We bought the '12 LX-P in my sig in November 2012 with 12 miles showing. It just hit 75,000 this past Tuesday.
I thought I'd share my observations of the car over that time.
First, it's needed nothing other than a set of tires (Pirellis) at around 56K. The OEM Dunlops could have gone longer but winter was on its way and I wanted better tread for what turned out to be a mild winter with negligible frozen precipitation.
I do oil changes sometime after 15% MM, which will be somewhere between 8 and 9K. I ran the factory fill 8700 miles, since Honda was pretty adamant that the FF be left in for a full normal interval. Oil consumption remains negligible.
The car has averaged around 30 mpg, with a best ever tank of 34.6 mpg and a worst ever of 23.4 mpg.
The Accord remains tight and rattle free and shows no signs of interior wear or exterior deterioration, as should be the case with a car this young. It is in the single-stage non-metallic white.
The K24 makes ample power, and while it isn't as smooth and quiet an engine as those in earlier Accords we've owned, the car itself is quiet enough that you can't even hear the engine unless you really crank it. In highway driving, you hear neither drivetrain nor wind noise. You do hear some road noise, although the car is very quiet up into the mid-eighties. HVAC is good with strong AC and heat.
The interior is cavernous, the seats are comfortable and the trunk is huge. This car easily swallowed four adults, an infant in car seat along with all of the gear required for a weekend trip with trunk room to spare.
Ride quality seems a little firm given that this is basically everyman's sedan and tracking is not as good as past Hondas we've had.
The primary downside is that there is nothing at all playful about this car. Earlier Accords encouraged attacking corners while this one doesn't. Open sweepers can be taken as fast as you'd like and there is minimal body roll, but in really tight, slower corners, you find a level of understeer I've not previously seen in any earlier Accord. Even the Gen 7 is a much sportier car to drive and the Gen 6 is even better.
Anyway, the Accord has been satisfactory in every way as well as pretty unexciting. It was also really cheap new at $19.2K.
In the case of freedom from repair as well as absolute reliability, unexciting is a good thing.
I would like a little less understeer and a little stronger tracking, but other than that, I remain happy with this purchase. It has served us well and should continue to do so for another 75K, which should come up in less than four years at its current rate of use.
5 Yrs and 75K in Gen 8 Accord
- Thread starter fdcg27
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Listen to your Honda Dealer turn it in before it implodes!
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Speaking of Hondas,I spent the day waxing mine and conditioning the leather. $19K for yours is really cheap! I have the original window sticker from mine and it was $31K. I wonder why is was so expensive?
Sticker on our car was a tad over 24K, but no sensible person pays list for any vehicle.
You have a sunroof, leather, Bluetooth, 17" rims and probably nav. Those little extras add up quickly.
IIRC, we could have bought a similar four door EX for around 22K, a lot more money for what seemed to me to be a little more value.
We also bought the car right at the right time. 2012 was the last year for the Gen 8 and we did buy the car in November. The car itself was a July build, so it was a pretty late Gen 8 car.
I found two dealers willing to play online, one of whom had sold us our '99 LX 5 spd for $16.8K. I gave my business to the other because they were the first to come down to the price we paid and I therefore felt like I owed it to them.
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Here's the sticker:
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May 2012 was the build date for mine.
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What does this "lock" thingy lock and unlock? And what does this DVD ROM player (it's in the trunk) go to?
Nice reliable cars that are great buys for the money. Only complaint is that some say they are boring to drive.
It prevents valet driver to pop your trunk and steal stuff.
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Here's what I wondered when Accord shopping. Why do the K24 models have a higher resale value than the V6 models? The used V6 ones are always cheaper than the 4cyl's (same year,model,options,mileage,condition,etc). And there's always a ton of the V6 ones for sale as opposed to the 4 cyl ones.
Yeah, you have a lot of toys that I don't have in my car.
Those heated front seats are pretty much a necessity in Texas, LOL!
Was your car an Ohio build, or was it built in Japan?
We've had or have a total of five Accords, all of which were Ohio builds.
My mother has an '03 Gen 7 built in Japan that was delivered new to her through an Ohio dealer.
It now has all of 88K after fourteen years and still looks really clean underneath after all those northeast OH winters.
The lock is to prevent anyone from opening the trunk if you give them the valet key.
The multi disc changer in the trunk plays through the radio head, or at least that's how it worked on our '97 coupe that had a six disc changer mounted in the trunk.
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Here's what I wondered when Accord shopping. Why do the K24 models have a higher resale value than the V6 models? The used V6 ones are always cheaper than the 4cyl's (same year,model,options,mileage,condition,etc). And there's always a ton of the V6 ones for sale as opposed to the 4 cyl ones.
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Marysville,Ohio. Engine USA,transmission Japan.
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
The lock is to prevent anyone from opening the trunk if you give them the valet key.
The multi disc changer in the trunk plays through the radio head, or at least that's how it worked on our '97 coupe that had a six disc changer mounted in the trunk.
I would expect improved fuel economy with DI and CVT, but those were two reasons that I bought a '12 and not a '13.
The Gen 9 has an inferior suspension design on paper as compared to the Gen 8 and it's not as though a largish FWD car can't be made to handle well with proper development.
Audi's been doing this for decades and Honda has made some very good handling Accords.
Just why the Gen 8 is a bit of a Buick among Accords has always been a mystery to me.
This is the first year of the generation that has a strut setup in front instead of the double wishbone and coilovers, right?
I hear that seemed to make a pretty negative impact on handling.
Timing belt replacement.
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Here's what I wondered when Accord shopping. Why do the K24 models have a higher resale value than the V6 models? The used V6 ones are always cheaper than the 4cyl's (same year,model,options,mileage,condition,etc). And there's always a ton of the V6 ones for sale as opposed to the 4 cyl ones.
I'll add my impressions since fdcg and I both bought the exact same car about a month apart.
I picked mine up December 1, 2012, having purchased it the last Saturday of the month, 1 hour before closing at a Honda dealership in NE Ohio over the phone. Mine had a little over 200 miles on it, as it was a dealer trade. It was the "bling special edition" as it had about every add-on that a dealer could throw on it. They started at 23.6K, we ended up at 19.3K. I had the opportunity to buy a white one @ the same price from the same dealer that he did, however, I wanted the Polished Metal Metallic (I think that's the name.) At any rate, it looks gray to me. The extra hundo yielded a spoiler, side mouldings, and mudflaps. They kept the trunk tray and weather tech mats.
I purposely bought the '12 to avoid the DI and CVT. I basically bought this car as a transportation appliance. I racked up the first 72K on it in 30 months, on a 130 mile/day commute until I retired. The rest has been accumulated during my retirement.
The word appliance sums this car up well. It actually barely met the size requirements for a full size car.I would disagree with the assessment comparing it to a Buick. The read is nowhere near floaty, and the car is far from quiet. However, after replacing the OEM Dunlops @67K with a set of Pirelli's quieted it down and improved the handling, the vehicle doesn't even come close to having the driving dynamics of my '85 and '89 Accords. This generation of Accord, IMO, would be best described as a Japanese Impala.
The interior is somewhat unimpressive IMO. It is a plethora of hard plastic. It also, with the exception of a 1968 Mercury I owned, has the most uncomfortable of seats of any of the 24 vehicles that I have owned in my driving career. I have to use a lumbar cushion for the drivers seat. I do not have to do that in any other of our three vehicles. Mechanically, it has been flawless (knock on wood.) The only issue that I had was that I ended up replacing the Group 51 battery that it had in it (totally inadequate ) with a Group 35 AAP Gold. If the temp got below 30 degrees outside, the battery had about one good chance at starting it. The appropriate sized battery corrected the issue. My car was built November of 2011. I was told by the dealer that services the car , that Honda started putting 35's in latter in the model year, to address this deficiency.
It has been a servicable and dependable car, if not an exciting one. I'll drive it out to 150 or 200K. While I will never say never, it is unlikely that I will purchase another Accord, or even a sixth Honda. I don't like the styling or the drivetrain options currently offered.
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