ACCORDS AIMS FOR THE PREMIERSHIP

Not content with mixing it with mainstream mediocrity, the latest Honda Accord has some upmarket ambitions. Andy Enright reports

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The exterior isn't going to shock too many customers. Despite being a completely fresh design from the ground up, the latest Accord shares many styling cues with its predecessor. Park the two cars side by side, however, and you'll see that the latest generation is lower and far wider, has a more aggressive, hunkered down stance, and more pugnacious wheel arches. The V-shaped front grille and sculpted headlamps give the Accord some serious rear-view mirror presence while the Tourer's rising window line gives it an edgier, more dynamic look.

The cabin has been improved, ridding the Accord of the rather reedy, lightweight feel of older versions. The dashboard extends from the centre console to sweep around the front seats, giving the Accord's interior some character. The dash features floating backlit instruments with an LCD information screen housed in the middle of the speedometer dial. Honda has spent a big proportion of the budget on the front seats, being at the same time more supportive and better able to dampen vibration. Taking a cue from its expertise in building mini-MPVs, Honda has also endowed the Accord with many clever storage solutions, including a lidded storage area to the side of the steering wheel, two centre console side pockets and a huge box housed under the centre armrest.

Pricing for the saloon starts at around the £20,000 mark for the entry-level ES model but the version that most customers will buy, the ES GT, starts at about £1,000 more - and includes 17-inch alloy wheels, half-leather seats, cruise control, aero kit, sports suspension and climate control. Meanwhile, EX grades come as standard with DVD sat nav, Bluetooth hands free telephone, full leather seats, electric/heated front seats, rear parking camera and a premium 6CD stereo. Continuing Honda's quest to bring E-sector advanced technology to lower segments, Honda's hi-tech ADAS Pack is available as an option, adding Collision Mitigation Braking (a first for this D-sector), as well as Lane Keep Assist, Advanced Cruise Control and HID lights. Comparing prices? Well, model for model, you're looking at a saving of around £2,000 on a comparable Audi A4.

Honda's ace in the hole with the last Accord was its high-tech equipment and myriad of options that sounded as if they'd just rolled straight off the floor at the Consumer Electronics Show. This version is no different. The Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) and Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) are just a couple of acronyms to get you started. Then there's that optional ADAS system, at its best when combined with the Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS).

In its run out year, Honda sold 8,500 old Accords in the UK and are looking to build that number to a figure between 12,000 and 14,000 units with the latest car. With prices around £1,000 more expensive, model for model, savings need to be clawed back in other areas. Honda is bullish about residual values, claiming that a bigger, better built car that's cleaner and more fuel efficient will be a winner on the used market. That may well be the case. In the more immediate future, the Accord is a model citizen. The i-DTEC diesel engine is so clean it meets the US's stringent 'EPA Tier II Bin 5' emissions standards with out requiring special (and expensive) modifications such as the NoX-reducing urea injection system that Mercedes needed to fit to its US-bound Bluetec diesel engines.

I'm tempted to think that having cried wolf once with its premium quality claims, few are likely to believe Honda's pitch of the latest Accord. Yes, it is a bigger and better built car than its predecessor. It is more physically imposing and the hardware under the bonnets has improved significantly. The same can be said for the Ford Mondeo or the Renault Laguna. Even the Toyota Avensis. With front-wheel drive, the Accord will never gain parity with BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Lexus. On a wholly subjective basis, it's preferable to an equivalently priced Saab, not as emotionally engaging as an Alfa Romeo 159, but more satisfying than a Volvo S60.

In this respect, not a whole lot has changed. The Accord has inched incrementally upmarket, but at this rate it'll be a very long time before it's trading punches with BMW. So what remains? A very good, very technologically dense vehicle that perhaps needs to drop the naked ambition and concentrate on developing its own niche.