2005 Honda Accord LX Sedan

The 2005 Accord LX Sedan isn't what I'd call an exciting car, yet at the same time I wouldn't hesitate to call it an excellent car. Since 1976 Honda has given us great Accords year after year. They haven't been the most exciting cars to drive, nor have they ever had head-turning style, but that's not really what the Accord has ever been about.

Cars that handle insanely well have stiff suspension and a rough ride, they're called sports cars. The Accord isn't a sports car. Cars that turns heads are driven by people who want to turn heads. Those people know they're in a car that makes people stop and stare and say "ooh look at that." People who drive Accords obviously don't need the world's attention, which is why they're driving Accords. The Accord has never been an ugly car, but at the same time it's never been overly offensive. Honda has played it safe with the Accord since the car's conception, and although it hasn't ever won an award for "best looking" or "best handling," it has won plenty of others.

The Accord is all about practicality. It's about stepping in to a car that has enough creature comforts to keep one happy, but isn't so packed full of luxuries that someone who doesn't care to use them is confused by their presence. The Accord is designed for the person who gets up and goes to work each day, and wants a quiet ride in a car that they know is going to be reliable for as long as they want to keep it. The Accord is designed for practical people. The 2005 Accord is no different than any Accord of the past, or probably any Accord of the future. That being said, it's an excellent practical car.

The exterior styling of the 2005 Accord isn't offensive at all. Some, including myself, have found the rear end on the sedan models to be somewhat unattractive. Though I don't like the way it looks, at the same time it's not so offensive that I'm going to notice it amongst a sea of traffic. The front of the sedan and coupe are quite similar and are actually quite attractive by an Accord's standards.

The interior of the car is comfortable. I wouldn't say that it's overly plush and luxurious, but at the same time I know it's good enough to take me on long trips without being bothered. All of the dash controls are fairly self explanatory, and if you've ever driven any Honda before, you'll instantly know where all of the steering wheel controls are and what they do. Every Honda and Acura I've ever owned in the past I've just been able to climb in and use without giving the location or operation of the controls much though. The 2005 Accord was no different.

My wife owns the 4 cylinder model, and although it's not a Formula One car, the 160hp and 166tq when mated with the 5 speed manual gear box has enough "oomph" to feel adequate in town and cruise comfortably on the highway. There's easily enough power to get around someone quickly at highway speeds. The gears aren't so short that you're constantly rowing the box, but they're not so long as to make the engine's lack of displacement apparent. So far we've been getting good mileage with the car - an upwards of 29-31 miles per gallon with mixed city and highway driving, which isn't bad considering it's February.

The clutch pedal on the manual Accord is fairly soft. Not so soft as to feel disconnected, but not so stiff as to destroy your leg when you're doing a lot of stop and go city driving. Because the Accord uses a cable driven shifting mechanism, gear changes on the Accord are very easy and the positive response you get when sliding in to each gear is very apparent with a quiet "clunk" sound. Overall I'd say for a car that's designed to do what an Accord is designed to do, Honda couldn't have gotten the transmission more "right."

The back seat is big enough to seat two adults. I have to admit that for some reason all of the people I know who are about the same age as I (25) aren't very tall or large, but leg room in the back isn't a problem at all. Throw three adults in the back and things start to get a bit crowded, as is expected in a mid-sized sedan. Both the front and rear doors open very wide, and the roof height of the Accord is fairly high, so getting in and out of the car isn't a problem at all.

The trunk is large enough to store the average amount of cargo for a car this size, and is actually quite a bit deeper than it looks from outside the vehicle. For added cargo space, both sides of the rear seat fold down to accommodate longer items.

Overall, as I've said, the 2005 Accord is a very good car. One thing that I've always read about the Accord - it's a car that is very good at everything, yet excels at nothing. For the most part I agree with that, but would like to add that being the previous owner of a 1990 Accord with 300,000 miles on the clock before I sold it, the Accord definitely excels at reliability and resale value. After owning the 1990 Accord years ago, my wife and I had no problem buying the 2005 Accord. Sure, you can get a V6 in a comparably priced car "domestic" car (keep in mind the Accord is built in Ohio), but in 3 or 4 years when you want to sell and upgrade to a newer car, the Accord will still have more resale value than that Grand Am could ever dream of.

Overall the 2005 Accord is a great car. While it's not the fastest or best handling thing on two wheels, we know we'll be able to drive it easily to 200,000 miles or more without a problem, and even when we get there we'll still get an excellent price (comparably) when we want to sell it. Until then it will get us and some friends from point A to point B for years to come, and get good gas mileage in between.