Vehicle: 2008 Honda Accord Coupe EX-L V6 with 6-speed manual
Price as tested: CDN$35490

Performance: Just like its sedan silibings, the Accord coupe is powered by both a 4-cylinder 2.4 liter and a 3.5 liter V6. This i-VTEC SOHC 24-valve 3.5 liter V6 has 268 ponies and 248 lb/ft of torque. It got the same well-honed refinement and revving quality that we love it from sedan silibing. The highlight of this coupe is the available of a sweet 6-speed manual gearbox. This manual gearbox is not only has wondefully precise gearchange, the gates are sharp and well-defined. Its pretty much of what we expect from a Honda. Another merits which one expects from Honda’s manual gearbox is their progressive clutch action. Not only does it provides plenty of feel, its light with a nice smooth travel. Because of this gearbox’s characteristics, it encourages enthuisast driver to rev the Accord’s V6 out with its excellent gear ratios.

Handling: Even with Accord coupe’s size and weight, its driving dynamics is impressive for a front-drive sports coupe. The rack-and-pinion steering provides sharp response without being too twitchy. Its wonderfully precise during turn-in with plenty of driver feedback. The suspension has excellent composure when pushed through corners. Even with 1623kg this body has to haul through, the suspension is tight enough to hang itself through a tight corner without losing a sweat. On the other hand, its ride quality is comfortable without being too soft. The latter is obvious compares to most of its softly sprung rivals. Its Vehicle Stability Assist is a very well-engineered system. It won’t step into braking an offending wheel until it gets really nasty. For a front-wheel drive sports coupe, Accord is as good as it can gets.

Brakes: With 4-wheel discs and standard ABS, the Accord coupe’s braking prowess has to be one of the best ones in its class. The stopping distance is short while the pedal is easily modulated.

Interior: Accord’s use of interior materials continue to impress. There are plenty of soft-touched plastic thoroughout the dashboard and door panels. The leather materials are soft and supple. The center console is very well layout. It got an excellent sets of automatic climate control and a nice stereo. Everything else are placed ergonomically. Its a no-fuss design. If there is a pet peeve, however, its there are over 40 buttons placed altogether in the center console. While they are ergonomically correct and well-placed, it might be too confusing for those who aren’t happy with button galore.

Getting into the back seat, however, takes a bit of hassle due to its sloppy C-pillar and slow-moving seat. While its more than acceptable for the speed of the passenger seat to move to the front in sunny weather, its just way too slow during rainy days.

The trunk space is spacious for a coupe. Although it got a high liftover and a swoopy side cut-off, it manages to haul a quite an amount of cargos thanks to its large amount of space.

Conclusion: Even with the sports coupe segment continues to be diminishing, Honda continues to improve the segment benchmark. The Accord coupe will continue to be the trendsetter in the sports coupe within the $40k range.

OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2008 Honda Accord Coupe
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Performance: 5/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 5/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 4.75/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 5/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 4/5
Value-for-money: 4.5/5

Overall rating: 4.75/5