Special test Honda Accord Type S in France (our route II)

Today we will finish the route of our test through French lands of the Honda Accord Type S with 180 CV. In the first part we told you about the first 300 km behind the wheel of the Accord Type S from Geneva to the centre of France, and today we will finish with the journey to Perpignan, thus completing the 700 km we covered to test the Accord Type S on French roads.

After reviewing the route, we will focus on the test of the Honda, discussing, as is customary, the engine and its performance, design, interior space, and we will finish with our general assessment, price and equipment of this 180 CV Accord Type S. But before that, we resume our journey in central France, in Le Puy-en-Velay, where we had stopped to rest for a while.

Le Puy-en-Velay > Perpignan

From this town we still had about 440 km to reach Perpignan, and the most fun part of the route was that it would not be on the motorway (which would have taken us just under four hours) but on national roads. Without a doubt it is more enjoyable and we can better test the car on this type of road compared with the motorway, but what I didn’t know was that the satnav was going to join the adventure.

The Honda Accord Type S has a complete sound system with a charger and powerful speakers worthy of any premium audio setup, but it did not include an integrated satnav, so we had a TomTom with European mapping, updated and fairly new to take with us. We cannot always rely solely on the satnav, because sometimes it calculates fast routes on roads that cannot actually be used, and that was the case that happened to us shortly after leaving Le Puy-en-Velay.

We continued along winding roads until we turned onto somewhat narrower roads that looked more like regional than national roads, according to the satnav the maximum speed on these roads was 90 km/h, but it was very difficult to exceed 60 km/h safely. Even so, this little drive through the mountains (rather than skirting along the national road as we should have) served to show us how the Accord behaves on roads in poor condition or with snow.

So much so that little by little I was moving away from the national road while driving along a road that led to a small village high up, the asphalt was quite uneven, which was no problem for the Accord’s suspension. Where I did miss a smaller car was in some alleys, where the satnav told me to turn as if I were driving a Smart, inside a small mountain village I came across on the way.

I got my bearings a little better on the route, and I came across a typically wintery scene, a snowy road with the whole surroundings covered in snow; the white colour of our Accord matched the snow that outlined every branch of the trees. Although the road was not very passable, the car’s composure surprised me, with a stability control that was not very intrusive and only acted in situations where the road prevented the Accord from responding firmly to steering inputs.

After this stroll through rural and mountainous France, I began to descend until rejoining a road worthy of being called a national road and continued towards Perpignan. To rest for a while we stopped in Marvejols, a little town with a small old quarter entered through the Porte du Soubeyran.

When we arrived in Marvejols it was already getting dark, and we continued on to Perpignan passing through the city of Millau, but I did not want to return to the hotel in Perpignan without first stopping in Sète, a pretty French coastal town (on the doorstep of the Mediterranean) that has several canals running through the city.

By the time it was deep night I reached Sète, the city was very quiet since it was close to 9 p.m. and, as it was not summer, there were few people in its streets, but that calm had considerable charm with the lights reflected in its canals. One hour later I arrived in Perpignan, where today’s route through French territory ended.

The next day, in barely an hour I was back in Catalan territory, the first masías welcomed me to Catalonia. I covered this stretch to Barcelona entirely on the motorway, without doubt the Accord’s ideal habitat, for its comfort and performance. In the coming days we will carry out the full test of the Honda Accord, going into more specific details regarding handling and performance, as well as design, equipment, prices and our general assessment.

Photos | Highmotor test team
Thanks to Honda Spain for lending the vehicle and for its collaboration on this test.