DickRasmussen wrote:
JamesShort wrote:
I drove a V6 Accord coupe with a manual when my wife was looking at her i4 sedan (5AT) that we eventually bought. The v6 coupe was very refined for a Honda....almost too much so. Very soft ride rate. You couldn't hear the engine at 5k rpms and the tranny shifter was rubbery and the clutch was so soft, there was no feel to it. Anyway, I know you don't want a manual.
Honda has been known in the past for making mediocre slushboxes, but the 5AT in my wifes 09 Accord is quite a bit of improvement from the 4AT in her previous civic. It shifts smoothly AND fast (not one or the other like previously). It downshifts as you decel rather than waiting for you to get back on it like in the other Honda auto's I've driven.
Anyway, the 5AT V6 coupe seems as though it will fit your bill: auto, 2 doors, room for a few bodies in the trunk, soft-ish ride rate and yet power to boot.
James,
Good info since the Accord Coupe is on my possibles list. Might be too long for our garage.
Is the i4 a 4 cylinder? If so, how is the normal and hill driving in regard to downshifts to hold speed or accelerate?
The Sedan is BIG...it barely fits in my garage. The coupe is definitely shorter if I'm not mistaken.
The 4 cyl is a 2.4L K series so it's pretty torquey for a 4 banger. Very rarely will you have to floor it to persuade the tranny to downshift (as in it can generally get you up the hill with an unnoticeable 5->4 instead of a loud and unsmooth 4->2 like her previous Civic). The only thing I've noticed is that unless you come to an absolute stop (ie 0.0 mph), it might not downshift into 1st such that you'll be in 2nd so if you need to get on it to get past someone on a merging on ramp, it will require a heavy push on the pedal to instigate a 2->1 downshift. However, the v6 will have enough low-ish rpm torque to avoid this I would guess.
However, with your budget, I'd get the v6 anyway because the fuel economy of the 4 cyl is not that much better than the v6....she gets about 26 mpg with 95% city driving...on highway trips, it's got 30-31mpg. The v6 would probably get 24-25.
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. Another issue was the brochures showed it in the snow with skis. What I learned while reading the owners manual while the dealer tried to fix some of the pre-delivery problems was that the GT version tires were too big to allow chain clearance with California Mountain mandated tire chains in many snow conditions. And on and on and on and on. 
That is what this exercise is all about.