KEY POINTS:
Car companies spend a fortune on research and development to make their cars better, safer and more efficient, and usually we benefit.
Stability and traction control - often known as ESP but tagged VSA by Honda - is a proven life-saver, for example. It acts on engine and
brakes to correct a skid almost before it happens. It won't beat the laws of physics, but it will rescue most drivers from minor errors of judgement.
But new technology is a double-edged sword. What happens if it doesn't work as planned?
Honda's motion-adaptive electric power steering alters the weight of the steering one way or the other in an emergency, thus nudging the driver into the most appropriate steering motion to correct a temporary problem.
It's linked to the VSA, so you won't feel it in normal driving. Sounds like a great idea - until it goes wrong, that is.
In this case, it meant this well-appointed wagon wasn't pleasant to drive.
Sure, it was fine around town and on smooth, open roads. The 2.4-litre engine is impressively perky, if a tad noisy at high revs. This L-spec wagon is well-appointed and beautifully finished. It swallowed passengers and luggage with total ease.
It should also, according to my original launch notes, handle well - if not with quite the same sparkle as the marginally smaller and more nimble outgoing car.
Unfortunately, the steering glitch took the gloss off. Instead of waiting until the sensors detect a skid, then altering wheel weighting to help me steer out of trouble, it applied its skills at inappropriate moments.
Like on corrugated surfaces on blind bends, a combination that occurs repeatedly on my rural commute.
Suddenly just enough pull to carve around a corner changed to too much or too little pull as the wheels hit a bump, causing the car to swerve briefly before I rapidly corrected.
But on narrow roads there's little margin for error and my initial admiration soon wore off.
Of course this could be an unusual fault, in which case bagging the car is a tad unfair.
But then another journalist encountered the same fault in a sedan variant.
I can find no international recalls on this model (you can check recalls online at: www.mia.org.nz/recalls and click on your brand), but I hesitate to recommend this car.
Which is a pity, for the Accord Euro is a model I've always liked, and the wagon otherwise offers good value for money _ even after the brand's recent price increases.
