy and excellent crash-test scores don’t hurt either.”
And from Great Falls, Montana: “My 2004 Honda Accord is a fantastic car that exceeds expectations in all areas.”
When we asked the owners to name the five most important reasons that led them to buy an Accord, they named reliability/durability, good value/price, performance/acceleration, and engineering, as well as previous experience with same make/model. It seems more than a few of the survey respondents were longtime Honda loyalists.
An owner from Petersburg, Illinois, wrote, “This is my sixth Honda. There’s nothing like them for the money. In 500,000 miles of driving, I only have purchased a thermostat!”
Another Accord owner, from Long Island, New York, said, “My wife and I have owned seven Accords since 1982. They have all been pretty near perfect.”
Although performance/acceleration ranked third on the list of reasons to buy, we noted that it became the survey respondents’ number-one favorite feature after they’d owned their Accords for a while, even surpassing Honda’s renowned reliability. Not surprisingly, V-6 coupe owners were among the most enthusiastic:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/i...1631119526.jpg “The car has all the virtues of the prior Accords my family has owned, plus the fun of rowing the 6-speed stick and enough power to get the drop on unsuspecting hot rods,” wrote a coupe owner from Jacksonville, Florida. “I have six cylinders and six speeds. It’s quick and nimble, yet luxurious and comfortable — the perfect middle-age man’s sports car,” wrote a Canadian coupe owner from Burlington, Ontario.
When it came to complaints about their cars, many of the Accord owners found themselves hard-put to name five. “I’m stretching to find five things I dislike about the car,” wrote an owner from Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s sort of like picking the five worst attributes of chocolate.”
And from Baltimore, Maryland, an owner wrote, “If I sat here for five days, I could not think of five worst attributes.”
Indeed, none of the items on our survey form’s checklist gathered very many checks. The top “worst” attribute received just 81 votes out of 300, and it was a fairly innocuous matter: warranty. Evidently, the Accord owners feel that Honda should match certain Korean automakers who offer lengthy warranties, especially for their vehicles’ powertrains. As of 2006, Honda did increase its powertrain warranty, to 5 years/60,000 miles, though its bumper-to-bumper warranty remains 3 years/36,000 miles. “With a product this good, why not offer a longer warranty?” asked a Cumberland, Rhode Island, owner.
Other disliked items: lack of quietness, trunk size, seat comfort, dealer service/parts availability and, of course, styling. But none of these items was checked off on our questionnaire by more than 25 percent of the owners. We can’t explain why dealer service showed up on the gripe list. When we specifically asked the owners to rate Honda dealer service, 85 percent said it was either good or excellent. Among our more recent surveys, the Honda dealers rated higher than Porsche dealers (82 percent from Boxster owners), Mazda dealers (81 percent from Miata owners) and Audi dealers (79 percent from A4 owners).
Moreover, only 15 percent of the Accord owners had to leave their car at the dealer for more than a day because a necessary repair part wasn’t on hand. That’s very low as our surveys go. For instance, 33 percent of Mercedes-Benz E-Class owners, 32 percent of Corvette owners and 27 percent of Boxster owners reported that they waited more than a day for parts
Most of the Accord owners remained relative strangers to their dealers’ service bays. We asked the owners if they had to take their cars into the dealer’s shop for repairs — not just routine service — during the first 10,000 miles, and only 36 percent said yes. This is an excellent score as our surveys go, on par with the responses from Toyota Camry owners (35 percent) and Acura NSX owners (28 percent), cars that rated among the best on this question.
But Accords did have some issues — though we’d say they’re more in the category of annoyances than serious problems. The Hondas had a total of six problem areas, which is considerably fewer than the average for our surveys; in all of our Owner Surveys since 1975, the typical car has had 10 problem areas. Three of the problems areas concerned assembly quality, trim or body integrity. Several owners mentioned squeaks and rattles. And two of the problem areas involved brakes — Accords seem to eat up brake pads and rotors at an unusually high rate, according to our survey.
Although quite a few owners checked off “transmission” on our questionnaire, we didn’t count it as a problem area because none of the owners indicated that their transmission actually failed. As a preventative measure and at no cost to the owners, Honda recalled 2003 and 2004 Accords with automatic transmissions to modify the oil cooler return line. (Another important recall involved airbags on 2004 and 2005 Accords.)
“Would you buy another of the same make?” is perhaps the most important question of our survey. The positive response to this question averages 78 percent over all of our surveys since 1975. With 83 percent of the Accord owners saying they’d buy another, the Honda scored well.
As an owner from Freehold, New Jersey, wrote: “The Accord goes about its business with a quiet confidence and polish that belies its reasonable price. It’s a terrific car that I would certainly recommend.”
