The 2011 Honda Accord Facelift
Honda has given the Honda Accord the mildest of facelifts and the smallest of mechanical tweaks for 2011.
I know. You’re an Accord owner – or a Honda fan – and you’re looking at the photo above and trying to work out what’s changed. The truth is, not a lot.
Let’s call the 2011 facelift for the Honda Accord subtle. That’s probably kinder than invisible. But the changes are almost invisible. Despite the Accord getting a new bumper, grill and headlights at the front and restyled bumper and lights at the back. You’d have to know the Accord inside out to work out the changes.
But to be fair to Honda the changes under the skin amount to more. Well, a bit more. Tweaking the Accord’s 2.2 litre i-DTEC lump has yielded a 9g/km improvement in CO2 emissions with a manual and 11g/km with an auto. You also save 10g/km if you opt for the Estate.
The 2.0 i-VTEC also gets tweaked and it too mashes some extra carbons to cut its emissions by 9g/km. But unlike most engine tweaks these days there don’t seem to be any extra horses or torques on offer anywhere.
Inside there have been a few titivates going on, with dark silver panels and shiny silver grips for the handles and handbrake. New seat materials and linings appear on the ES, and both ES and EX get pretty blue footwell lights.
Honda has also had a play with the dampers – in collaboration with Honda engineers in the UK and Germany – to ‘Refine’ the damper setup. Which we’re taking as ‘We’ve made the ride more European’.
Not a huge facelift, but all improvements help to make the Accord a better car. It was already very good – if a bit on the pricey side – and there’s nothing in this facelift that will make the Accord any less acomplished.
And if you’re going to Geneva, you’ll be able to play ‘Spot the Facelift’ on the Honda stand.
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