Shed Of The Week: Honda Accord Coupe

A return to the Japanese luxobarge for Shed with a largely forgotten Honda

Mrs Shed likes to go out for the occasional Welsh driving tour. One of these days, Shed might pluck up the courage to go with her, starting off perhaps with a quick spin through the Cardigan area before going on to Bangor in the back of the car.*

If he ever does muster up the chutzpah for such an endeavour, Shed will be on the lookout for a suitable vehicle in which to carry it out. And given that Mrs Shed is partial to a spot of luxury in her life, in keeping with her sophisticated upbringing on the pig farm, Shed is thinking that a Honda Coupe might be just the ticket.

'Well maintained and boringly reliable' says vendor

These days, luxury wouldn't be the first thing you'd associate with Honda. In fact it's hard to associate anything with Honda just now. The shocking stagnation of Honda's UK range, compounded by the ludicrously drawn-out, excitement-killing wait for the Civic Type R, has left the marque utterly bereft of interest. Only some sort of counter-culture terrorist revelling in the prospect of an apocalyptic end to the motor industry would have wanted to be a Honda dealer over the last several years.

The one good thing you can say about a car company with all the corporate vigour of a tin of Tanzanian treacle is that there is a reassuring consistency about the model range. (Nerd factoid sidebar: in Japan, the Accord went by the name of Vigor.) The Accord you can buy now, if you were mad, looks just like the one you could have bought in 2003.

A bewildering explosion of separate models for the US, Euro and domestic markets makes it difficult to work out exactly which generation Accord (fifth or sixth) this '98 Coupe belonged to. What we do know is that the Accord Coupe has been around since the second-gen Accord kicked off nearly 35 years ago. We also know that in the US at least you can still buy a Coupe version of the ninth-gen Accord. That one is powered by a 278hp 3.5-litre V6, looks quite good, and supposedly does the 60 dash in five and a half seconds, despite only having one cam under each cover.

That's a chunky 'knob

Mechanically speaking, our '98 Coupe de Shed is not altogether unrelated to the current car in that it too has an SOHC V6 lump, albeit a rather more leezure-orientated one chugging out a stately 200hp. The massive gear-log (gearstick doesn't seem adequate somehow) controls a four-speed slushbox. Hang onto the gears if you must: your reward will be an effortful eight-second 0-60. Far better though to leave it in D and let all your cares melt away into those squishy leather seats, to join whatever else has melted into them over the last 17 years.

Seriously, is this a worthwhile alternative to the Lexus LS, or GS if you want to be uber-spec-picky? Well, it's got much of the Lexus's waftability, most of the 20th century toys you would want, and it's certainly more stylish. Plus, you'll be avoiding the risk of expensive Lexus suspension work. Hondas are super-reliable, as we know, and the J-series engine is a hardy unit, but the V6 Coupe does have a few foibles of its own. Not many, just a few.

Want to waft? Just the thing!

Not so worrying niggles include bad wheel bearings, warped front discs, worn-out ignition switches, intermittent door locking issues and head gasket/manifold leaks. You will need to keep an eye on the cambelt driving those single cams too. It's an interference type. The original belt only needs changing every 100K miles, so you'd like to think it's already been done on this 132K-miler, but owners happy with the boring reliability of Hondas have been known to 'push it', so it might still be the OEM item in there.

If they're the not so worrying niggles, what's the worrying one? One clue can be found elsewhere in the PH classifieds, namely here.

Looks good, right? Until you get to that mention of 'heavy kickdown'. V6 trannies are a bit suspect. Black oil or a big clunk when engaging reverse is a sign of a box on its way out. Of course, a clunk could also mean that you forgot to put your foot on the brake and have crashed. Don't worry though: out of sight, out of mind. That's Shed's motto.

*Joke shamelessly stolen from I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Here's the ad.

Well maintained and boringly reliable 3.0iV6 Accord coupe. Fitted with Heated Leather (electric drivers adjust) , Climate, Cruise, electric pan / tilt sunroof, heated mirrors, etc,etc,.
Ultra reliable and in great condition, two little dinks on the front wings, not bad, just being honest. One was the Wheelie bin blew over, the other me misjudging the garage door frame while reversing in.
I use this for 330 miles days to and from my office just outside London, and for trips to the airports, before I fly off on business trips. It's always there, and always starts, first twist of the key. One word, Dependable.
Good on fuel for the size, (30mpg average) but can still pick up it's heels if you press the pedal.
MoT's till end of January, 2016

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