Unless if you got ripped off, a 2003 Accord cannot compare to a much more expensive car. Ownership of Caddy kind of explains why you cannot tell between quality. Don't get me wrong, Caddy make good cars, just that they are not really able to compete anymore, everybody has gotten much better. While it is also known that you don't get quality mateiral and assembly with Cadillac.

Itsahonda, I would also advise you taking a test drive on any of the luxury sedens before commenting. You clearly have not had a luxury car or have not paid attention to what makes a luxury car a luxury car. Accord interior is cheap as it is in its range. Repeat the following when you drive your accord again then see if Accord is near luxury. I expect leather hand brake, I expect leather shifter knob, I expect same feel of bottoms when pressed, I expect same ilumination intensity on all bottons in the night, I expect to open the hood without the prop rod, I expect soft material all pillars, I expect a full size alloy spare tire, I expect not seeing screw holes any where, I expect soft material around the center console. I expect real wood if I am willing to pay. I expect flawless assembliing quality where no stitch is out of place, no panel has ripped edges.

I disagree on Accord material quality. Accord does not compare in material quality to any of the cars mentioned above. Even just feel the quality of the leather, it does not compare well with the cars we had above. The amount of hard plastic in Accord is unacceptable. When I am in the Accord, I am constantly reminded that I am in a sub $30k car; quality of material is not there. Yes, it has improved for instance finally the trunk lid finally has linent, but it is not good enough. TSX and Accord are different animal, one is assembled in Japan, the other one is assembled in US. Craftmanship is by far lower on the Accord, I was able to find several assembling flaws on 3 different Accords I saw on the lot...at Acura dealer, I found 3 assembling flaws in a TL within 1 minute. TSX however, I spent around 5 minutes and actually to my suprise I found non. TSX finish is just a lot better than Accord. I don't suppose you can tell the difference since TSX is merely an Accord.

I would assume that the big 2 you are talking about are Mercedes and BMW; while I have not really driven their 4 cyl engines lately, I can't say if their 4 cyl engines are better or worse than the Accord. However, based on the Audi I had, the 4 cyl is by far much more refined than the Honda engine. Especially it doesn't have that crazy stage output of the Honda engine.

As you said, the only flaw of your car is that it is not a 2003, however 2003 has smooth transmission. What do you actually like? This is not the first time that people admit that Honda has jerky shifting on their automatic transmission; not even the 2003 shifts smooth at least I didn't feel so. Either I was pampered really well by me Lexus or the Accord has transmission problem. Even the ES300 rental I got has smoother shifting than Accord; yet ES300 is merely a Camry

All I can really say is that if you can't tell between the assembling quality, you don't have critical eyes. In that case I don't blame you for not being able to tell the difference between a good car and and a bad car.

I am not sure if my car has problems, I got two dealers to test drive it and a family friend who is a mechanic to drive it. All of them told me that the car is running in very good order. When I comment on things I don't like, they pretty much told me that Honda is pretty much like that. Please don't tell me that you don't feel the difference between putting your hand on your computer desk and putting your hand on steering wheel while your car is at idle. If you don't feel vibration, I got to see your car in person... When you turn on A/C and your car doesn't jerk, again I have to see your car in person. I just have not had a car that will do any of those...