Hi all... newb from Vancouver Island, BC here.

A brief intro: A long time VW lover, put off by the consistent electrical and other problems... was going to buy a newer Jetta TDI, but was sorely dissapointed when reading about reliability etc. So i started on a very long quest to decide what family car to get. I took a square one approach which was to consider every brand out there (even though I traditionally hate American vehicles). I used consumerreports.org , JDPower, and good ol' google.

It will not surprise you that it came down to an Accord or a Camry in a pretty big hurry. I test drove various models and trim packages of each. For my tastes, I can't see why anyone would favor the Camry... while smooth and powerful enough, for me it lacks the style and handling of the Accords I drove. Especially at higher speeds... when i took the Accord up to 160km/h on the highway, it took curves very well... at 140km/h I felt the Camry felt a bit boat like... although it is a big car.

So I think I have settled on one... a 2003 LX 5spd 2.4L w/ SAB and 73,000kms (not miles). I just wanted to satisfy myself with respect to crash ratings, so I went to the NHTSA website, and looked the Accord up.

The 4 door WITHOUT side air bags performed very very well (link)
But for some strange reason, they did not perform the side crash tests on the 2003 4 door with SAB.

- why would they not test with the SAB?
- can I assume that the model w/ SAB would perform at least as well as the model without, and presumably better.

Anyways, just looking to know how well this car performs as far as safety is concerned.

Thanks again... hope to be sticking around here once I finalize the deal later today.

 

according to automotive.com it got 5 stars accross the board....

http://www.automotive.com/2003/101/h...ety/index.html

 

Thanks Sir Nasty... that test seems to be for the 2dr version... although it pretty much mirrors what the NHTSA said.

So the car is a done deal now.... I am proud new owner of 2003 Honda Accord LX 5spd

 

in the upper right hand corner there is a drop down box so you can select 4dr sedan.... kind of a mute point now though....


Congrats on the car!

 

i did select that option, but it still came up with the 2 door... anyways, I knew it rated well... i just wanted to know how well (and also why there were no side impact tests on the model with side airbags).

Im way stoked about the car... I have driven older cars my whole life... Im coming to this Accord from an 89 Jetta