2001 Honda Accord

This is Rod's (my) latest daily driver, as of 2008.  Formerly my wife's car, this was my next "fix", a project that he saw potential in.

This was a good car to start with.  Solid and reliable (though the transmission did fail at 119k miles!!!) overall, this is the EX model with 3.0 Liter VTEC V6 engine, leather interior, and we're the original owners.  I added a few things like different wheels (shown with the 16" wheels) to replace the not-so-cool looking factory 15" wheels.  These are also factory wheels, but are a bit more stylish and slightly more responsive since they're taller.  I also lowered the car with some Tein springs, about 1.2" all around lower, Magnaflow exhaust to replace the factory dual mufflers, AEM V2 cold air intake-and pretty much that's it.  It's a solid runner, fun to drive, and oh yeah, I did add Suspension Techniques sway bars and a factory rear spoiler.

I did extensive noise dampening throughout the car, including the trunk.  The trunk floor, quarter panels and rear shelf have a healthy and complete layer of Dynamat.  Shown in this picture is the low profile subwoofer enclosure that houses a pair of shallow Kenwood Excelon 10" subs.  Since this box tucks pretty tight under the rear shelf, I stil have most of my trunk available for hauling stuff.  I removed the 6x9 speakers from the rear shelf to help "vent" the bass from the trunk into the interior.

This is what the interior looks like on my car when I'm dissatisfied with the excessive road noise.  I've always admired our BMW for it's quiet ride, but the Honda always allowed quite a bit more road noise to enter the cabin.  I applied mat extensively to all four doors (actually, Charlie did that for me, as well as constructed my sub enclosure!) and I yanked the seats, carpet and console so that I could apply mat to the entire floor then throw a layer of Dynapad to the main areas of the floor.  Oh, yeah, much nicer and quieter now!  I drove the car right after this work on a mini-vacation with my daughter and nephew to Santa Clara and there was much less fatigue after the long drive with less road noise!

The current setup in my Honda includes Kenwood Excelon shallow component separates in the front doors and dash, the shallow Excelon 10" subs, a pair of Excelon amplifiers, the stout 2 channel KAC-X20 for the front stage and the KAC-X10D monoblock amp for the subs.  The headunit is the DDX812 double din unit, as seen in the interior photo, with Sirius satellite radio, handsfree, navigation and Ipod interface.  Oh yeah, and backup camera-woo hoo!

Here's a picture of my baby at home in the garage. 

Just for fun, here's a picture of the engine.  I remember in 1998 when Honda introduced this generation of Accord with this optional 200HP engine.  I was determined to make it my wife's "next" Accord after the 1990 Accord we had was ready to retire.

So now I've got a great, solid daily driver with great tunes and a remote start 2-way pager Viper alarm with remote trunk release. 

With leather and the power options, to me, this car is like a Lexus!