Re: are hondas really that bad?

["Arun Rao" <rao@frisbee>]

On Apr 7, 10:50am, Nick Craft wrote:
> Subject: are hondas really that bad?
> Holy cow! this car goes like shit off a stick! The engine is simply amazing -
> it pulls strongly and evenly from low revs all the way up to the red line,
and
> it accelarates as fast in 2nd gear as my 5KTQ does in 1st. You've got to hand
> it to honda, they can really design engines. This is a 2 liter 4 cylinder
> atmospheric unit that completely blows away audis 2.2 liter 5 cylinder turbo.
> It was also smoother, but sounded at least as good as the audi engine.
>

	2 liter Accord? Hmm, the current and previous generations in the
	US have 2.2 liter engines, making 125/140 HP (DX,LX/EX).  Could
	be the engine they used in the Prelude here -- I remember hearing
	about someone in Singapore with a 2.0 liter late model Accord.

	I have a DX myself, and you're absolutely right about the smoothness
	of the engine: it's probably the smoothest 4 around, with the
	notable exception (I've heard) of one in the Saab 9000. As far
	as acceleration goes, it beats the crap out of my '85 5KT off
	the line (maybe till 30 mph), but looses oomph just about the
	time the turbo in the Audi kicks in.  I haven't actually compared
	the two side-by-side (my wife takes a dim view of such puerile
	activity :-)), but I suspect the Audi's a bit faster to 60 mph --
	and this is a 10-year-old car with 105,000 miles and an automatic
	being compared to a 3-year-old car with 40,000 miles and a stick.

	Here's the real contradiction. In almost every quantifiable way,
	my Accord's a nicer car than my old Audi, but I prefer driving
	the Audi by far.  There's something about the sound of the engine
	and the faint whoosh of the turbo that I hugely enjoy ... it
	may also have something to do with my personal involvement in
	its upkeep: the Accord demands (and gets) none (I bought it
	new, and haven't had *anything* fail on it).
[.......]

> On the other hand, the rest of the car wasn't so good, in fact the handling
> was awful compared to my car, and the steering was dead.

	That's interesting: I've always thought that Hondas were in
	general middle-of-the-road w.r.t handling. Not stellar, but
	perfectly adequate for their market niche.

	-Arun

> Nick.






--
Arun Rao
Scientist
Pixar
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Pt. Richmond, CA 94804
(510)215-3526