Faults:

Dry clutch release bearing squeals for a second very occasionally if riding the clutch. Can be greased or replaced (£38) easily if I ever have to replace my clutch.

General Comments:

A great car; the engine is quiet, and when pushed it doesn't sound stressed, but instead you get a lovely performance note from the twin exhaust system.

Performance is excellent, but you must use the right gears. The VTEC engines are well known for not having a huge amount of torque, but you can comfortably take it to the red line at 7,200 RPM thanks to the bullet proof engine. Maximum torque is at 4,500 RPM and the VTEC engages at 6,000 RPM. So if you are doing 60mph, and then drop to 3rd gear, you'll be sitting at 4,500 RPM, allowing you to accelerate very quickly. You will drink fuel doing this, and expect about 270 miles to a tank if driving enthusiastically.

Taking things easy with the odd bit of fun and you'll get 350 miles from a tank local; more if on the motorway all the time. If you are used to a diesel, then don't expect to get loads of pulling power from 2,000 RPM, however you won't run out of power 1,000 RPM later, as with the 2.4 Accord you can take 3rd gear up to about 90mph from 60mph with maximum power.

The handling is excellent, especially on country roads where the stiffer suspension excels. Anti-roll could be improved on slightly in my opinion.

17" wheels can cause a little bit of tramlining, but a quick 4 wheel alignment to the later released tighter specs solves this.

If going for the Accord, make sure you go for the Executive or EX as it comes fully loaded. The 2.4 will always have SatNav and HID lights in this spec. The HID lights are excellent with no dazzle, yet provide very good visibility.

The SatNav is excellent for its age, and the top spec gets you electric everything, and being a Honda the electrics are exceptionally good quality. You get a 6 disc CD changer located in the dash and not in the boot, and the radio antenna is internal.

Comfort: Honda spent a lot of money getting the seats just right, and they've been said to rival and even exceed the likes of SAAB etc. Loads of adjustments possible. However, rear legroom isn't great if the drivers seat is quite far back, but I suspect this is due to the boot being so deep. For a saloon it's huge.

Running costs are not too bad. Honda parts tend to be quite pricey, but you don't often need them. However, I would highly recommend servicing the car yourself or with a trusted local mechanic, as the Main Honda Dealers are terrible up in Scotland. The pollen filter is very easy to change, and is a 30 second job by pushing in the sides of the glove box lid, then literally just pulling out the filter. Yet the main dealers never do it. Terrible service.

There is, however, one rather annoying problem with the Accord 7th Generation. Interior squeaks. Because most things are clipped rather than screwed, you do get the occasional rattle, but they are usually quite easy to eliminate. Road noise is also a little high, but it does allow that lovely exhaust note to be heard!

A great thing about the car is that it looks like an everyday family car. It's good looking, especially with the graphite grey five spoke alloys, but apart from the twin exhausts, it's like a wolf in sheep's clothing, and other drivers don't expect it to take off the way it does. :)

Faults:

I got the car at the end of 2005 with 14,000 miles on it.

It was from the Honda store, and was a new car trade in.

I had become so frustrated with my old car, that I was going to buy a Honda or a Toyota from now on.

My old car was a 2000 Ford Taurus. It had every light glowing on the dash; check engine, ABS, air-bag, brake, etc. The Taurus had never actually broke down till it hit 179,000 miles and the transmission went out. It did have a power window or two go out, a small engine oil leak, bouncing speedometer hand, and the fuel pump made a super loud whine - even with a new fuel filter, so I was done with Ford and went to Honda.

I was going to buy new, but I saw my 2005 and it was almost $10,000 less than the same exact car that was new, and mine was Honda Pre-Owned Certified with triple the factory warranty. I was sold.

The car drove like a dream and everything worked 100% perfect, and they even gave me $2000 for my old Taurus that had to be towed to them in need of a new transmission.

I got the Accord home, and drove it and thought to myself that this car will last me 15 years, and I felt so safe and confident in the car. Finally I have a Honda again. I had an old Accord back in the late 80's with almost 250,000 miles with no real issues. My sister had an 89 Accord with over 350,000 miles before the transmission went, and she never serviced the car on time, ever.

Boy, would time tell a different story.

By 17,000 miles the car would shift kind of hard and jerk real hard. I had moved back to my mom's house as she had just died (60 miles away), so I took the car to the Honda dealer in that town.

To my surprise, they told me that the transmission was replaced at 14,000 miles and that they simply "re-set" the transmission and updated some software, and it would be fine, and it was fine for the next 40,000 miles.

At just under 60,000 miles, I noticed fluid on the driveway. I took it to Honda and they said that the cooling line for the transmission was leaking.

They took it up on the lift, and said that the line was stripped and that it was likely a workmanship issue from the last time the transmission was replaced, and that the Honda warranty wouldn't cover it, because it was specific to the dealership that did the original transmission swap. I told them that if it was put in the car wrong, then why did it not leak for almost 40,000 miles. They said that no one is able to answer questions like that. They put a new transmission line on the car and charged me almost $500 for it, but that included new transmission oil. Remember, this car still had a bumper to bumper premium warranty, but I thought I am getting new transmission oil, and they even changed the engine oil for free.

The transmission would often do very hard shifts and thrash real hard at times during down shifts, and I told Honda of this, and they said that they'd be happy to hook the car up and check for codes. They said that the transmission was fine. My old Honda did the same shifts at times, and that was fine for 250,000-300,000 miles, so I really thought I would be fine.

I had already started to lose confidence in the car by this point. Other small things started to happen as well.

The clock on the radio screen had lost the last digit; you could see like 7:2?, no big deal. The warranty wouldn't cover this, so the minute didn't really matter anyway.

The driver's side window would roll about half way down and get stuck; you had to roll the window up an inch, then back down. Once again, the warranty wouldn't pay and I wasn't going to pay the $600 to fix this until it went all the way out, which it never did go out.

The volume button on the steering wheel popped one day and fell out, and of course not in warranty, and Honda wanted over $1000 to fix this. I said no way.

Some rattles came about in the dash, and the rear seat's floor area on the passenger side started getting a few inches of water in it when we got rain. The door gasket was replaced for $200, but the leak came back. Turns out the seal around the back glass was leaking and the dealership fixed this for free with new caulking, but my car still smells like old mildew.

I went to have the timing belt changed. I have had one break on my old Accord as I was starting the car - so no damage done, and they told me that mine didn't have a timing belt, but a chain that will last the life of the car - I was so happy, this was just like the Taurus. So this is a big plus.

At 72,000 miles the transmission actually clunked out of drive in a parking lot as I was taking off. I took it to Honda and they did some kind of adjustment and put new transmission oil in the car at no charge. They told me that it might of been possible that my leg hit the gear shift, but I knew that I didn't. They also told me that the axle was starting to leak fluid. I told them to go ahead and fix the axle leak if the warranty would cover it. They said that it was covered. They took the axle out and found that a band was missing. They said that the previous dealership must have forgot to put the band on the axle, or it fell off. I said no way, because you guys have been under this car many times with a fine tooth comb, and would have found it.

They then didn't want to pay for the axle, and said that the claim was being denied by people above them due to a possible workmanship issue that caused the failure.

I went above their heads, and after two weeks the regional marketing manager said that he would pay for half of the repair. I paid $300 and he paid $300.

Finally at 91,000 miles, the transmission suddenly starts to grind real loud as I pull into a shopping mall. The car came to a stop and the engine died, and even with the car in Park - it would not allow the engine to start.

Guess what, I just happened to be in my old town and I had the car towed to the original Honda store. That way they'd couldn't play this workmanship issue card again.

The next day they call me and say that the transmission has suffered a catastrophic internal failure, and would need to be replaced.

They said that my Certified warranty was up, and it would be $4500 out of my pocket.

I knew this was a lie, because my warranty was extended to 114,000 miles, or till the Dec. 29, 2012. It was Dec. 11th.

After fighting with them for a few days, I was able to find the paper work proving my warranty was extended from the previous problems that I have had. All that paper work was in the glove box - all they had to do is pull it out and shred it, and I would have been out of luck.

They then said, fine, your warranty is "valid", but now our claims office is requesting service records on the car from day one before they will pay the claim. I told them that I can only get records from 14,000 miles and up, because I didn't own the car from 0-14,000 miles - they said you had better call the previous owners and find out where they had the oil changed, and see if that place can give you a print out. This was offensive to me.

I said you guys should have all that in the computer, they said they have changed systems and some of the records have been lost, and mine were mostly lost.

Well I am a receipt hoarder, so I told them to give me a few days and they said they would be happy to help me in any way that they can, and it is above them, or they would fix it already, and I did believe them.

I was able to find all the service records, and they were submitted. Honda denied the claim because they couldn't find one of the service records, but they couldn't even tell me which record they couldn't find.

After playing phone tag for 3 weeks with a regional manager, my claim was approved and they did put a new transmission in the car.

I had to pay for the new transmission oil, shop fees of $10.00, and a transmission mount was dried and cracked, and they said I could use the old one, or pay $100 for a new one. I paid the $100.

They told me it would be $4500 to fix the transmission. As I signed all the paperwork, I saw where they were submitting a claim for almost $7,000 and I asked about it. They said that they were not able to send my transmission back as a core due to major internal damage to the case, and they had to include a $2500 core charge; sounds crazy high to me.

At 92,000 miles the transmission is jerking again when it is put into drive. The engine is idling low as normal, and when I put it into drive - the car will make a groan for a few seconds and then pop, it goes into D. It has done this 4 times in 2 weeks.

I took it back to Honda, and they are sick of me. They said that the new transmission has to have time to get broke in, and they drove it for me and it "did" it on them as they claim, but it only does this when the car is cold, and they said it is normal.

I have had it with Honda. In my frustrations I have talked with other people I work with, and discovered several people have had Honda transmission problems as well, but mainly on the mini-vans.

I even meet another lady at the dealership that was in the same boat as I was. She was a young mother and didn't have any extra money. My kids were gone and I had just retired and got my mother's estate, so I really couldn't feel the true feeling of helplessness, as the young lady was. I knew I could easily pay for 50 new Accords in cash. That poor girl was really stuck. I offered to help her and she said no. Honda should have been ashamed of themselves. She has a Mini-Van with 104,000 miles and Honda said sorry. She had the van in at 90,000, 95,000, and 99,000 miles, and had documentation of the transmission starting to mess up. They didn't care. Now her transmission was all the way out, and she also said it was the 2nd transmission in the van to go bad.

I am so ashamed of Honda. I really don't know what to say about them. I thought only the domestic car brands behaved like this. The Government needs to fine Honda for all these faulty transmissions; if it was Ford, the Government would have shut them down already.

I took the car and traded it for a new Taurus last week.

I found out that my old 2000 Taurus was fixed with a new torque converter. The people that bought my old car at the Honda auction lost their paper work, and they some how got my number and called me to sign an affidavit so that they could get a title. They said that Tauruses are known to crack torque converters and you can get a new converter for under $100 and put it in for $300.

I know that my new 2013 Taurus has not one part in common with my old Taurus, but I actually had much better luck with my old Taurus, and I bet that thing is still on the road.

I wish they still made new Accords that were copy cats of the 80's cars. They were much better back then.

General Comments:

19 MPG city, 32 highway at 60 mph.

Big trunk for the size of the car.

Fairly peppy engine for such a small engine, but loud.

Lots of interior room for the size of car.

Too many transmission problems with newer Honda vehicles.

Excellent traction in snow.

The car felt well built, and the body was rock solid in spite of the car's low weight.

Really bright head lights.

Almost too much road noise at lower speeds.

Honda's Certified Preowned warranty can be difficult to pay claims.

Pick one dealer and stick with them. Workmanship issues are only warranted at the specific dealer who did the initial work.

Mixed feelings about the reliability of Honda; they were the best cars on the road back in the 80's and 90's, but today I have a severe confidence crisis in Honda's quality.