A Coupe Too Cool?The two-door, midsize coupe is a segment that's almost exclusive
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| There's a reason why the Accord Coupe has been so successful: it's cooler than its close kin. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
to North America, for reasons not quite known to me. These cars are roughly the same as their sedan counterparts, often with the same widths and wheelbases, but they often express a different message, one of youth and performance rather than married with 2.5 children and family pet. In other words, behind the dark-tinted shades and curvy figure they're family cars that try to be cool. It's an interesting, if not select market that's directed to a very specific audience, and it's one that's been waning in recent years, so much so that they're almost as much of a rarity as the family station wagon (which has now morphed into the beloved crossover - Ed.). But, for the few brands that still produce a two-door hardtop, there is one that stands above them all - the very good, and very cool Honda Accord Coupe.
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| Aside from the somewhat narrow aperture, the trunk is very useable. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the Toyota Camry Solara, the Accord Coupe is really more of a two-door sedan than a coupe in the traditional sense. Being blessed with bones that are bigger than your average sporty coupe (incidentally, it has a wheelbase that's 70 mm shorter than the four-door) means that it incorporates two very useable rear seats that have decent rear legroom, and, provided that you're under six-feet tall, adequate headroom. And like the sedan, it includes folding rear seats and a big 371-litre (13.1 cu-ft) trunk, which means that any sacrifices brought about by its more rakish styling are a lot less imposing than you may have originally thought. As such, the Accord Coupe is just as competent at transporting the family's luggage as the sedan, not to mention the 2.5 kids... after all, it has three rear seatbelts, plus side curtain airbags, side airbags, and front airbags too.
Like its vastly more ordinary sister, the Accord Sedan, the Coupe
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| There's a lot of red smattered throughout the Accord, such as this V6 badge, but does red mean heat? (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
was revised this year with a series of cosmetic changes, although the ones employed here are milder than on the four-door. Most noticeable are the new tail lamps, which are LED units, but unlike the sedan they're more or less the same shape as before. New wheels were also the order of the day, but, if you're a Honda fan, you'll have seen these before on the old Acura CL Type-S. Minor tweaks were also made to the headlamps and grille, though you'd be hard pressed to notice. The new red V6 badge, revised red gauges, and red illuminated switches give some indication that there's a fire lurking beneath its very cool-looking exterior.
The
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| Is this really a Honda engine? Sure, it says VTEC, but it's just so silent and silky! (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
3.0-litre V6 engine that the top-line Accord Coupe uses isn't the most modern engine in the Honda lineup; it uses a single overhead design and VTEC (not the latest iVTEC), but it's 244-horse-powerful and unbelievably smooth. This engine is fantastically velvety, from idle to engine redline cutoff, and everywhere in between; it just doesn't feel like it's powered by something as crude as thousands of small explosions. Mind you, it doesn't seem particularly keen to rev, which is an unusual inclination for a Honda engine. If you put your foot to the floor, there's no chorus, no song, no byproduct tune; it just goes, coolly and silently. Instead, I think the V6 feels better just poodling along close to idle, which is a bit of a shame, considering that this is one of the very few high-power front wheel drive cars that has zero torque steer. This isn't to say that the Accord Coupe isn't quick - that's about as far from the truth as you can get - it can hit 100 km/h in under seven seconds.
