I just bought my 2017 exl hybrid. My initial impression is I hate it.

The steering has little to no feedback.

The car sways like a mack truck is infront of you at 70mph but there is nothing in front of me. The lane assist at these speeds seems to almost put the car in a death wobble. And even below that speed I feel I am constantly correcting my steering left and right to go straight.

The radio in aggravating and I wish it wouldn't automatically play pandora when plugged in.

The fit and finish is poor. 70mph on I95 here and the left front dash rattles sooooo badly.

I came from a 2013 Regal GS which I liked but the manufacture couldnt figure out why the Turbo Wastegate wouldnt close until 3500rpm.

A little background I am a ASE certified Tech. And worked for Toyota as a Assistant Service Manager for a decade.

I don't think the swaying is something wrong with the car. They just put a crappy suspension in it that rides like a Roadmaster.

 

@slowregal I came from a prior 1998 Honda Accord by way of a 2012 VW Passat SE TDI. This is my first Hybrid and the first car with electronic steering and advanced sensing features. I have driven other hybrids which were the Prius and the Camry Hybrid.

The Accords are known to have better handling characteristics some cars in the class, but I don't think this includes the Hybrid. I believe it includes electronic steering, the added weight of the Hybrid system (I believe this is about 300 lbs -- the "transmission" is slightly heavier than the traditional CVT and then there is the battery pack), the 17-inch wheels. I understand there were some suspension improvements for 2017. I have yet pushed the car to its limits in a corner to fully appreciate the feedback.

I didn't have a lot of expectations for the Lane Assist system; I see it more as an aide to the driver on road trips and less useful in other situations. I have noticed it gets little confused around interstate exits and turning lanes, but it seems to try to keep the car in the center of the lane. I still keep my hands on the wheel and I still find myself micro correcting, so it's not a nuance.

The Andriod-based radio is slow to respond and a bit buggy. I have already had the head unit software crash and the GPS software lock up while driving. I hope Honda comes out with software updates.

The rattle is a problem; I hope that you can work it out with service. Our cars were built in Japan to assure such things don't happen... perhaps something happened in your car.

I am starting to get used the behavior of the car but now I see it as transportation and less entertaining to drive.

 

Well Honda knows it was heavier. The sway bars are substantially larger to handle the added weight. my car is still at the dealership. But they said the alignment was toed out which is what I told them.

They are replacing a speaker saying it was blowen.... not the problem as if you press on the panel the rattle stops. They are fixing all the things they messed up.

The lane assist blows



As for the handling and all the loaner I have is a 4 cyl 17 2 door accord. Definitely slower, handling not as good but drives straight lol. If the alignment was it this will drive a million times better.

I am looking at if the Honda HFP performance handling kit will fit. But if not Ultra racing makes a tune of braces to fix it and they are light so 40lbs or so and you can make it ride like a tank.

 

Hi,

I am planing to buy Honda Hybrid. After reading all your comments, I am getting Mixed signals on the car. Do you think it better to go with this hybrid or any other you suggest. I live in Atlanta,

 

@Kishore Kumar

If you don't mind me asking, have you owned a hybrid in the past? Have you owned a car with a CVT? What are you driving today?

I went from a VW Passat TDI to the Honda Accord and had a few issues because the car is less satisfying to drive. What is the distance of your typical commute?

When the car is in Econ mode, it can be a little sluggish and refuse to accelerate at the rate I was used to. Finally, when the car realizes I wanted to accelerate it would race the engine to get the power which I found deeply annoying (that rattled my sense of Honda quality), but I eventually got used to it. You can learn to control this with your right foot, but it takes some practice or not use Econ mode.

I recommend you push the car on the test drive. Drive it at 25 mph and try to get to 45 mph as quickly as you would want to pull into Atlanta traffic.

The mpg is a secondary requirement for me - I did not realize that I would miss an engaging driving experience of my prior car. Honda's owner's manual called the car "Sport Hybrid" -- I beg to differ. Car and Driver summed it up best when they said: "The greenest Accord is not our favorite Accord." In some respects, I wish I would have bought the Accord V6 Touring or had considered the Audi A4 (small and $$$).

Local dealers are discounting the car. I used TrueCar.com, had a two quotes in hand for $5100 off the car, pre-approved loan, and did not have a trade... it was the smoothest car transaction of my life. If you want to buy the car, they can be had at a reasonable price with some preparation.

 

@Slowregal - The more I think about it; the alignment could be a huge factor in your disliking LKAS. I would be curious to see if your impressions change once you get the car back.

 

If you don't mind me asking, have you owned a hybrid in the past? Have you owned a car with a CVT? What are you driving today?

I went from a VW Passat TDI to the Honda Accord and had a few issues because the car is less satisfying to drive. What is the distance of your typical commute?

When the car is in Econ mode, it can be a little sluggish and refuse to accelerate at the rate I was used to. Finally, when the car realizes I wanted to accelerate it would race the engine to get the power which I found deeply annoying (that rattled my sense of Honda quality), but I eventually got used to it. You can learn to control this with your right foot, but it takes some practice or not use Econ mode.

I recommend you push the car on the test drive. Drive it at 25 mph and try to get to 45 mph as quickly as you would want to pull into Atlanta traffic.

The mpg is a secondary requirement for me - I did not realize that I would miss an engaging driving experience of my prior car. Honda's owner's manual called the car "Sport Hybrid" -- I beg to differ. Car and Driver summed it up best when they said: "The greenest Accord is not our favorite Accord." In some respects, I wish I would have bought the Accord V6 Touring or had considered the Audi A4 (small and $$$).

Local dealers are discounting the car. I used TrueCar.com, had a two quotes in hand for $5100 off the car, pre-approved loan, and did not have a trade... it was the smoothest car transaction of my life. If you want to buy the car, they can be had at a reasonable price with some preparation.[/QUOTE]

 

@Kishore Kumar, I think you are getting into the car with reasonable expectations. Check into using TrueCar.com. I saw dealers reliably discounting all trim levels of the Accord Hybrid by $3000 when I bought two months ago.

Since there was more discounting in the Touring, I decided to upgrade to the Touring and get more features. I recommend getting a pre-approved loan. After discounting the car, dealers like to make up the discounting by fooling with the interest rate. If you have a pre-approved loan, you can avoid it.

 

After 3+ months of getting acquainted with this car in both in-town and open highway, I am impressed with the overall performance. I also sense that the program is very sensitive to external variables such as ambient temperature and wind, attempting to provide the best economy possible. Cold days demand that the gas engine run additionally to provide hot water for the demands of the heater. Likewise warm days obviously take more to replenish the battery when running the A/C. I anticipated these results from conversations with a friend who owns a Prius. From many years and driving an RV, I am no stranger to how wind is a friend or foe with fuel economy, but was surprised that a 20 mph tailwind will produce 60+ mpg at a steady cruise setting of 60 mph, while that same velocity as a head wind will drop to the low 40s with other variables mostly the same. That is a large swing for a relatively small, presumably aerodynamic design. Over the 3 months, my accumulated mpg is close to the EPA figure of 48, while low 60s are easily obtained in town without causing any distress to fellow drivers.

2 observations have me puzzled and a bit concerned as I expect more from Honda from a safety aspect.

In my opinion the car should turn off automatically when in Park and the driver leaves the car taking the fob with him, perhaps even auto-locking the doors as a user setting. Should one park in their attached garage and go in the house neglecting to press the power button not realizing the car is on, but not currently running, the gas engine will fire up in time at will and possibly fill the garage and house with odorless carbon monoxide. Not good Honda. I haven't personally tested this, but the dealership insists the car will not automatically shut off in Park in the absence of the fob.

The 2nd is the operation of the Adaptive Cruise Control. I've found through trial and error, the most reasonable setting for me with the highway traffic I generally encounter is when there are 2 bars displayed on the indicator. Invariably, a driver will cut in front activating the regen function to maintain the desired gap between the cars. It feels like I was intentionally hitting the brakes, but I get no indication that the brake lights are coming on. While the ACC may help prevent me from rear-ending the person in front, the sudden deceleration without brake lights seems to invite a possible collision from the rear. Both of these seem to be fixable in software, but I'm not finding a way to address this with Honda.

 

@JRZ, when I visit my dry cleaners, I often will leave the car on and walk away from the car. The car will respond with several beeps. I have not tested this yet but after those beeps, I doubt you can take the car out of Park with an absent keyfob.

It's harder to start the car from the remote. You have to press the lock button for a moment and then hold down the remote start button for a second to get it to start. The remote start operation will only run the car for 10 minutes.

I have had a similar observation with the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). If anyone enters the within following distance from the car in front of you, the car will brake and not recover quickly. Over time, I have begun to recognize these events and, if I don't deem the as a risk, I will put my foot on the accelerator to override ACC. Once the threat clears, I can remove my foot from the accelerator for ACC to take over.

I have a dislike for cruise control in my car; I often will set the speed of the car at the speed limit. The car will maintain speed going up a hill and then brake on the downward side of a hill. I realize that it's keeping me at the set speed, but I honestly believe it's a safety risk to brake on the downside of a hill. First, it wastes kinetic energy. Second, the people behind me are not expecting the slowdown. Now, I find myself bumping the cruise control up by 3 miles an hour at the top of the hill to prevent it from braking on the downward side.

In both of the above examples, I am changing the way I am driving to accommodate the nanny features of the car. I don't mind doing it in the first case, but I'm annoyed by having to do this in the second case.

When driving at night and the ACC activates regen braking, you can glance in your rear view mirror and see the center brake light is on. Regen braking does activate the tail lights.