The Accord

I'm on a picture frenzy. Here are some pictures of my new car, a 2005 Honda Accord EX.

New kid on the block





I get more comments on the tag than anything.















Showing off the rear





Interior















Center console looking nice and clean















Instrument panel





Speedo





Tachometer





Rear seats





Sunroof!





The rims





Pen-stripe with the Honda badge

I'm really enjoying the new ride. It's great. It rides and handles like a dream. Irma handled and rode really well, even for an old car, but the Accord is in another league. It's power everything and it's the EX trim so it's leather and all the other options (heated seats, sunroof, XM radio built in, steering wheel controls, etc). It almost feels too nice for me to drive. It has been kept up really well and it has low miles so I'm sure I'll be keeping this car for a while. It's so nice Christi would choose to drive the Accord over the 4Runner, and that's saying something because she LOVES her 4Runner.


The paint is really nice, too. You may remember me saying I couldn't figure out if it was dark blue or black. Well, if you see the pictures, you're thinking - "What is he, color blind? It's obviously black." If I hadn't seen it in person I would be saying the same thing. When the light hits it, you can see blue flakes in the paint job. I tried to take a picture of it but it didn't turn out. For a minute I thought I was going crazy, but I looked up the color and it's supposed to have a blue tinted shine in sunlight. Turns out, the color is called Nighthawk Black Pearl; it's a black with blue flakes in the paint. Pretty cool. Sorry I don't have a good picture of it. Come over on a sunny day and appreciate the sparkle.


I was going to try write what my favorite part of the car was, but I couldn't narrow it down to one specific thing. The stereo system is really nice because it has the premium sound package, but I also really like the instrument cluster and the colors the chose for it. It's very easy to read, almost soothing, but at the same time it's not distracting or causing you to look away from the road. The driving experience is also very good. It's designed so that you can't see the hood or nose of the car, which gives you maximum road viewing space when driving. At first I wasn't sure if I liked that because parking was tricky the first time, but after riding in it for a few days I love it. It's makes seeing the road very easy day or night and cornering easy as well once you learn where your wheels are.


Despite being only a 4-cylinder, it has some power. It's a DOHC VTEC engine (double overhead camshaft with variable valve timing and lift control) so it can get up and go when asked. Basically, it has 2 camshafts controlling the pistons. One low-RPM style made for normal city and highway driving and most importantly - fuel economy. The other is a high-RPM style camshaft designed for power output. What does that all mean? Well, when you are driving normally, VTEC controls the car with the low power shaft and you get great gas mileage. When you need to go fast to pass someone quickly, show that annoying car who is boss, or whatever - that's where the other camshaft comes into play. VTEC kicks in and the power is there when needed. I've driven other VTEC cars before, but this one really has more kick to it. Maybe it's because the Accord has a very calm and quiet setup in it's low power mode that it's surprising to get thrown back in the seat when you punch the gas. It stays in high-VTEC mode until you let fully off the gas and I can tell you that you won't have to wait long to do that because once it's ready to go - it goes. This is an advantage over cars with bigger engines because it allows you to get 4-cylinder gas mileage but have some power when needed. Now, of course it's not going to beat a Corvette, Mustang GT, BMW M3, or anything like that so don't think I'm saying that. Just letting you know it can go despite being a 4-banger. There's also a V6 variant, but I wanted a 4-cylinder because of gas mileage and reliability - Honda's 4 cylinders are legendary for that. Now you've had your engine lesson of the day.


All in all, I'm very happy with my car. It has everything I could ever need in a car and some things I didn't know I needed! We're trying so find a name for the car so leave suggestions in the comments! Thanks for reading