How Honda beat Mercedes and Cadillac
- Csongor Czezar
- May 3, 2019
- 3 min read
After surfing the waves of the luxury car craziness, and indulge in the mirage of the German and American luxury brands, I found myself sitting in a car I never thought I would buy... Ever!
For years I was vocalizing how only car-ignorant people buy Honda and Toyota, that those are for the masses and individuals who have at least a morsel of excitement about automobiles should stay away.
And here I am, driving a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0T.
So as I mentioned earlier I also signed up for the lure of the "badges", and I bought my 2012 Mercedes SLK 350, which was an awesome car, my personal little rocket ship. It wasn't cheap as the badge indicates it though.
Thankfully Benz usually have favorable leases. Thanks Mercedes!
After that I wanted to go even higher and was eyeing Maserati, M, AMG, V.... If you are a car guy, then you know what those means, if not, well they are at the higher end of the spectrum.
One day I set out on a hunting trip ( for cars), and after a long day ended up in Las Vegas. The next day I pulled the trigger for a 2015 Cadillac CTS V-sport.
Price wise it was similar as the Benz, but man, that car was one of the best handling in its category( Yes, I am looking at you BMW 550, Audi S6, Mercedes E550, Lexus GS ).
Fast forward 2018 I was itchy again for a new car, and kept myself busy of researching every make and model what caught my attention.
Local dealers in the San Francisco Bay Area might have become sick of me for going there all the time.
Naturally I was looking at the usual luxury brands, and was checking out some of the mightiest they offered ( for my pocket of course ). Among these were the Mercedes "fake" AMGs ( the less than 63, 65 ones, cause they have those today), the BMW M40i ( not real M again), and even a KIA Stinger, which was really promising, but the pricing and the KIA lease was disappointing.
Long story short, one day I was reading an article in the MotorTrend about how the new generation of Honda Accord beats the Audi A4 in (!!!) LUXURY. I was amazed of it, and I needed to see it for myself.
It turns out that MotorTrend was not kidding, they did their homework.
As soon as I checked out the new Accord I instantly felt the connection.
Now everybody who knew me said I am a hypocrite, who was preaching against boring cars in the first hand, then ending up with an Accord...a car which is so common that there is barely anyone who wouldn't own one, or at least wouldn't have someone in their family who owns or did own before, heck in the worst case you know someone who drives an Accord.
I will explain my decision because people needs to know. The car is Awesome!
The interior pleasing you with the size first of all. It is huge! The legroom in the Accord is larger than the Mercedes E Class, and front legroom is the same as the S Class, only loosing in the rear legroom versus the Mercedes flagship, but hey, they are not even in the same size categories. The ergonomics are very good. All the buttons are intuitively placed. The infotainment system beats many luxury brands out of the water. The build materials are decent.
The engine is otherworldly. I came off a V6 twin Turbo 420 hp one, and into this 4 cylinder 252hp engine.
You know what? The Cadillac put down a 4.4s 0-60 acceleration, while this one can attain a 5.5s . And the way how it feels from inside makes you thinking that they are similarly fast. In Sport mode.
Another thing that worth mentioning is that Honda offers a full array of autonomity at base(!) level. That means adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, automatic emergency brake system, etc... And it is doing a much better job than many other brands I tried. I loved it that on my long trips from SF to LA I just turned these settings on, and I barely had to touch the pedals or the steering wheel. It really makes a difference.
Should I even talk about the consumption, on how the 4 cylinder compares against the 6 or 8 bangers?
Toyota choose to keep the 6 cylinder in its Camry, but this Accord smoke it with its smaller engine, and less horsepower.
Finally, when you talk about the finances, does it feel good to spend in the 30s instead of the high 60s or above as I did before?
Driving this car in a fuel sipping ECO mode or in a really peppy SPORT mode, it does put a smile on my face every day.
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