Accord 2013 mileage - yes and no

*and* for the woman you're going to Vickie's for!

no, vehicle reliability follows what's called a "bathtub curve".

you've just bought into the early failure phase.

but it's an emotional choice, not a financial one. according to the honda usa website, a "zero down featured lease" on a stick shift accord ex in the san francisco bay area will cost $10,150 over 3 years and have a residual buy-back price of $15k. that's over $3k per year,

*excluding* insurance, tax, license, their $595 "acquisition fee" and the $0.15 per mile over 12k miles per year.

it doesn't matter how you slice it - you're paying more for your car per year than someone who paid $700 for a clunker and dropped $2,300 into an aggressive preventive maintenance program first year, and >$3k /per year/ thereafter.

why would you? it's a clunker. washing and waxing would be insane.

yeah, only once a week, not twice. especially if it's leased and the lessee doesn't want to get dinged on hand-back.

there's no "hard way" about it. when i worked in a shop, i'd see co-workers run new crate engines with no oil, no coolant, bend valves because they'd got a timing belt set wrong, fit brake pads the wrong way around, use incorrect spark plugs, forget air filters, glue electrical connectors, set kinks into brake hose, steal new components for their own vehicle and fit used parts onto customer cars, set suspension bushings wrong so they'd either make the car ride odd or the rubber prematurely fatigue, etc., etc., etc. these were all factory trained techs in a big shop. me not wanting to have someone else screw up my cars is simply a case of being the guy that worked at the sausage factory not eating sausage.

That's about right, the EX is a somewhat unfair bump up in price from the LX, and just try to actually find one with a stick.

I suppose so, but that maintenance is gonna cost you some time, too.

That's a life-style choice, too. I guess some people will work really hard to make sure it looks like they're not working really hard, or something like that.

J.

for sure. but it's the amount we're discussing. i agree, many people have a negative experience of older car ownership, but in my opinion, that's more a function of /having/ to get the car maintained and then getting ripped off by the maintainer than it is the car and its expense averaged over time. [it doesn't have to be an old car for the owner to get ripped off*, but an old car sure is easy pickings for most, especially if the owner's not familiar with what goes on under the hood.]

:)

• a friend of mine got hosed by san francisco honda for an entirely new braking system on a 4 year old 30k mile civic.

new master cylinder. new front disks new front calipers new front flex hoses new front pads new rear drums new rear pistons new rear flex hoses new rear shoes, springs, clips, etc.

i think he paid ~$3k for the work.

i bought the same model car about a month apart from him. we lived and drove in the same town so it wasn't "san francisco hills" being a wear differentiatior. i got 60k miles out of my front pads, and i changed them with ~1/8" of pad material left. the rears were less than 20% worn. they'd blew smoke up his ass about the car being dangerous to drive unless the work was done immediately.

unbelievable audacity, but they knew he knew noting about cars, tried their luck, and struck gold. that kind of thing happens all day long, every day of the week. and /that/ is what makes people think older cars are expensive,

Been driving my Accord 2013 EXL for a couple of weeks now, that's with the four-cylinder engine and the CVT transmission. Also comes with a handy instantaneous and trip mileage indicator, first time I've had that (and about time). I haven't even filled the tank up yet, have been driving sparingly the last few weeks. But here are a few observations.

The rated mileage is supposed to be something like 27/36, up from last model's 23/34, or thereabouts. Problem was on the old model I never got more than 30 mpg on a tank, even with over 90% unobstructed freeway driving. And worse, around town (or in stop-and-go) it was a dog, often getting under 22 mpg. So I had high hopes for the new one.

I just took a long trip in my 2006 Accord coupe I4 -- 35 - 36 highway driving. Not a big improvement for the 13 from what I can see, although I suppose the bigger car and increased weight are the reason. I just hit 100k on the trip. No reason to sell as I have kept the maintenance up.

Have they been met? Yes and no.

It was not yet a full tank test, but on a 100 mile freeway round trip the indicated aggregate mileage was over 33. Assuming the indicator is accurate, that's more than 10% better than the previous model. Cruising at 70-80mph, the mileage is better yet.

On the other hand, around town the new model is no better - and may be worse. If you miss a couple of lights, the aggregate drifts below 20 mpg. Ouch.

FWIW, this is without trying the "economy mode" button but otherwise driving with a very light foot, guided by the instantaneous rating. Something the car seems to hate is feathering in acceleration, what seems to work better is giving it a small burst and the coasting, the CVT seems *very* aggressive about dropping the RPM to nothing when it can.

So, it looks to me like the direct-injection and CVT system could use a little more tuning. Hey, do you think standard maintenance will include a software update at some point?

J.