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Over at the general discussion forum, I posted two "Will I Fit---Comfortably?" threads, asking for other 2018 Accord-owners' experiences in fitting comfortably behind the wheel of a 2018 Accord. Not just for my height and weight, but also in the light of a few stray comments I came across regarding various complaints of discomfort. The responses I received were informative and reassuring. After researching the car, I had put the 2018 Accord at the top of my list for a new car this year.
Yesterday, I purchased a 2018 Honda Accord EX-L 2.0T with navigation, in the kona coffee metallic colour. Getting it home was quite an experience, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Last Saturday, I visited a dealership ninety miles away from my house. to get my first test-drive of the EX-L 2.0T. Overall, I was pleased with the car. During the negotiations with the dealership, their second pencil was within the price I was willing to pay, but at the outer edges. Since there were at least three other dealerships with the same car, I told that dealership that I would visit other dealers and, if their's was the best price I was given, I'd be back. Of course, I got a lot of "reasons" why I shouldn't do that, but I held firm.
Based upon my previous e-mail communications with all of the dealerships, I determined my best next choice would be a dealership one-hundred-twenty-five miles away. (Yes, I will drive that far to get a good deal.) I forwarded the Internet guy there a scan of the offer from the first dealership, adding if his establishment would beat that offer, I'd be down the next day to buy.
He responded with a **** of a good OTD price, but added the caveat that he couldn't offer a solid number on my trade-in value until his people could physically examine the car---which is reasonable. Unfortunately, solid rains for the next four days kept me from driving down there until yesterday, my fingers crossed the whole time that the car wouldn't be sold out from under me.
Talk about an easy experience. After I test-drove their EX-L 2.0T, the dealership honoured the OTB price it had e-mailed me, gave me slightly under the value that the first dealership offered my trade-in, and on top of all that, added something that I hadn't even considered or mentioned---the Honda $500 bonus for retired military.
I've never signed on the first pencil before, but I couldn't see getting a better deal than that anywhere else.
The drive home was a real-life example of the adage "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
It should have been a nice two-hour drive home, nearly all of which on an interstate highway. But, sometime during my visit to the dealership, there was an accident with a vehicle hauling hazardous material on that interstate, and there was a hazmat spill all over the place, located between the dealership and my home. I got to drive normally for about forty minutes before hitting the backed-up traffic.
I spent the next hour moving little more than two miles. I finally got to an exit and followed the course suggested by my car's navigation system. Unfortunately, so did many of the other cars in the same road jam. So I spent the next two hours driving state roads and country roads in a a caravan which ran at odds with intersections and cross-traffic not designed to deal with such a heavy load of vehicles.
Finally, I got back on the interstate north of the spill, with forty-five miles to my house, and got to enjoy the nice, easy drive I had expected.
The EX-L 2.0T performed like a champ. The engine was alert and responsive; the few times I had to make a quick move, it moved! All of the sensors worked as advertised. (I think I'm going to turn off the "lane departure" one, though; it's annoying and doesn't really provide that much of a safety element.) The navigation system worked closer to real time than the one in my Altima had.
As far as comfort, I was perfectly fine. No demonstrations of "excruciating back pain". The seat bottom wasn't as plush as the one in my Altima, but it wasn't terrible. I had to play with the telescoping steering wheel to get the most comfortable placement for my arms (the one advantage I had in being stuck in almost non-moving traffic for an hour). When I finally pulled into my driveway, I felt no more discomfort than anyone would feel after driving a car for four hours straight. And the minor stiffness and ache was gone after a few minutes of being out of the car.
As with my Altima, I know that the Accord is a finely crafted machine. However, I always hold off on my final evaluation of the car until after a couple of months, just in case I got the one that came off the line while the quality-control guy was on his break or something. But, it certainly performed well through that trial of fire driving home.
I think I'm going to enjoy this car.
Yesterday, I purchased a 2018 Honda Accord EX-L 2.0T with navigation, in the kona coffee metallic colour. Getting it home was quite an experience, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Last Saturday, I visited a dealership ninety miles away from my house. to get my first test-drive of the EX-L 2.0T. Overall, I was pleased with the car. During the negotiations with the dealership, their second pencil was within the price I was willing to pay, but at the outer edges. Since there were at least three other dealerships with the same car, I told that dealership that I would visit other dealers and, if their's was the best price I was given, I'd be back. Of course, I got a lot of "reasons" why I shouldn't do that, but I held firm.
Based upon my previous e-mail communications with all of the dealerships, I determined my best next choice would be a dealership one-hundred-twenty-five miles away. (Yes, I will drive that far to get a good deal.) I forwarded the Internet guy there a scan of the offer from the first dealership, adding if his establishment would beat that offer, I'd be down the next day to buy.
He responded with a **** of a good OTD price, but added the caveat that he couldn't offer a solid number on my trade-in value until his people could physically examine the car---which is reasonable. Unfortunately, solid rains for the next four days kept me from driving down there until yesterday, my fingers crossed the whole time that the car wouldn't be sold out from under me.
Talk about an easy experience. After I test-drove their EX-L 2.0T, the dealership honoured the OTB price it had e-mailed me, gave me slightly under the value that the first dealership offered my trade-in, and on top of all that, added something that I hadn't even considered or mentioned---the Honda $500 bonus for retired military.
I've never signed on the first pencil before, but I couldn't see getting a better deal than that anywhere else.
The drive home was a real-life example of the adage "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
It should have been a nice two-hour drive home, nearly all of which on an interstate highway. But, sometime during my visit to the dealership, there was an accident with a vehicle hauling hazardous material on that interstate, and there was a hazmat spill all over the place, located between the dealership and my home. I got to drive normally for about forty minutes before hitting the backed-up traffic.
I spent the next hour moving little more than two miles. I finally got to an exit and followed the course suggested by my car's navigation system. Unfortunately, so did many of the other cars in the same road jam. So I spent the next two hours driving state roads and country roads in a a caravan which ran at odds with intersections and cross-traffic not designed to deal with such a heavy load of vehicles.
Finally, I got back on the interstate north of the spill, with forty-five miles to my house, and got to enjoy the nice, easy drive I had expected.
The EX-L 2.0T performed like a champ. The engine was alert and responsive; the few times I had to make a quick move, it moved! All of the sensors worked as advertised. (I think I'm going to turn off the "lane departure" one, though; it's annoying and doesn't really provide that much of a safety element.) The navigation system worked closer to real time than the one in my Altima had.
As far as comfort, I was perfectly fine. No demonstrations of "excruciating back pain". The seat bottom wasn't as plush as the one in my Altima, but it wasn't terrible. I had to play with the telescoping steering wheel to get the most comfortable placement for my arms (the one advantage I had in being stuck in almost non-moving traffic for an hour). When I finally pulled into my driveway, I felt no more discomfort than anyone would feel after driving a car for four hours straight. And the minor stiffness and ache was gone after a few minutes of being out of the car.
As with my Altima, I know that the Accord is a finely crafted machine. However, I always hold off on my final evaluation of the car until after a couple of months, just in case I got the one that came off the line while the quality-control guy was on his break or something. But, it certainly performed well through that trial of fire driving home.
I think I'm going to enjoy this car.
