Item: Used Honda Accord Tourer 2008 - 2015
Rating: 3
Author: What Car? Team

The <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/ford/mondeo/estate/used-review/n354">Ford Mondeo Estate</a> is both good to drive and extremely practical. The boot is huge, and interior space is plentiful. On top of that there's a wide range of engines, most of which are smooth and fairly refined, and it shouldn't cost you a bundle to run.

Like the Mondeo, the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/volkswagen/passat/estate/used-review/n715">Volkswagen Passat Estate</a> is good to drive and has an enormous boot, larger than the Accord's. With the Passat there's a large range of desirable and familiar engines, combining performance and efficiency, and a classy interior of exceptional quality.

<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars/honda/accord?used=true&amp;amp;nearlynew=true">Find a used Honda Accord Tourer in the What Car? Classifieds here</a>

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Estate

Honda is a company that doesn’t like to follow the crowd. So, while it competes in most of the traditional sectors of the car market, in each case it does something a little bit different.

The Jazz, for example, might look like just another rival to Britain’s best-selling car, the Ford Fiesta, but it’s actually much more practical than its rivals, with a flexible boot and Tardis-like interior.

The bigger Civic is also a practical choice, but it’s mainly distinguished by having eye-catching, love-it-or-hate-it styling, despite competing in a sector of the market that’s usually more conservative than a blue rosette.

And while it may not seem so radical now, Honda’s large SUV, the CR-V, was one of the first to forego any pretence of being an off-roader and instead focus on on-road driving dynamics.

HONDA

ACCORD

The Honda Accord Tourer is well-equipped and stylish, but it's too small in the boot department

Used Honda Accord Tourer 2008 - 2015

The Accord Tourer isn't as efficient as the saloon model. The diesel models do an average of 47.9mpg or 47mpg, depending on their power rating, while the 2.0-litre petrol does around 38mpg and the 2.4-litre petrol about 32mpg.

When it comes to emissions, the lower-powered diesel emits 155g/km of CO2, while the higher powered version produces 157g/km. The petrols lag behind, producing between 173g/km and 215g/km of CO2.

Insurance-wise, the majority of models sit between insurance groups 22 and 27.

Servicing costs are generally slightly cheaper than those of rivals such as the Ford Mondeo and the Volkswagen Passat, and there are plenty of independent specialists who will look after your Accord Tourer as it grows old.

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The Honda Accord Tourer is well-equipped and stylish, but it's too small in the boot department

Think of £5000 as the starting point for an Accord Tourer, at the time of writing, this for a 2008/09 car with an average to high mileage for the year, and a full service history. Up this to between £6000 and £8000 and you'll find decent 2010/11 cars with an average mileage, while £8000 to £10,000 will net you a good 2013/14 car from an independent dealer.

The majority of Accords are diesel-powered, mainly because they were bought as fleet and lease cars. The fabulously smooth and flexible 2.2 i-DTEC is the pick of the range, in either 148bhp or 177bhp variants.

The entry-level ES is well equipped but our choice would be to seek out an EX Nav-trimmed car, which gets leather upholstery, sat-nav and Bluetooth.

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<h2>What we're looking for:</h2><ul><li>Huge boot and excellent practicality</li> <li>Plenty of interior space so you can carry passengers as well as luggage </li> <li>Strong engines to pull a heavily laden car</li> <li>Comfortable ride, especially on the motorway</li> <li>Low running costs for company car drivers</li></ul>

If you’re after bags of space but you don’t want to commit to the van-like dimensions and styling of an MPV, there are some great estate cars on offer that should do the job.

Tricks to look out for include an electric tailgate&nbsp;that opens automatically when you wave your foot under the rear bumper; this is&nbsp;particularly handy if you’re trying to load in a heavy or&nbsp;bulky item. You should also look for handles in the side of the boot itself that can drop down the rear seats; these are much more convenient than having to walk around the side of the car to do it.

There are some terrific estates at most price ranges. The humble Skoda Fabia Estate offers cavernous space for not much cash at all, for example.

Further up the price range, another of our perennial favourites is the Skoda Superb Estate;&nbsp;it’s great to drive and as practical as most people should ever need. Meanwhile, for serious mile-munching ability and a premium, well-finished interior, it’s hard to look beyond the BMW 5 Series Touring.

The Accord Tourer will have been used on motorways, so check for stone chips and crakced windscreens, and in urban car parks, so check for scuffs and dents on the bodywork, and alloy wheel damage.

Honda always does well in customer satisfaction and reliability surveys, and the Accord always upheld this tradition, often finishing near or at the top of various reliability and customer satisfaction surveys. In our most recent reliability survey Honda finished in sixth place out of 32 manufacturers.

Reported serious engine and gearbox problems are few. However, there has been the odd grumble from owners as the cars have grown older, with the interior the most problematic. Stereo issues and temperamental Bluetooth phone systems have all been mentioned, but the biggest reported concern is cabin trim and build quality. Squeaks, rattles and poor resistance to everyday wear and tear are common complaints.

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The Honda Accord Tourer is probably not the first car that springs to mind when you're considering buying an estate. Indeed sales figures for this car seem to confirm that, because despite it being pretty good to drive and a spacious loadlugger the Accord never set the charts on fire.

In actual fact the Accord, which has been around in various forms for many years, was once one of Honda's most popular cars before families shifted their focus from saloon cars and estates to SUVs. This last version of the car was bigger in every dimension than the model it replaced, in a deliberate move to shift the Accord upmarket and set it against rivals like the BMW 3 Series Touring and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Alas in a competitive, and shrinking, market most people chose to buy the premium cars, but there's still a lot to like about this Accord, and it becomes a much more attractive proposition used. It was designed with the business user in mind, for one, so it's refined on the motorway, with virtually no wind and road noise penetrating into the interior.

Engine choices were limited to two petrols, a 2.0-litre and a more powerful 2.4, and two diesels, a 148bhp and a 177bhp version of the same 2.2-litre unit. The smaller petrol engine feels a little sluggish in the Accord Tourer, and the 2.4 version is a little noisy, whereas the diesels are both pretty smooth with the more powerful version being surprisingly swift too.

The entry-level ES trim model comes with climate control, alloy wheels and electric windows, while EX trim gets leather upholstery, sat-nav and Bluetooth. GT adds a sporty bodykit, while Nav models add sat-nav. There's also the sporty Type S, which gets goodies such as leather-trimmed and heated electric seats

Inside, the driving position is excellent and the instruments clear and easy to read, and the quality of the dashboard and its materials are more than good enough to justify the car's upmarket credentials. There's plenty of leg and head room for three in the back, while those in the front won't go short on space, either. Unfortunately, for an estate, the boot space isn't great. Intrusion from the suspension makes for an odd-shaped space, and while there are 406 litres of space with the back seats in place and 1183 litres when they're folded, it's well behind the load space offered in estate car rivals such as the contemporary Ford Mondeo and Volkswagen Passat.

As you'd expect from Honda, the Accord has a solid reliability rating. However, although the Accord Tourer represents decent value used, the Ford Mondeo Estate offers a bit more for less money.

<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/used-cars/honda/accord?used=true&amp;amp;nearlynew=true">Find a used Honda Accord Tourer in the What Car? Classifieds here</a>

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Used Honda Accord Tourer 2008 - 2015 review

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Used Honda Accord Tourer 2008 - 2015 review

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