Honda Accord Type S?

[CHIEF]

Now my car has met its maker I'm after a reliable, pokey and practical family estate.
Now i'm hankering after getting back into a car that uses proper fuel after my diesel.

Someone suggested a Honda Accord Type S Estate as I simply will never buy VAG again.

Has anyone any experiences with these?

Engine: 2.4 and looks pretty pokey, are these engines, clutches and gearbox reliable? Are they belt or chain driven?
What sort of mpg could I expect from these?

I know I may be in for a shock after my 1.9 tdi unit.

Handling?

Equipment?

Boot? - looks huge.

Tax looks to be a killer but as long as this car is reliable I don't care really as hopefully my mileage will be coming down very soon plus I hopefully won't be chucking money at this car like my last pile of tic turd.

Thanks in advance.

[Deerfoot]

Which version of Accord are you considering? The present one or the last shape? Both had Type S estates available.

[CHIEF]

Last shape. I.e 2002-2003 around that year.

[Deerfoot]

OK, I had an '03 2.4 Tourer, but the EX, not a Type S.

They'll do around 32mpg on a run, 28 ish around town so not great. My tailgate motor packed up out of warranty but Honda UK paid for a replacement (I paid the labour for fitment). I also had a sticking rear brake unit that was rebuilt at my local garage. They tram-line a bit on 17 inch wheels also.

Apart from that I loved it. The boot is huge and the seats fold in one action leaving a nice flat area. I'd have another to be honest, the replacement car is much smaller inside.

[CHIEF]

What do they go and handle like?

[Deerfoot]

They go quite well when they're on the upper cam.

I thought the handling was fine if you understand it's a family estate. Not in the Mondeo league but certainly better than most cars of that type.

Thinking back I had a great drive on the A345 one evening.

[ALawson]

Chap at work has one and is torn with what to replaced it with. He has owned it from new and having spoken to him the economy matches that above.

I have 2.2derv. Only went diesel to stay within the comp car scheme co2 limit.

Coming from a ATR I was a little worried about lack of general poke and handling. To be honest it handles way better then it should be able to and the engine is pretty good. Derv returns 45 on most spirited drives.

In the EX spec they come fully loaded. I picked up a 56 plate 72k mile car for just over £5k, one owner and FHSH.

Great cars.

[Grandad Gaz]

We have the 2.4 type S estate which we bought from new in 2003.

Round about 90k miles now. It's been pretty faultless and still on the original exhaust, which I find suprising since my wife does short journeys to work and back. It's been serviced by the main dealer every year since. They did mention something about the manifold last year, but not this year, so not sure what that was about.
It sailed through this years mot and service, which was done last Monday, once we had 2 new tyres on the front.

I was going to sell it and get a CR-V but TBH, it's so reliable, I'll think we will keep it until next summer at the very least!

I like driving it and it still looks up to date now, even though it is a 10 year old motor. It came with 17" alloys, but it tramlined a fair bit, so we changed them for the bog standard set, which made a big difference.

It goes well and is pretty quick if you put your foot down and it handles very well, considering it's a big estate. They are big cars. It's about a foot longer than our previous car, which was a Disco 300 Tdi.

Fuel economy is not that good. I have never worked out the actual mpg, but suspect it to be no more than 35. You will notice a big difference from your diesel!

forgot to add, road tax is pretty hefty. A lot more than our ford focus!!