We'll be looking at some of the sportier/hotter versions of the new Honda Accord elsewhere, but many Accord customers will be just as interested in the entry-level car. It shares the new exterior styling details - revised grille, badging, bumpers and rear lights - with the rest of the range, but it's fitted with a more modest 1.8-litre single-cam VTEC engine.It's also important, because the price has been held down below £15,000 for both the five-door hatchback and the four-door saloon at £150 less. That's pretty keen for a car which, although it may not have the straight-line performance of the other models in the range, is built, finished and presented with the same attention to quality control.There are very few exterior embellishments on the 1.8, and the cabin is also simple and straightforward. Somebody in the design team managed to slip a single strip of wood trim past the keepers of the budget, installing it above the passenger-side glove locker. Instruments are plain, too, and there's just nothing flamboyant about this car at all.The S model comes with soft-feel velour upholstery on the slightly modified seats, and space in the cabin, while not best in the class, is certainly pretty good. In particular, I was able to sit in a fairly well reclined driving position which still left comfortable kneeroom in the back seat. No problems with boot space, either.Even at the entry level, the Accord comes as standard with ABS, electronic brake force distribution, air conditioning and what seems like an impressive alarm-immobiliser-deadlocks system. There are front and side airbags, and Honda is quite chuffed with the Accord's four-star rating for front and side impact protection in the Euro NCAP tests.While it's the "baby" engine of the range, the 1.8-litre did, let's remember, win its class in last year's International Engine of the Year competition. It feels, as most Honda engines do, built to very precise tolerances, and it revs smoothly right up its range. The five-door is slightly slower off the line than the lighter four-door.Unusually, perhaps, the manual transmissions for the 1.8-litre and two-litre engines have exactly the same gear ratios and final drive, although second and third have been altered in the new models so that they let the engine spin more freely. Honda can talk all it likes about torque, but it's really a "rev" company.It's also forever tinkering around with suspension settings and steering details. The new Accord keeps the familiar double-wishbone suspension arrangement front and rear, but the dampers and the rear suspension bushes have been modified, partly to make the car feel firmer in city driving.There's a snag about all this, in that painstakingly tuning the suspension to perform better on smooth Continental roads (which is what Honda favours) doesn't necessarily improve the way the Accord rides and handles on the generally poorer British surfaces. In fact, the sportier Accord models may have regressed here.However, the 1.8-litre doesn't seem to have that problem, although something about the test car created a definite resonance through the bodyshell on some of the roads in the CARkeys neck of the woods. Mind you, I tried the Accord immediately after getting out of a very refined German sports saloon, and it may to some extent have been a matter of contrast, juxtaposition or whatever. The effect was definitely there, though.It didn't spoil the drive, because you simply can't fault Honda workmanship, or fail to admire its precision engineering. And a few sportingly taken familiar corners and hills showed that, although it's not one of the sporty Hondas, the 1.8 is well balanced and - yes, you can sense the effect of those ratio changes - livelier on the climbs. Engine 1850cc, 4 cylinders Power 133bhp Fuel/CO2 32.8mpg / 203g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 11.1 seconds Top speed 127mph Price £14,645 Details correct at publication date
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