Fiction: Hondas have better "Handling" than other cars

Again, this is a case of Honda owners overestimating the abilities of their cars. I have heard Honda Civic owners say their cars handle better than cars like the Corvette or Viper. Let's look at some figures shall we?


SubCompact Cars
Car Price as Tested (US) Lateral Accel (g) 700 ft.
Slalom Speed
(MPH)		 Braking 60-0 Info Source
'96 Honda Civic HX $15,530 .75 NA 163 ft. Road & Track
Dodge Neon Coupe $14,970 .82 60.8 153 ft. Road & Track
Nissan 200SX SE-R $17,748 .79 60.0 150 ft. Road & Track
'98 Ford Escort ZX2 Sport $16,105 .77 62.8 128 ft. Road & Track
12/97

Sport Coupes
Car Price as Tested (US) Lateral Accel (g) 700 ft.
Slalom Speed
(MPH)		 Braking 60-0 Info Source
'98 Acura Integra GS/R $21,805(US) .84 62.3 143 ft. Road & Track
4/98
'97 Honda Prelude Type SH $25,380(US) NA 60.6 134 ft. Road & Track
11/96
'96 Ford Mustang GT $19,825(US) .81 62.1 127 ft. Road & Track
11/96

The skidpad test measures the cars' cornering grip, while the slalom measures the cars controllability and its ability to make transitions from left to right around a course set up with traffic cones set up in a line with 100 ft. between them. Not all magazines use the same slalom setup, however; Motor Trend uses a 600-ft. slalom while Road & Track uses a 700 ft. slalom. That's the reason I am using handling test results from the same source. Rabid Honda lovers like to say that American cars "have terrible handling". However, notice that the lowly Mustang GT goes through Road & Track's 700 ft. slalom 1.5 mph faster than the Honda Prelude SH and takes 7 less feet to brake from 60 MPH. It's also within .2 mph in the slalom of the Integra GS-R and outbrakes the GS-R by 16 feet. As you can see, the Honda/Acura models, ARE NOT the best handling cars. In fact, their most of the competition has better performance AND a lower price!
Go to Table of Contents