Honda Recoups Fun-to-Drive

By Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor
Date posted: 11-11-2007


Nissan has been getting its fair share of attention with the 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe. Based on the 2007 Nissan Altima Sedan, the Altima coupe gets our attention, too. Great-looking, aggressively tuned and reasonably priced — not to mention quicker than you might think — this coupe has some of the hot-rod soul that you expect in a Nissan.

Then Honda crashed Nissan's party with the 2008 Honda Accord Sedan and Coupe. The 2008 Honda Accord Coupe brought us an epiphany. As we said sarcastically when we first drove it, "An Accord coupe can do your income taxes. If you need a root canal, Accord coupe is your car...but humpin' and pumpin' is not an Accord coupe's strong suit." And yet we realized that this isn't the Accord coupe we remember — it's fun. The Accord coupe proves that Honda knows how to put some life into a car built from a sedate sedan.

Wimpy no more, these two Japanese-brand coupes are trying hard to send a real message with the power under the hood, the tingle in the steering wheel and even the look of the sheet metal.

Transmitting a Message
These smaller-than-sedan passenger packages are both available with either inline-4 or V6 engine choices. We took the V6 enhancement for both of them; the choice you'd make if you were serious about driving.

We also chose a row-your-own six-speed gearbox for these cars. The truth is that very few of these cars will actually be sold this way. The vast majority of gearchanges in both Accord and Altima V6 coupes will be done via automatic transmissions (a traditional five-speed auto in the Accord and a continuously variable automatic in the Altima). We'd even argue that the Accord and Altima coupes are better cars with automatic transmissions — more poised, more refined, and in the Accord Coupe's case, slightly more fuel efficient.

Yet there's interest in the manual-transmission variants of these cars. Honda tells us that it expects 4,000 of the 20,000 2008 Accord V6 Coupes will come equipped with the manual transmission. Nissan says about 36,000 Altima coupes will hit the road, but less than 1,000 SE V6s will come equipped with a manual transmission.

Two Powerful Front-Drivers
The 3.5-liter SOHC V6 in the Accord produces 268 horsepower at 6,200 rpm, while the 3.5-liter DOHC V6 under the Altima's hood is good for 270 hp at 6,000 rpm. Despite the edge in torque output that the Nissan V6's 258 pound-feet has over the Honda's 248 lb-ft, the Accord feels as if it is the twist-meister here.

As we drove through the mountains to our test track, the Honda easily pulled the inclines at low rpm in 3rd gear. And thanks to new dynamic engine mounts, this V6 is smoother and quieter than the VQ-powered Nissan, too. That's something we never thought we'd write about an Accord.

Neither of these cars exhibits the kind of torque-steer effect you might expect with a powerful V6 driving the front tires. It seems that by either limiting engine torque with the miracle of the drive-by-wire throttle or utilizing proper driveline geometry, the usual right-hand steering-wheel isometric exercise to counter torque steer is a thing of the past.

At the dragstrip, these evenly matched engines produced nearly identical results despite as-tested weights that barely favored the 3,260-pound Altima by 138 pounds. The Altima made it first to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, while the Accord trailed by a tenth of a second at 6.3 seconds. Once the quarter-mile arrived, the Accord had inched ahead with a run of 14.6 seconds at 101.6 mph, as the Altima trailed behind with an effort of 14.7 seconds at 99.2 mph.

A Not-So-Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Coupeville
We'll come right out and say we proudly own a 2007 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE with the CVT transmission as part of our long-term test fleet. A quick glance at its blog entries reveals that its formidable presentation, sporty ride and handling, ultraslick CVT and powerful engine all get very positive reviews.

So what the heck happened to this Altima coupe? A bolt had gone missing from the base of the Altima's center armrest that let it flop around, and sheared bolts within the pinch-stops on the driver's door allowed it to swing willy-nilly without resistance from detents.

The Altima's driveline also proved to be something of a mess. Clutch uptake was sticky and unpredictable. The transmission shift linkage felt like it was made of cartilage, and quickly moving the long-throw shifter felt as if we were dislocating the leg of some small animal. Eeew. The engine rocked in its spongy mounts, and each acceleration run produced so much drivetrain lash that the little barn door for the cubby at the base of the center stack popped open.

The Altima coupe's suspension tuning doesn't suit us at all. It's oversprung and underdamped, so the car hops over every pavement seam, then thumps against its damper bumpstops on the other side. Afterwards, the Altima refuses to settle down for some time, and once it does, another seam or pothole inevitably presents itself.

On the skid pad, the Altima coupe predictably posted the same lateral acceleration numbers as every Altima has before, with its Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires (P215/55R17) finding terminal understeer at 0.81g. This Altima coupe couldn't come close to the faster, more controlled slalom speed of previous Altima sedans we've tested, however. This coupe rolled like a dog looking for a free belly scratch and it even lifted its inside tires off the ground at each cone.

Showing Some Self-Control
Whereas the Altima coupe bucked and protested as it ran up and down the test track, the Accord coupe was the picture of poise. With the exception of a rather tricky launch during acceleration tests and insufficient brake cooling, the Honda could have sped through the remainder of the track and road testing with us sitting on one hand.

The Accord's well-oiled shift linkage feels like just a more robust variant of what we'd expect to find in the enthusiast-oriented Civic Si. The variable-ratio power steering actually gives you a sense of what the front wheels are doing while the chassis makes child's play of both the skid pad and slalom courses. And we were happy to discover that this is one of a precious few Honda products whose Michelin Pilot HXMXM4 tires (P235/45R18) don't give up before an otherwise competent chassis does.

The 2008 Honda Accord Coupe not only outperforms the Nissan Altima coupe, but also easily surpasses the performance of previous Accord sedans and coupes.

Around town, the Accord coupe's ride is firm and sure-footed, and the car never produces the kind of storefront 10-cent pony ride that we feel in the Altima. The cabin remains quiet and hushed even as speeds increase, a testament to the Accord's efficient aero package and solid construction.

Of course, things were different when it came to braking performance. The Altima's four-wheel discs and tires were consistently mediocre in this testing, and produced stops that hovered around 135 feet without evidence of fading. The Accord's four-wheel discs and tires produced only one good stop from 60 mph with an effort of 128 feet, and the car's stopping distances grew as the brakes heated and faded noticeably. The third quarter-mile run at more than 100 mph was particularly memorable, as the brake system couldn't generate enough brake pressure to lock the tires sufficiently to even elicit a response from the ABS. Yikes.

It's Bigger Than It Looks, Really
Compared to their sedan counterparts, both of these blue coupes have endured several inches of embarrassing shrinkage. The Altima is apparently more susceptible to the cold hands of the reengineering process and contracts to a greater extent than the Accord in its sedan-to-coupe alteration.

Relative to each another, the Accord coupe is 8.4 inches longer from nose to tail, and its axles are 2.6 inches farther apart than those of the Altima coupe. The roof of the Accord coupe is about an inch higher off the ground, but its overall width is more than 2 inches greater than the Altima's.

Inside, the passenger accommodations of these two coupes are again eerily similar, varying by just fractions of an inch with the exception of front and rear shoulder room (where the Accord has a sizable advantage). Perhaps this is why it's easier to get in and out of the Accord's front and rear seats, and indeed the Honda's seats themselves are better contoured and more comfortable than those of the Nissan.

In the end, the Accord comes off smaller on the outside, yet bigger and more comfortable on the inside. This trait even extends to the trunk, where the Accord's admirable 11.9 cubic feet is both larger and more sensibly shaped than the Altima's mere 7.4-cubic-foot cargo hold that's accessed through an awkwardly shaped opening. Part of this volumetric disparity might come from the fact that the Accord carries a space-saver spare tire under the carpeted trunk mat, while the Altima has a full-size spare. Also, the Altima's rear audio speakers are located in the rear parcel shelf and hang down intrusively into the trunk space.

Riffing on a Theme
While the two coupes are parked alongside one another, you can't help but notice how similarly sized and shaped they are. It's as if both Honda and Nissan were given the same lozenge-shaped lump of modeling clay and asked to shape a coupe from it.

It appears Honda spent more time on the character of the Accord. There are far more daring slashes and contours that generate more visual interest than those of the relatively slab-sided Altima. We really liked the looks of the Altima coupe until we saw the Accord coupe. Same tune, better arrangement.

Those differences extend to the interior as well. The Altima's cabin is unmistakably Nissan, largely a derivative of the sedan. But the Accord's goes a step or two beyond what we expected and is far more interesting than what you find in the Accord sedan.

Picking a Winner
Even if this Accord coupe were more expensive than this Altima coupe, we think you'd be able to deduce our winner here.

Problem is that to compete on content, the 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe's $25,595 base price had to be inflated to $29,490 with the $3,200 premium package and $600 optional stability control system. That means the 2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6's $28,945 base (and as-tested) price merely serves to underscore this coupe's overall superiority in this contest.

Perhaps we got a broken, tired or used-up Altima. Perhaps the contest should've been conducted with automatic transmissions. Perhaps this is an irrelevant contest. Anyway you look at it, however, the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe felt like it was engineered, designed and built to an entirely different, higher and better standard.

No contest. The Accord coupe is the one that's left, and the one that's right.