Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Honda Accord
Wednesday
February 4, 2004
The Neon is history, and now the Accord is in its place. And I couldn't be happier.
My 1997 Dodge Neon served me well for the six plus years that I had it, but realistically it was on its last legs. The paint was chipping off (which is a symptom of Neons), the AC was shot, and the engine valves were beginning to near the end. I liked its compact style, though it was definitely time for a change.
|  | | Don't be fooled by the glare in this picture; my Honda Accord is a nice car. |
Enter the 2000 Honda Accord LX two door coupe. In looking online, I read almost overwhelmingly positive reviews about how great the Accord line is and how much value they have. Moreover, personal recommendations (like Tom Flammia from DigiQuest, whose wife owns an Accord) helped to seal my decision.
However, the car's great design and strong value has made finding them on the open market quite difficult. Rather needle-in-a-haystack like.
So yesterday, I happened upon CarMax.com, where, lo and behold, they had a low mileage 2000 Accord, in red no less, for a very reasonable price. I decided to head down there that night, lest someone else get in there and buy it.
And, now, the car is mine. I took it out for a spin on the open road today (the Howard Frankland Bridge), and even at, umm, top speeds, it performs like a champ. The AC works great (and yes I needed air conditioning today -- at lunchtime one of the banks posted a temp of 73 degrees). The handling is superb; it's much easier to turn than the Neon, which makes parallel parking easier (even though the Accord is bigger than the Neon). Plus I went back to Clearwater and picked up my parking pass and key ring couplet, so I'm all square on that...
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