Almost a perfect car - class above an Accord

I have spent some time in a Dodge Magnum, Honda Accord, and Pontiac Grand Prix. I decided easily on the Pontiac Grand Prix. I will admit the Magnum *is* a bit better of a car but, but the lease rates just aren't competitive because in the end buying a car is mostly a financial issue.

The Accord was definitely on the bottom of the list and I would say this car competes more with a Corolla or the new Cobalt. I would *not* even consider the Accord to be in the same class as a Magnum or Grand Prix; i don't care what a website or magazine says. Below I'm going to rate the car for what matters for me:

Sound Proofing:

The Grand Prix has very, very low interior noise when cruising on non higway roads - almost as much as the new Jeep Charokee. On highways this car catches more noise but still very pleasant. The Accord was similar to my old 2002 Cavalier. Very dissapointing for a $35,000 car.

Ride Quality:

I like a soft ride. This car had a ride very similar to a Dodge Magnum, Maxima, etc. It IS more quiet than Magnum over major bumps and you can't hear it much over small cracks. The ride is almost perfect to some - firm, yet quiet and swallows most road inprefections. Myself, I would prefer an even softer more floaty air-type ride, but my first choice of a Buick Allure was priced too high. The steering is great by the way. Even lighter than the Buick. Turning the wheel requires little effort and samem with parking.

Power and Gas mileage:

This is where the car really shines. I averaged about 25mpg on my trip. I travelled 400km's on $36 of gas which is a couple dollars of my 2002 Cavalier. The reason why the milleage is so good is because the engine is of an old designed and the car is geared conservitavely unlike the Magnum or the G6. The Accord get's typicaly poorer milleage because the V6 it uses is small and the gearing is more aggressive. Thus, you have to push on the gas harder to get moving. This sounds good on paper and pushes out higher 0-60 times, but has the price of the gas milleage. With the Grad Prix, the 3.8 is large and *more than sufficient* to move the car (unlike the Magnum's 3.5). Thus, the driver only need give a bit of gas to get moving with traffic. However, when you DO give it gas, the engine opens up and the tires can spin out trust me. Over taking other cars at 140km/h is easy with little effort. I took out several Acura's, Vans, and SUV's. At one point I had a laughing fit because all the other cars where squirming as they couldn't pass me and ran out of steam. The Accord's V6 seems *just enough* to get the car movign with generous amounts of gas. The Magnum also needed the same kind of push (hence the 18 mpg's I got on the same trip). The magazine will never catch on to the reason why GM continues to use this engine, but there is indeeded many reasons why.

Interior and other goodies:

Well I love the interior. I love the look and feel of the seats. Also, there are some other nice things about this car that people may not realize. Firstly, you never have to worry about turning on or off the lights. It was even snowing out and the lights turned on. I don't know how it knew but it did. There is also a computer console that tells you the time, date, if a door is ajar (once I left the trunk open and it alerted me), etc. If you don't turn on the lights when it's late, it will alert you and tell you turn on your rlights. It also contains all the counters like the trip and stuff. Also, there is an oil change detector. Typically, oil only needs to be changed 7-8 months. The computer will notify you. Not the accord or magnum had a sustem like this.

Conclusion:

Sometimes I just can't beleive the price of this car. I can't beleive how good the mileage is, the sound proofing, great handling ride, and the power. I just can't understand why someone would pay $8,000 more on similar (less) equiped Accord when it fails missereably against the the Grand Prix in all aspects. If you want an Accord, I am being very serious when I say to go for a Cobalt, Corolla, Mazda 6, or something along those lines.

The Grand Prix is truley a great car. Almost on par with a Chrysler 300, but is the only thing I would compare it to (which is saying a lot). I would say that the Grand Prix is defenitely one of the finer cars on the road. The Accord should not even be mentioned in this review because I just feel that it's not close to being anywhere on par with the 300, Grand Prix, etc.