Honda Accord 2.2 i-CDTi Sport Graham Whyte 28/11/2003 When prior to a dinner engagement with our new neighbours, the husband mentioned discreetly that his wife preferred bran bread, I naturally did the right thing and scoured the shops for a loaf or two.

Have you ever been into a health-food shop? In an atmosphere seasoned with patchouli and ambient Mozart, you are attended to by quietly spoken, flaxen-haired girls who generally resemble anorexic Amish school-leavers. But they sell bran bread. Not, I was assured, just any old bran bread but the real McCoy, gallstone-ground by virgins from the foothills of Than-Et, and cheap at £4.95 a loaf.

You can imagine my consternation when, having served up slices of this stuff with the prawn cocktail, the hubby piped up: "Not sure the missus can cope wiv this; d'you 'ave any ord'n'ry bran bread?" Uh oh, Peckham accent, I shoulda bought 'Ovis.
Mind you, it wasn't the only example that week of the way that ears can play tricks. I had given another neighbour a lift to the station in the new Honda Accord i-CDTi, and he was absolutely convinced it had a petrol engine. "This has never got a diesel engine," he told me. "You can't hear it." Oh yes you can, but so quiet and so vibration-free is Honda's first-ever example of an in-house oil-burner, that anyone could be excused for thinking it was a petrol engine.

Even at idle speeds, when the characteristic detonation knock of a diesel engine is at its most pronounced, the Honda unit is barely audible. It makes the otherwise quite sophisticated HDi and JTD units used in Peugeots and Fiats seem almost agricultural. And it's not just because the Honda engine bay is deeply swathed in sound-absorbing material. For sure, insulation plays its part, but a lot of the 2.2-litre engine's subdued sound signature is the result of crafty engineering - as you might expect from a company that first made its name in engine design and construction.

Honda's response to the age-old diesel dichotomy of power and torque at the expense of noise and vibration is a six-pack solution that resolves the latter without compromising the former. The measures taken by Honda to attenuate noise and vibrations include two-stage fuel injection; a so-called 'second order' balancer shaft; a sophisticated acoustic engine cover; offset cylinders; a pendulum engine-mount system; and a lower-than-usual compression ratio resulting from the use of an optimised combustion chamber.

In the best spirit of belt-and-braces engineering, Honda has also beefed up the insulation in certain keys areas of the body - notably the A-pillars, fascia and centre tunnel, and, of course, under the bonnet. Unusually, the Accord i-CDTi is also fitted with slightly thicker front side-window glass, which not only contributes to minimising the engine noise but also cuts down on general road noise that would otherwise penetrate the cabin. In fact the only real sensation to penetrate the cabin is sheer pleasure: the sheer pleasure of driving one of the market's best D-segment cars, powered by one of the best engines - in any segment. Delivering 320 Nm of torque at 2000 rpm, and with at least 80 per cent of that figure on tap from as low as 1500 rpm, around town, the Honda engine almost negates the need for a clutch. Slot the car into third gear and cornering requires only the brake to control the speed, the flexible engine being able to pull strongly out of corners from little above pedal-bike pace.

Yet out of town, on minor country roads, the same gear proves 'long' enough to be the perfect choice for powering and braking the car through successive bends, with fourth and fifth coming into play only when the road opens up. Indeed, such is the nature of the torque-rich engine that fourth and fifth gears are both overdrive ratios, contributing to the Accord's notable economy. In fifth gear at 70 mph, the diesel engine pulls around 2100 rpm - more or less exactly at the point of peak torque for those instant squirts of acceleration that seem to occur when no-one's looking.

The word 'acceleration' does only scant justice to the sensation that accompanies squeezing the throttle at mid-range speeds; I prefer the word 'thrust'. And with that thrust comes the satisfaction of knowing that performance is not at the expense of economy - evidenced by an extra-urban consumption of 61.4 mpg. Even the urban cycle returns a very acceptable 42.2 mpg, resulting in a combined figure of 52.3 mpg.
With a top speed of 130 mph, and a 0-62 mph time of 9.4 seconds, the 140 PS diesel Accord Saloon is only milliseconds slower off the mark than the 154 PS 2.0-litre petrol model, and well in the same ball park in terms of top speed. To offset the comparable performance for almost 20 miles more per gallon, there is a premium. The Honda Accord 2.2 i-CDTi Sport Saloon (as tested) will set you back £18,700, compared with £17,495 for the 2.0 i-VTEC. But the diesel model gets Vehicle Ability Assist (VSA) as standard, a feature for which buyers of the 2.0-litre petrol-engined model must go without - not because Honda has a mean streak, but simply because with a torque rating of 'just' 190 Nm, the petrol engine is less likely to cause the wheels to break traction. VSA is standard on the 2.4-litre petrol-engined models - both Saloon and Tourer.

The extra torque of the diesel engine exceeds the rating of the standard 5-speed manual transmission used on the UK petrol models, and so the diesel gets the 'box from the V6 model offered to Uncle Sam's discerning punters. Yet despite the thicker shafts and so on, needed to handle the extra Issacs, the shift is just as light and notch-free as found on the 'box fitted to the petrol cars.

VSA, gearbox and engine aside, and the subtle changes to the suspension, buyers of a diesel Accord Sport take delivery of pretty much an identical car to those buying a 2.0-litre i-VTEC model. That is to say the specification of both models, be they in Sport or Executive trim, does not differentiate between the respective power units. For example, the Sport i-CDTi shares in common with its 2.0-litre petrol equivalent such niceties as twin front, side and curtain airbags; deadlocks with a Category 1 ultrasonic alarm and immobiliser; alloy wheels; dual-zone climate control; front fog lights, and cruise control. You also get as standard, across the range, the kind of driving sensation that derives not just from the torque and smoothness of the engine but from the superb driving position and top-class handling. I make no secret of the fact that I have been a fan of the new Accord since the day I first drove it, and having since tried every possible derivative I see no reason to change my opinion. If anything, my opinion has been reinforced by the new i-CDTi, despite its clumsy name.

There are few, if any, 'bad' cars around and it therefore follows that the vast majority are 'good'. What that means in the real world is clearly subjective, but for me it means a car that not only responds to driver input without drama but which also returns an emotional dividend - a dividend that increases with every encounter. The Accord is such a car - with knobs on - yet until quite recently emotion and Honda were mutually exclusive. Hondas, and in particular the Accord, sold on rational factors alone; things like build quality, reliability and residuals - worthy stuff, but not things you experience behind the wheel.
The new Accord has changed all that, and despite what you may think about diesel-engined cars - and many of you have yet to embrace the new culture of high-octane compression ignition - adding such a thing to the Accord in no way dilutes the appeal. If anything, the best just got better and BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz oil-burner drivers might well consider a move to the Accord as trading up - if not in image, at least in rewarding driveability.

The new engine is not restricted to one model. There is an Executive version, with a sunroof, 6-CD changer, leather seats, et al, for £20,200. The same engine also forms part of the Tourer line-up at £19,700 and £21,200 for the Sport and Executive models, respectively. The only downside to all this is that the Accord i-CTDi, in any shape or form, will not go on sale in the UK until February 2004.

In the meantime, if you still think Hondas are about rational and not emotional appeal, let me quote from the top. In a recent interview conducted by the motor industry's leading magazine, Automotive News, Takeo Fukui, Honda's president and CEO, placed a great deal of importance on what I term the emotional dividend. He is quoted as saying that "driving performance" is receiving "greater emphasis", and that the company is paying attention to "fun to drive" elements because he believes that is what customers are looking for. If the Accord i-CDTi is anything to go by, clearly the company is keeping its ear to the ground. ho_accord_03_41.jpg ho_accord_03_42.jpg ho_accord_03_43.jpg