A Honda Accord Tourer from 2004 with 300,000 kilometers on the clock. That will certainly be a problem-free large car. Add a few other tires and you’ll enjoy it for a long time to come.
Martin Pakvis was fed up with the high oil consumption of his Ford Focus C-Max and started looking for an alternative. At the same time, the family was in the middle of a move and a renovation, so budgetary priorities were other matters. The search for affordable, reliable, spacious and yet fun transport resulted in a Honda Accord Tourer. That turns out to be a golden opportunity.
Not a drop of oil
The oil topping came to an abrupt end with the purchase of the Accord. Not a drop was needed over the past seven years. “I studied the reliability of cars very carefully beforehand. Of course I already knew that you almost always end up with a Japanese person. A Honda wasn’t immediately on the list, but when I saw this Accord, my interest was piqued. Not an everyday model, lots of luggage space and it was cheap. The history was not there, so in that respect it was a gamble. But it looked good, we didn’t discover anything strange during the test drive and everything I need is there. Even an electric tailgate, I didn’t expect that.”
Martin and his wife do not need the car for work. That is why less than a hundred thousand kilometers have been added in all these years. The Accord only serves during leisure time. “We usually go to Italy twice a year, in summer and winter. And I often go cycling with friends, somewhere in the Netherlands.” The highest maintenance costs were in the first year. “The air conditioning gave up the ghost, which is not surprising for a car that was fourteen years old at the time. The compressor and evaporator have been replaced and since then we have been nice and cool again in the summer.”
Enjoy VTEC
We are talking about the seventh generation of the Accord. It sells very well, especially in the United States, with up to almost 400,000 units per year. In the Netherlands, this Japanese middle class was still quite popular in the 80s and 90s, but after that interest decreased rapidly. Even in 2003, the first full year of sales of generation seven, the counter stopped at 687 units. Honda has a reputation for being quite expensive. But if we look at the competition, it’s not that bad. To be honest, we would rather place the Accord next to an Audi A4 or BMW 3-series and for the thirty grand that the Accord Tourer cost you got a sparsely decorated entry-level model. Martin paid only one-tenth of the new price. “To be honest, I would have preferred the 2.4, the two-liter is a bit lazy at the bottom. The best part is to rev it above four thousand rpm, then the VTEC becomes active and it is suddenly a completely different engine. It sounds different and continues to deliver power. So it’s not that I lack power, it’s just a speeding engine.”
The only thing Martin regrets is the all-season tires. “That is mainly due to the noise they started making. I’m about to have them taken off, although the profile is still good. If the inspection shows that I can continue driving for a few more years, I will have new tires put on it.”
Accord all-season tires make noise
The noise of the all-season rubber indeed borders on the unbearable, we hear from judge Tim de Leeuw, who even while queuing at a traffic light sees that the rear tires of the car in front of him are cupped. “Yes, that’s a healthy tic. I even have it when I walk past parked cars. The tire noise in the Honda is very irritating, I wouldn’t last a day with it. Too bad, because otherwise it steers well and that engine is a gem.” The Accord owes its good road holding to its so-called double wishbone suspension. “He steers really well. You notice that it sticks to the road in bends,” confirms Martin.
At the bottom, the dry drivetrain is noticeable. Nevertheless, Tim encounters some rust. The fact that work has been done to combat this can be seen from the greasy-looking layer on the bottom and the subframes. The motto is to keep a close eye. The exhaust has been there since day one and that is a great achievement. Martin applied a layer of red paint to the brake calipers himself, it has been there for years. “I have to keep a close eye on the rust, including at the rear wheel arch edges. Furthermore, it is still a good car, I understand from Tim. Then I have a little longer time to save for a successor. Maybe a Honda CR-V, but a Lexus RX also seems like something to me. First let’s dot the i’s for the Honda.”
What’s wrong with the Honda Accord?
- Front left lock does not work with the central locking
- A lot of tire noise can be heard while driving
- The steering wheel is to the left and the car pulls to the right when driving straight ahead
- Front and rear wiper blades are worn
- Car shakes when braking at speed
- The paint is dull on the front right and there is a new (imitation) headlight. The front left headlight has already been polished once
- Right front mirror is cracked
- License plate lights do not work
- Battery is too large, causing parts around the battery to no longer fit properly. The cables to the battery terminals also do not run properly and touch the battery
- Right rear seat belt does not roll up properly
- Power steering hose front right sweats oil
- Power steering line (high pressure) to the right of the engine has been repaired with unsuitable hose that is now swelling
- Rust on subframe, radiator beam, sills, filler neck of the tank
- Front control arm rubbers have drought cracks
- Longitudinal arm rubbers of the rear suspension come loose from the bushing
- Heat shield of the catalytic converter is missing, other exhaust bolts are extensively rusted and the protection of the flexible part is damaged
- Cooling hose at the bottom of the radiator leaks minimally
- A bolt is missing from the right driveshaft support
- Drive shaft on the right shows play
- Tires have clearance, considerable cupping, are of poor quality and have less than 3 millimeters of tread at the rear
- Rust in the rear wheel arch edges
The opinion of Techzle team
“A car that looks nice and clean and could have driven very well. Unfortunately, the bad tires and alignment really spoil the driving experience. If you can put that aside, the rest is actually pretty good. No rattling, cracking or other abnormalities, apart from a vibration during braking and a set of worn windshield wipers. At the bottom a typical Honda story, a nice dry drivetrain surrounded by the necessary rust. All in all worth a thumb, with good tires it would have been two.”