Also, the Accord’s electronics are gallingly slow considering that its
technology is hardly groundbreaking. As you spin and push the Honda’s
super-knob to program the nav, the on-screen cursor alternately pauses
and then skips wildly as the processor struggles to keep up with your
inputs. Entering an address or syncing a Bluetooth phone is an exercise
in target shooting. True, you can use the smaller touch screen to enter
addresses directly using a virtual keyboard, which is that screen’s only
really useful function. But history will record that profit-laden $2000
factory nav systems were killed off by $200 smartphones, and Honda was
happy to help.
With the coupe, Honda shows its strengths in other ways. If rear
passengers are in the party, the back seats welcome them with an
easy-slide front-seat release and a deep, supportive scalloping to the
bench foam. Honda is not known for wasting millimeters, and in the
coupe, a six-footer can sit behind a six-footer without a squeeze. The
rear seatbacks also fold as one via a release in the trunk, so longer
items need not be left at the curb. Aside from the electronics, the only
serious design dribble is with the cutout for the door grab handle,
which is placed right where the driver’s left elbow wants to perch.
Honda’s signature red start button lights the 3.5-liter V-6. It rasps
with a voice sharpened to penetrate the cabin. Note the elevated sound
levels in the specs, especially the 83-dBA full-throttle reading. Not
that we’re complaining. Stand on it, and this Honda sounds like a Honda,
built around a precision engine with its power in the penthouse and one
brisk elevator going up.
It attains the 60-mph mark in a snappy 5.5 seconds. Nothing over five
seconds is stunning these days, but it puts the coupe nearly even with a G37
and it whomps the Genesis and Audi A5 2.0T. The all-season Michelins
mean that other performance indexes, such as the 0.86-g skidpad and the
169-foot braking, are less noteworthy and more aligned with the coupe’s
genetic lineage.
On the road, however, the Accord coupe feels as tightly wound as a
sapper poking a land mine. The throttle is on a short fuse and the
transmission is always primed and ready. It doesn’t wait to see if
you’re serious before kicking down a couple of ratios. The
light-but-tense steering responds right now, with a no-nonsense
alertness. Slight tugs of wheel feedback hint at the hard work being
done by the tires. The brakes have a deep reserve of capability and
enough shading in their operation to set up a corner perfectly. Here is
yet another Honda that proves front-drive cars can handle.
Parts of this highly caffeinated coupe are a little too amped for the
car’s own good, though. The suspension is just plain harsh, causing
obnoxious head-toss where it should just be lightly thumping and
bumping. And the transmission sometimes feels too eager, too rough,
banging home the next gear unnecessarily or throwing a ragged downshift
at you when you’re just coasting up to a light.
It’s a strange machine, then, and hard to pigeonhole. Closer to its
$24,140 four-cylinder-equipped base price, it makes more sense as a
larger, steadfastly adult alternative to the Scion FR-S
and similar. But at this price, its elegant but utilitarian interior
and the tattle-tale squirm of the disproportionately heavy front end
under acceleration never let you forget that it’s just the market’s best
mainstream family taxi minus two doors. But it is also fast and edgy,
at times a can of Red Bull on radials. It generates the performance
stats of more-expensive cars, but without the brand cachet or the
credibility of rear-wheel drive, a fact that will undoubtedly send some
potential buyers walking.
It is, in short, a car that defies assumptions even as it defies extinction.
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