Honda has made a strange ergonomic choice on the Accord Crosstour. One I don't agree with, but one that is, I admit, not much to worry about.
To check your fuel range on most cars, included the Acura MDX and the Honda Odyssey I've driven this week, the number can be found somewhere on the instrument panel directly ahead of the driver. And it can left there indefinitely instead of the odometer reading or some other info the driver may not need very often.
But this ins't the case in the Honda Crosstour. In the Crosstour "Range" is buried over on the nav screen behind two promps. First you push the "info" button and then you have to select Trip Computer. Not a big deal, but now I don't have my audio info or my nav screen.
Again, this isn't a deal breaker for me, but Honda got it right on the MDX and the Odyssey. Hmmmmmm...
Scott Oldham, Editor in Chief
cjasis says:
09:39 AM, 02/17/11
Pales in comparison to how ugly the vehicle is.
banhugh says:
09:43 AM, 02/17/11
What about the ugliness of the screen graphics. It seems that it is running DOS...
ed124c says:
09:53 AM, 02/17/11
Don't get the NAV. Simple solution. I would bet that all non-NAV models have this info on the dash somewhere. So, if I bought an EX front drive or an EX-L AWD, I would be content to have fewer distractions. Far fewer.
ed124c says:
09:57 AM, 02/17/11
I would love to see Honda add an EX AWD model, with basics like manual air, cloth seats, a sunroof, Bluetooth, and power driver seat, and keep the price just under 30K.
tommister2 says:
10:04 AM, 02/17/11
@ed124c, wouldn't it be nice....
lostboyz says:
10:19 AM, 02/17/11
I'm glad they planned for when their cars are able to get 60mpg...
igeekone says:
10:21 AM, 02/17/11
Honda has some of the ugliest graphics out of the '90s. 60MPG is also very frivolous.
ed124c says:
10:29 AM, 02/17/11
@ tommister2: Ah, so you live in the Northeast also. Actually, I wish Subaru had a car like the Crosstour. A fastback Legacy. What a concept! And with 23/31 mpg and AWD, how great that would be. I wouldn't even care if others thought it looked bad.
1487 says:
10:36 AM, 02/17/11
so if you dont get nav you dont get a trip computer? Sounds about right. I've never seen this info placed in the nav screen before.
banhugh says:
11:53 AM, 02/17/11
@Lostboyz
You are looking at the instantaneous mpg bar which gets up to 60mpg and beyond for short periods of time.
huisj says:
11:57 AM, 02/17/11
In related news, I hear that in the olden days, people had to look at a gas gauge and use common sense to figure out how much farther they could drive before getting gas. Rumor is some poor souls still have to do this even in new cars they buy! Oh the agony.
tommister2 says:
02:01 PM, 02/17/11
@ed124c I am in Virginia which is the border of North/South east. I had many Hondas over the past 10 years. I still don't like that they force you to get leather for some of the other desirable options. Why can't the cloth Pilot have a factory sunroof? Why no Crosstour AWD with cloth? Do they think people that prefer cloth would never want AWD? Honda makes a good product (in my opinion) but their trim packages often have me looking at other makes.
hoosiergrandad says:
02:58 PM, 02/17/11
@tommister2
I imagine the reason Honda doesn't offer more choices has to do with lowering assembly costs.Making the same car all day long probably saves them (and us) some money.Still, I really could have done without a sunroof on the EX-L.......
cr_driver says:
04:30 PM, 02/17/11
That looks very dated.
kevm14 says:
06:35 PM, 02/17/11
Geez, and I thought the info on my CTS-V was dated looking. I have to press Info and scroll through a list to get access to the trip computer type info, and even outside temp. When I select one of the pieces of info, it displays permanently at the top of the nav screen, but that stays across all modes. It just sucks because I have to choose between, say, outside temp and average mpg. The dot matrix display in the dash, where you'd expect this kind of stuff, is used for another selection list, like tire pressure, oil temp, oil pressure, trans temp, etc., but not outside temp or mileage. Oh well.
fushigi says:
04:45 AM, 02/18/11
So, Honda's designers forgot that they had a color screen to work with. The design decisions made with this car continue to leave me shaking my head.
hoosiergrandad says:
06:25 AM, 02/18/11
The background color can be changed, and it automatically goes to a dark background at night. Maybe the display won't get style points,but......I find it easy to read. Also, you can get your range info by saying "trip computer" instead of pushing buttons....just a matter of getting used to the car.
rudycantfail says:
08:22 AM, 02/19/11
@Ed124c,
You can get this car with AWD for under $30k, you just have to shop around.
rudycantfail says:
11:08 AM, 02/19/11
@ed124c,
Agree. A fastback Subaru legacy would have been very high on my list if there were such a thing. And Saab finally got around to doing AWD, but gave up their hatchback designs years ago. A 9-3 5-door w/ AWD could have been tempting. I loved my 900s (many) years ago.
natenj1971 says:
05:00 PM, 02/20/11
Even my 08 CRV has trip with ave mpg and miles to empty right under the speedo (think it's standard on ALL CRV models). A friend with an 08 accord sedan does not offer these feature. Hope they plan to integrate in the next model release.