Honda South Africa has added a luxury derivative to its Accord range, which has styling changes and a five-speed automatic gearbox with sequential sportsshift mode.
Honda South Africa has added a luxury derivative to its Accord range, which has styling changes and a five-speed automatic gearbox with sequential sportsshift mode.
The Executive comes with an electric sunroof, electrically adjustable and heated leather seats, headlight washers, rain-sensing windscreen wipers and a six-CD front-loading CD player.
Styling changes give the Executive less of an aggressive edge to the front, side and rear skirting. Inside, it has woodgrain panels and a full leather package.
The steering column adjusts for rake and reach. There are also black-faced instruments which are lit from behind, and satellite controls on the three-spoke leather steering wheel, which includes cruise control buttons.
The 2,4-litre engine has maximum power of 140 kW at 6 800 r/min. The normally aspirated double overhead cam, 16-valve four-cylinder engine uses Honda’s i-VTEC (variable valve timing and lift control) coupled to VTC (variable valve timing) intelligent engine control technologies to achieve this.
The sequential sportsshift gear mode allows you to override the automatic shifting of gears to manually select the ratio. The computer-controlled gearbox monitors vehicle speed, engine load and driving style to determine the optimum shift pattern.
Six airbags are standard. It also has electronic controls for anti-lock, brake force distribution, and braking assistance hydraulics coupled to ventilated front discs and solid rears.
According to Honda, the car is aimed at the executive buyer, while the Type S derivative, with its sporty six-speed manual gearbox and aggressive styling, is focused on the buyer who is looking for a luxury sports saloon.
“Since the launch of the Accord Type S, we have received many requests from the public for a derivative that offers the ease of an automatic gearbox as well as certain additional specification items that are considered ‘must haves’ in the compact executive saloon segment of the market,” says Masahiro Matsushita, MD of Honda South Africa. “The vehicle retains the sporty driving characteristics inherent in the latest Accord, but focuses less on the sporty aesthetics of the manual Type S version.”
The Honda Accord Executive comes with a three-year/ 100 000km warranty, and a one-year roadside assistance programme as standard. Service intervals include an oil change every 10 000km with a full service every 20 000 km. A three-year/ 60 000km maintenance plan is standard with the vehicle.
Price: R279 900.