2013 Honda Accord V6 Touring–My current car
Why would someone keep a car for 13 years? That’s certainly the question I would have asked at 8. At 58, I understand perfectly why I’m still driving my 2013 Honda Accord V6 Touring, but as a child, the only people I knew who kept old cars were older folks from our church. Mr. Keele, in his nineties, drove a gray 1950 Ford that matched the gray suit he wore every Sunday. Mathilda and Amelia, sisters in their eighties, traveled around in a black 1955 Chevrolet 210 two-door sedan, with Mathilda behind the wheel despite once backing over Amelia’s foot and insisting it was her sister’s fault for having “big feet.” Then there was Mr. Johnson, in his fifties, and his immaculate blue 1963 Buick Electra. In my mind, old people drove old cars. Yet here I am, still driving the 2013 Honda Accord I bought new 13 years ago.
When I was ready to buy my next car, I knew what I wanted. It had to be a four-door sedan. I wanted a V6, leather interior, a sunroof, Bluetooth, and navigation. In late 2012 and early 2013, there were many options on the market. I looked at the 2012 Acura TL with the Advance Package. It was nice and certainly drove well. However, I didn’t like the styling even though Acura had tamed the awkward beak found on earlier models. The Lexus ES 350 was also very nice and newly restyled. However, it was a bit more than I wanted to spend, as some of the features were in higher trim packages. The 2013 Toyota Avalon was all-new that year and could be had with a hybrid engine. It was very nice, but felt a bit mature. I was thinking I wanted something a bit more youthful, and in the end, I chose the 2013 Honda Accord V6 Touring in silver.
Redesigned for 2013, the 9th-generation Honda Accord rectified some of the criticisms of the 8th-generation. Honda finally added Bluetooth to the Accord, and they reduced the size so it was no longer a full-size car. The engine was bumped up in power and now made 278 horsepower and 252 lb-ft of torque. For comparison, our 2000 Chrysler 300M had 253 horsepower and 250 lb-ft of torque. I remember reading the test drive in Edmunds, and they raved about the engine’s power. Somewhat paraphrasing their words, they said the new 6-cylinder Accord could punch a hole through the atmosphere with the power it had. The Touring model added adaptive cruise control and LED headlights over the features in the EX V6. I knew I wanted those features, and so, I went over to Ken Dixon Honda to take a look. I took one for a test drive and liked it. I still wanted to look, and so I did test drive the Acura TL to compare the two cars. Bobbi had said if I wanted the Acura, I should get it as she liked it too, but it was my decision. After some thought and negotiation, the dealer was able to make a trade for a silver Honda Accord Touring, and I finalized the deal in early February, 2013.
The Accord was a wonderful car for commuting to DC. In addition to the backup camera, Honda had installed a lane-watch camera, which showed what was on the passenger side when the right turn signal was on or if you pressed a button. It’s still one of my favorite features and has come in handy in looking out for cyclists in traffic. It was also quieter than my old Accord. Honda had made interior noise a priority, and they introduced some noise-cancelling technology to improve on that. The built-in navigation was a great feature to finally have. I didn’t have to rely on my phone or my Garmin for directions. Having everything come through the sound system was so convenient. The heated seats were great in winter and after snowboarding. All the latest safety features were included, including traction control and lane-assist monitoring, and so I knew the girls would have a safe car to drive when they learned to drive. However, in spite of all those features, I bought the car for the performance. It’s wickedly fast, and I still love having all that power today just as I did when I bought the car 13 years ago.
The first couple of years of ownership were uneventful, as they should be. The Accord was my daily commuter, first into Washington, DC, and then out to Reston when I accepted a position with an online ad agency. That commute certainly caused the miles to increase on my car, even with working one day a week at home. Having a long commute is grinding on one’s soul, and so after two years, I left that role and settled into an advertising sales position with my local paper to wait out a non-compete. The Accord still went on sales calls, but they were local. I would return to the Northern Virginia commute with a role at a tech company, but Covid relegated that to a work-from-home experience after a year.
Beyond commuting, the Accord was a wonderful trip car, and we took it all over. The girls were teenagers, which meant they could entertain themselves with movies on their phones, so the Odyssey stayed home. The navigation system was great for taking trips to places where we did not know our way around. We drove to Canada to see Niagara Falls. We drove to New York City after an ice storm to see Something’s Rotten on Broadway when the official high school field trip was canceled due to the weather. We’ve traveled to Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia, for a week and, each time, the Accord performed flawlessly. It was the car Emily drove over the curb while learning how to drive. It’s the car Katie took her driver’s test in, and it was in the car when I got the call from my dad telling me that my mom had been diagnosed with Stage 4 gall bladder cancer. With that news, I was driving to Pittsburgh to spend more time with mom.
My mom was one of those people who ate organic food before it was called organic. She exercised regularly, didn’t smoke, seldom drank, and was always in good health. Her diagnosis was the proverbial “bolt from the blue,” and we were told she had six months. Mom, however, outlasted the original prognosis and lived for 15 months. My regular trips to Pittsburgh were sometimes with the whole family, but more often with Katie, as she was close to my mom. When Mom did pass away, Katie and I drove up the next day in the Accord while Emily and Bobbi followed two days later. The viewing was on a Friday; the funeral was on Saturday. Mom was cremated, but she had one final ride in the Accord.
My mom had always wanted to visit St Augustine, Florida. No reason was ever given. Rather, she always wanted to visit. My dad had decided he wanted to scatter a small amount of her ashes in St Augustine, and so, we took a road trip. Dad drove down with his dog so Bobbi, Emily, and Emily’s boyfriend could watch her. Katie, Dad, and I headed out to St. Augustine, which is an 11-hour drive away from my house, but we were going to break up the trip with a couple of days in Brunswick, Georgia. Despite my dad not liking it there, he did want to see the town. Katie was not old enough to drive, so I expected to do most of the driving. Fifteen minutes into the trip, Dad tells me that he doesn’t like to drive other people’s cars and would not drive mine. He eventually offered to help with the driving on the return trip when we were less than an hour from my house, saying that perhaps he was too hasty in not wanting to drive.
He did grumble about the heat, but it was Florida in July, and I thought it was fine. We stopped in Savannah on the way and toured Juliet Gordon Lowe’s house. She was the founder of Girl Scouts, and Katie was a Girl Scout, so a visit seemed appropriate. We went to some great restaurants and stayed in a nice hotel. I dragged both Katie and Dad to the beach one day because I didn’t drive all that way to not see the beach. We also accomplished what we set out to do and found a nice garden to scatter some of Mom’s ashes. I think she would have liked it there.
We would make a return trip in 2022 to Brunswick. This time, Bobbi, Emily, Logan, who was Emily’s boyfriend, Katie, and I took two cars down with Emily and Logan driving the Accord. Again, it performed flawlessly, and the young couple had a car that they could do some sightseeing on their own. It was my third trip to Brunswick in four years. Much had changed since my childhood there in 1979, so it was interesting seeing it through Bobbi’s eyes. She got to see the town, the beach we went to on Jekyll Island, the house we lived in, as well as tourist sites. It was fun, and we stayed in a nice Airbnb on St. Simon’s. It was a great trip!
Katie always liked my Accord. We had thought she might take it over but COVID delayed her getting her driver’s license. She finally got her license right before her junior year of college, so the Accord made countless trips to pick her up when she wanted to come home for the weekend. At the start of her junior year, she became a commuter and sometimes used the car when hers was in the shop. For me, my professional life has taken an interesting turn where I am an independent contractor. I now work from home, and in the last six years, I’ve added less than 50,000 miles to the odometer.
Of course, no relationship is perfect, and the Accord has had some issues. I really liked my 2004 Honda Accord, but I can tell where Honda cut corners when they designed this generation. The carpet isn’t as nice as the old one. The interior trim is okay, but my previous Accord had a richer-looking interior. They removed the tray from the center console. They removed the glovebox light, and the rear doors no longer have a courtesy light on the door. I realize that car companies are looking to maintain margins, but I noticed the cost-cutting. I recently had some rust repaired while the car was in the shop due to a pickup truck rear-ending me. Fortunately, everything was repairable, and I still like the car.
In going back to my original question on why someone would keep a car so long, I think I have an answer. A car has so many memories. I drove my dogs to parks for walks. Sheeva took her last ride to the emergency vet in the Accord. Rosa came home from the Humane Society in the Accord. Katie took her driver’s test in it. I drove Emily and Katie to their 8th-grade dances in the Accord. I drove it on dates with Bobbi and picked my dad up at the airport in it.
And just like I had memories on the Accord, I can well imagine Mathilda and Amelia driving home from church, laughing about something in the 1955 Chevy, or Mr Keele meeting friends in his 1950 Ford. Mr Johnson truly loved his Buick and was sad when it had to go. One night, some teens in a stolen car led police on a chase. The teens lost control and smashed into the Electra, totaling it. He replaced it with a brown 1973 Buick Electra, which I felt was more modern and suitable for him. I overheard him tell my parents how much he missed his old Buick, and the new one was not as well-built. I understand that now that I’m probably older than Mr. Johnson was then. I don’t know what I would replace my Accord with, and I hope not to have to do so for a while.
I absolutely get how you can bond with a car – something I really didn’t understand when I was younger. If you like it and it stays out of the shop, a good car becomes part of your everyday.
Also, I have found that most Hondas in my experience have an endearing personality. And none of mine had anywhere near that kind of power! 😛
I enjoyed this piece. Buying a solid car like this and keeping it forever makes really good sense financially.
Your second to the last paragraph very much sums up my feelings as well. I feel a bit odd about according human attributes to vehicles…and for me it’s not quite anthropomorphizing in that I don’t name them or assign them genders…but I nevertheless assign a kind of gravitas and agency to physical objects. For most of us, cars (and buildings) are the key non-human physical objects in our lives. At least that’s how I feel. Therefore bonding with them and feeling that they have a spiritual connection to key events and figures in our lives only makes sense.
A byproduct of all of this for me translates into keeping them around and functioning as long as possible. 13 years is a good run, and from what I know of these Hondas, you should be good for quite a while longer.
I can see how you get used to a car brand. My mom is on her third Accord. We’ve had four cars, two convertibles and two sedans, all from the same brand. Like you, we can see how corners have been cut, but the technology and efficiency and safety have improved.
We’re still in love with our 2013 Acura TSX wagon. It’s been 100% flawless, although the thin “leather” is showing signs of wear in a few key places. It’s a joy to drive.
Wonderful story. I’m glad to read how reliable your Accord has been. We’ve only owned our 2003 Accord for 6 years but it lived next door since new, so some memories have transferred over. My son learned how to drive in it and has happily retained ownership for the last 3 years. At 275K miles it still runs and drives great (although it could use new struts). It’s been a good learning experience as he has done the brakes, replaced the power steering pump, a/c compressor, condenser, alternator, and upgraded the audio several times. Each event became a time when we could interact, mostly enjoying the adventure and succeeding in getting it going again.
He has been pushing me to replace my Lincoln TC with a V6 Accord of this vintage, mostly for the 278 hp!
I have a 2017 hybrid bought new, it was a great deal at the time. I don’t think I’ll ever part with it. At 95k now I’m getting all the warning lights about the lane keeping and other nannies not working but I don’t think it’s worth the money it will probably take to fix.
I can understand keeping a car for a long time, I got 15 years out of two different cars. The was partly if ain’t broke don’t fix it and partly lack of money. Towards the end I started calling our 97 Saturn a statement piece, because I fixing it in the driveway and spending very little, until the transmission exploded in 2017.
Your Acura versus Honda echoes my mother who replaced her 2003 Acura TL with a loaded 2013 Accord EX because she hated the “beak”. This was her fourth Accord platform car after having first and second generation Accords. This set a family record for brand and model loyalty matched only by my cousin’s devotion to small BMWs. I’ve always considered Accords good cars but never wanted one for myself. I’ve had some Mazdas and consider them more interesting to drive and equally durable. Living in Oregon with no road salt probably helps. I haven’t had a rusty car since 1989.
If I do my math right, your senior parishioners were driving 15-20 year old cars in the 1970s. That took some serious dedication in those days; cars weren’t designed or intended to last that long. You’d better be good at wrenching, or know a good mechanic who would take care of your car. Depending on the region, you might also have to put in a lot of effort at rust prevention and mitigation.
It’s a different world now. Driving a 13 year old car, as you do now, means that your Accord is about the average age for cars on the road in the US today. Even rust prevention is far better than it was. It’s a whole new world, where seeing 15-20 year old cars isn’t even very uncommon.
You are so correct on all counts. I recall that in my senior year at college in the Philadelphia area (1973-74), there was a man who parked his nice 1949-51 Ford sedan at the Amtrak train station that ran through the campus. That car seemed positively ancient at the time, but it ran perfectly every time I saw him drive off in the late afternoon.
Also the Arts and Sciences dean owned a 1955-56 Pontiac wagon and my freshman calculus professor had a 1957 Oldsmobile.
You remind me that in my college town around 1979, I would occasionally see a couple of old ladies out in a really clean 1946-48 Chrysler sedan. A 30+ year old car as transportation was virtually never done back then. Today, I see cars from the early 90s or before on almost a daily basis.
It was the mid 1970s. Birmingham was the perfect climate for old cars since it didn’t snow. I am sure Mildred and Mr Keele had a good mechanic, though they really needed a good body shop. Both cars had a few dings from garage doors, parking lot incidents, and the occasional brush with a tree.
Wonderful account! Condolences on this Mother’s Day for the loss of your mom.
We and our sons have become long-term car owners also. We had a 1980 Volvo 240 that we kept for 21 years and 245K miles. My 1998 Nissan Frontier pictured below will have been owned for 28 years come this August (only 110,000+ miles though).
We and our younger son owned the 2004 Toyota Camry shown below for 17 years and nearly 214,000 miles; it was sold on eBay to a family in Georgia. This son now owns our 2014 Prius (below), which has racked up over 139,000 miles. Our older son has a 2006 Prius that he bought new.
Last, we have a cat named Shiva, pronounced “shee-va,” the same as your dog’s name Sheeva!
I also never imagined keeping a car this long. My parents always said, “It cost as much to keep an old car running as it does to buy a new car.” I believed it then, but now I know it’s just something people say to give them an excuse to buy a new car. If you have a reliable car that you like, why get rid of it?
Also, I never want to be that person who says, “You know, I really should have kept my old car.”
My parents never kept cars long either. My dad kept his Infiniti I30 for 10 years and my mom’s last car for 11 years. Otherwise, after the 1970s, they traded every 5 to 7 years. Now my dad leases his cars. He gets a new one every three years. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, kept her Trans Am for 13 years and her first Accord for 12 years. Her Accord rusted to the point where it had safety issues and was traded in for a new Accord.
When I was commuting daily on the car pool with two NYC teachers to Manhattan, one of teachers leases this generation of Accord (4 cylinder and LX trim) as a commuting car. I had driven it few times. I have to say it was better than my 2003 Accord. It is so steady and quiet on the highway, I easily did speeding up to 80 mph in NJ Turnpike before I pulled back. Teacher car did not have the right side camera mentioned in tge article. But our 2015 EX-L Odyssey has this feature. I believe this is very useful feature for checking the right side blind spot and traffic. It is the great help to drive in Manhattan to spot the cyclists on the street, especially at night. For some reasons Honda dropped this off on its product lineups about ten years ago, replacing this feature with the blind spot indicators on both left and right side mirrors. I believe now only few Nissan models still have the right side camera.
One thing is the 4-cylinder Accord engine was the first Honda engine in North America used direct fuel injection while keeping the traditional transmission. The Accord after that generation has turbo direct injection 4 -cylinder engine coupled with CVT transmission.
Wonderful story, enjoy all your stories. I know why you keep a car so long. I always say, the older I get, the older everything I own gets. I bought my 2000 Civic new and took delivery 8/30/1999. I’m still driving it. 26+ years. 331,000 miles. It just keeps on ticking, and so does time. I don’t know what I’d do without it. It’s what I do all the running about with. 32 to 37 mpg’s is a nice benefit.
I do have a 2012 Ford Escape that belonged to my parents with only 24,000 miles. I took it almost 4 years ago with 16,000 miles so I do use it sparingly. I wouldn’t mind getting an older low mileage Accord (some old man’s car, lol, older than me I’m 69) to take the Civic’s place since I don’t want what they are pedaling today, meanwhile I’ll just keep up on my Civic.
Curiously I skipped this generation of Accord, altho I did have a previous gen 2005 EX-L V6 coupe, and I did end up buying my son and his family a used Accord EX-L V6 of this gen. I am driving a ’21 Accord Touring 2LTurbo and of my 69 cars it has become one of my favorites! The 2L turbo DOES perform and gets resonable gas mileage; altho being a turbo I do wonder about this Accord’s longevity compared to earlier ones I’ve had? Sadly, to me, the current Accord Hybrids do nothing for me so my ’21 needs to outlast me!! 🙂 DFO
The 10th Generation 2.0 Turbo is a nice car. I like the styling on those. I test-drove one about a year after it came out and liked it. I wasn’t in the market, so it was more out of curiosity to see how the turbo drove. I am with you on the current Accord; I’m not interested, but the styling has grown on me.
Indeed, it must be an “age-thing”. From a young guy that got car fever every couple of years, I’ve now had my 2012 Volvo C30 for 14 years – and still enjoy driving it.
I totally get keeping a car, especially now when it seems like the new cars are really junk. Ford with all their recalls?
That being said, once my 78 Cadillac is finished that’ll be my nice weather daily and my wife will drive our 17 Ford Explorer.
A friend of mine bought a 2000 Accord coupe EX V6 back in 02. He still drives it and it now has 360,000 miles! He has only had to replace the transmission and just does regular maintenance.
He refuses to sell it. He’s 64 and doesn’t do well with technology, so it’s the perfect car. Here’s to your Accord going for many more years.
2010 Honda Fit is one of those cars. I was close to retirement but needed a commuter since the BMW had been nothing but trouble and finally blew a head gasket and I was done. Still, it had to be a manual, reliable and at least somewhat fun to drive. Cross shopped VW, but was done with “German engineering”. Civic coupe was test driven, but im short and sat too low in it with the high dashboard. Base model fit with five speed was cheapest Honda and it was actually made in Japan.
Not a great long distance freeway cruiser, but delivers 42mpg, way more than the 33 EPA estimate. The pickup camper is the road trip mobile anyway. Stock tires were low rolling resistance Dunlop’s, criminally unsafe in the rain, almost immediately replaced with Yokohama’s. Little i-VTEC engine is amazing, torque right off idle makes slugging through traffic is easy, unlike the BMW. Freeway merge no problem as the power comes in at about 4000 rpm.
Washer pump has been the only repair. Weak is paint and interior materials. Beautiful dark blue paint was no match for living outside in the California and Hawaiian sun. Cheapest grade of carpet I have ever seen in an automobile, kind of marine indoor-outdoor that is like Velcro, refusing to let go of dog hair. shift boot is coming apart, and worse, steering wheel “skin” is dissolving. I intend to keep it as long as gasoline is available and I can still drive.
Still driving my 2012 5 speed Honda Fit Sport, but I still kick myself that I didn’t buy the V-6, 6 speed Accord that I really wanted…*SIGH*!
Having leased a couple of new MX-5s in the 1990s, I decided it was pointless – they’re not Euro-trash.
Hence the S2000 & NSX are a quarter-century old and I’ve had the Rlegendo 13 years too.
It’s partly because they’re icons & they don’t make ’em like that any more. I dislike modern cars intensely…
My father usually changed cars every five years. He reasoned that getting a new car would be cheaper than fixing all the rust a five year old car would have in those days. He was probably wrong, but Dad loved having new cars and why not? He had a good income and could afford it.
In my younger days, I was constantly buying and selling cars. I bought my Golf in 2018 and at eight years, it is the longest ownership experience I have ever had. The car only has 68,000 km on it and I love the car. Most modern cars are not as well built as my Golf and I hate huge touch screens and no physical buttons for controls.
I will retire to a tropical paradise in four years, when I turn 65. Then I’ll sell my Golf.
Good feature and interesting comments as I ponder our 2010 Fusion SEL with 2.5 4 cylinder and automatic.
No powertrain issues since we bought the Fusion in 2016. Now at 227,000 kilometres and rising, It’s been a daily driver for a while and all the options still work. I’d like to replace it but my wife isn’t in favour of that so we’ll carry on and enjoy the car until it craps out or something breaks I’ll deem too expensive a repair. We’ll get something newer, thankfully we’ll pay cash as I don’t want car payments at this point in our lives. We’ve had a few cars that stayed with us for many years. Like the 96 Mercury Sable LS. Loaded and well cared for, it did us welll for over a decade then went to a young couple.
We bought a new Accord in 2011 for my wife. She drove it for 14 years and in 2025 we replaced it with a Passport.
The Accord however did not go away as it is now my go to work car. In 15 1/2 years and 160,000 miles I’ve really only done routine maintenance, tires, brakes ect… No major repairs. My plan is to drive it until retirement in about 12 years. I don’t think that’s unrealistic. I’ll let you know if I’m successful.
Dig it ~ a few years ago I let go of my fleet of offbeat and orphan vehicles, I expect to keep my 2001 Ford Ranger and 2000 Chevy Tracker (C.A.M.I. car) for the rest of my driving days .
When you get a vehicle that fits, nothing else will do . why I still have a battered and unrestored but amazingly original 1959 VW DeLuxe # 113 Beetle ~ it’s noisy and slow, no AC but I still love driving it hard and as fast as it’ll go =8-) .
-Nate