Reviews

From the January 2001 issue of Car and Driver. At Schwalbenschwanz, a horseshoe-shaped left-hander on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, probably named for a machine that suctions vomit off upholstery, it begins to rain. Hans Stuck just stomps the accelerator. Most Powerful Crossovers and SUVs on Sale Today 2020 BMW X5 M BMW has hired the stringy-haired, […] More

View Photos Marc UrbanoCar and Driver There’s an anodyne unpretentiousness to the updated 2020 Volkswagen Passat. It looks more distinctive than before yet doesn’t call attention to itself or announce much of anything about the person who owns it. It’s a plainly wrapped family sedan with modest performance and generous interior and cargo space. While […] More

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Taylor-ConstantineCar and Driver

From the May 1977 issue of Car and Driver.
Everybody likes the Honda Accord. Each cynical road-tester we set adrift with the car returned a hopeless Accord fanatic. Even now, legions of Honda Accord zealots are touting it as everything from the ultimate urban-car to the super-est super coupe. So let’s cut loose and admit that the Accord is both a stunning achievement and, at a sticker price just over $4000, a stupefying value. Why, the Accord is the very thing we’ve been looking for.

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At first, the Accord might seem like just an­other transportation module cast in the famil­iar mold of front-wheel drive and hatchback, a Honda Civic with a thyroid condition. But a long list of standard features belies its heri­tage. Indeed, the long list of equipment fea­tured on the Accord might have been pinched from a far more elaborate and expensive automobile: five-speed transmission, rack-and-pinion steering, radial tires, AM/FM radio, tricky side-window defrosters and a hatch­back window wiper.

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Taylor-ConstantineCar and Driver

This grab bag of obligatory standard equip­ment may merely be some wily Honda sales strategy, but it seems to demonstrate an eminently sensible approach to automobile construction. In one mad stroke, Honda has invented an automobile that appeals not only to the vast middle ground of car-buyers, but to both extremes of the spectrum as well, the rationalists and the sports. Stripped-down, base-price cars, though the most rational of items, tend to attract a limited audience will­ing to endure bare-metal interior finishes and rubber floor mats. While the Accord’s size and gas mileage are wholeheartedly rational, Honda refused to cripple the Accord’s list of standard features in order to provide an affordable price. Building only one Accord mod­el simplifies the firm’s task, just as it did Henry Ford’s, but Honda then broadened the car’s appeal by installing all the luxuries.

In a Teutonic spirit of effi­ciency, every cranny of this Honda is functional, from the most informative of instrument panels to the tiny change tray installed in the dash.

The Accord marshals every desirable trend in small-car design. In a Teutonic spirit of efficiency, every cranny of this Honda is functional, from the most informative of instrument panels to the tiny change tray installed in the dash. The car’s 15,000-mile tune-up in­tervals suggest the ultimate in Japanese reliability. Responsive controls snap it around with the zest of an Italian sport coupe. And underneath it all, the comfort quotient is pure American: lots of interior space and seats with enough fore-and-aft travel to accommodate even really gross people.

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Taylor-ConstantineCar and Driver

Some dealers have reportedly taken advantage of the Accord’s popularity and bumped up their profit margins with outrageous preparation costs and other strategies, but Honda hopes that the 60,000 Accords it will bring into the U.S. in 1977 will solve the scarcity problem, reduce the waiting time (currently about three months) and bring the dealers into line. Evidently, the Accord’s success caught Honda without a reserve of production capacity, and the firm has been hurriedly converting Civic assembly lines to meet the demand.

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Taylor-ConstantineCar and Driver

Scuttling around in the Accord is guaranteed to bring a maniacal grin to the face of even the most hidebound rationalist. Darting past mail trucks and shutting the door on taxis is never a problem, thanks to the agile handling and hard-hitting brakes. You can even indulge in a little heavy yelling with Team­sters, backed up by the assurance that the Accord’s five-speed box permits a flashy getaway and shifts as positive as a ratchet from Snap-on Tools.
Perhaps more important than the Accord’s grins-per-mile and mechanical harmony, however, is the way in which it captures the thinking of Japanese automakers. Real value, Honda suggests, is more than merely a cheap price, and transportation is far more than a econobox. It’s the Honda Accord—the very thing we’ve been looking for.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1977 Honda Accord
VEHICLE TYPEFront-engine, front-wheel-drive, 4-passenger hatchback coupe
PRICE AS TESTED $4195 (base price: $4145)
ENGINE TYPE 4-in-line, water-cooled, cast-iron block and aluminum head, 1×3-bbl Keihin carburetorDisplacement: 97.6 cu in, 1600ccPower: 68 hp @ 5000 rpm
TRANSMISSION 5-speed manual
DIMENSIONSWheelbase: 93.7 inLength: 162.8 inCurb weight: 1980 lb
C/D TEST RESULTSStanding ¼-mile: 18.9 sec @ 70.0 mphTop speed (observed): 91 mphBraking, 70-0 mph: 208 ft
FUEL ECONOMYC/D observed city/highway: 28/34 mpg

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

From the October 1995 issue of Car and Driver.
Ford’s Explorer has been gobbling the lion’s share of sport-utility sales for several years now, moving off dealer lots in numbers far greater than those of the second- and third-place offer­ings. That’s a fairly convincing display of marketing primacy, but check out this follow-up shot. It’s a V-8-powered Explorer, using a modified version of the pushrod 4.9-liter engine we know so well from the Mustang and other Ford vehicles.

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The reasons a V-8 is now possible for the Explorer are, according to Ford offi­cials, threefold. First, the Explorer got a new control-arm front suspension with its facelift for ’94, which made space for a huskier powerplant. Second, the adoption of the “Romeo” overhead-cam engine by the Mustang freed up production of the pushrod 4.9-liter V-8 at Ford’s Cleveland engine plant. Finally, there’s Ford 2000: a company reorganization intended to empower product planners and engineers to press on with projects without having to go through five vice-presidents for approval.
With the engine bay opened up fore-and-aft as well as side to side, the V-8 was shoehorned into a lower position than the V-6, allowing straighter driveshaft angles than with the 4.0-liter. To get enough clearance between the front of the engine and the Explorer’s radiator, Ford con­tracted Eaton to supply a “pancake” fan clutch to save space. Because the V-8 makes too much torque for the usual Explorer transmission, the automatic over­drive unit found in the T-Bird and Cougar was pressed into the role. And that required some modifications to the dash-panel tunnel for adequate clearance.
Having found a place for the V-8 in the engine bay, Ford engineers discovered a few packaging problems regarding induc­tion and exhaust systems. The exhaust clearance problem was dealt with by having tubular exhaust manifolding sweep upward from the ports before diving down below the dash panel. The manifolding is wrapped in a ceramic bandage to protect nearby lines and fluids from heat damage.
A GT40 inlet manifold was found to fit quite tidily on top of the V-8 and was adapted for the purpose, along with the basic GT40 cylinder-head pattern. Because of the peculiar exhaust layout, the sparkplug location was changed. Also, says Paul Guaresimo, chief product engineer, the new plug position helps stabilize engine idling.
Explorers are not sports cars, so various truck camshafts were tried in an effort to achieve the horsepower/torque relation­ship appropriate to the vehicle type. The figures came out as 210 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque.
The new engine-transmission added about 170 pounds to the front end of the vehicle, but the new power easily over­came that disadvantage. A little balancing of suspension values has produced an Explorer that feels no more nose-heavy than its six-cylinder sibling. In fact, Ford engineers found that the highest-rated springs for Explorer worked just fine when teamed with revalved shocks and thicker stabilizers.
The Explorer V-8 also gets Ford’s new C3 steering pump, which is quieter and more efficient than the previous unit. To cope with the extra torque being spun to the rear axle (the V-8 is available only in rear-drive vehicles for the moment), two pairs of rods anchor the rear axle to the frame to prevent axle windup. The result, according to Guaresimo, is a noticeable reduction in vibration.
As we discovered on a short preview drive, the V-8—powered Explorer has the easygoing responses that good torque provides. The V-8 burble during hard acceleration is very pleasing, and it dials back to an unobtrusive hum when cruising. You never have to get as deep into the throttle during normal driving as you do with the V-6, and the powertrain feels altogether effortless. There has been no discernible loss of maneuverability brought on by the 225-pound overall weight increase over the rear-drive six-cylinder Explorer.
In general, the Explorer has a more convincing upscale feel. Adding only about $1400 to the price, the V-8 model looks set to cash in on its V-6 partner’s success.

Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
1996 FORD EXPLORER XLT V-8
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 5-door wagon
PRICE AS TESTED: $26,140
ENGINE TYPE: pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, EEC-IV engine-control system with port fuel injectionDisplacement: 302 cu in, 4942ccPower: 210 hp @ 4500 rpmTorque: 280 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS:Wheelbase: 111.5 inLength: 188.5 inWidth: 70.2 inHeight: 67.0 inCurb weight: 4450 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):Zero to 60 mph: 9.4 secZero to 100 mph: 40.0 secStanding ¼-mile: 16.8 sec @ 82 mph
FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):EPA city/highway: 14/19 mpg

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