New Car Review of the 2004 Honda Accord Mid-Size Sedan and Coupe

Description: Mid-Size Sedan and Coupe
Base MSRP Range: $15,900-$28,500
Invoice Price Range: $14,318-$25,641

Honda's mid-size sedan and coupe debuted last year with slick new exterior styling, new powertrains aboard and expanded cabins with more room for riders and more standard equipment. The glittery face and edgy lines shaping the sedan look sophisticated, even expensive. A steep rake to hood and windshield adds notched corners and multi-lens headlamp clusters in geometric formats. Fenders and flanks reveal not only hard and straight lines denoting strength and speed but also complex curves with both convex and concave angles for artistic sculpture.

The coupe borrows enough styling cues from the sedan to maintain a family resemblance yet the two-door seems to hunker down on pavement due to a lower roofline and the high beltline with elongated doors plus sweeping rear fenders that suggest speed ad agility. The impression of strength and speed is supported by a pair of engines from Honda developed expressly to out-perform predecessors in terms of power and efficiency as well as fuel economy. Accord's base four-cylinder engine displaces 2.4 liters with output extending to 160 hp.

Both coupe and sedan carry the base engine. In the sedan, it comes with three trims of DX, LX and EX, while the coupe shows LX and EX issues. Both also offer an aluminum 3.0-liter V6 with single overhead cam and VTEC controls. It runs up to 240 hp. Available in five-speed electronically-controlled automatic transmission or six-speed manual slips into the top coupe edition, EX V6.

The fancy five-seat cabin features LED lighting for instruments and separate climate controls for driver and passenger. Trims EX-L and EX V6 add XM satellite radio as standard equipment, while curtain-style side air bags are now optional on EX four-cylinder models.

Deep Green Pearl is one of several new body shades available for both coupe and sedan.