Honda-Acura.net - Greetings -- and an oil-burning new Accord . . .

Hello, I'm new here but am a poster on numerous other enthusiast vehicle forums.

We bought my wife a new, 2009 Accord V6 sedan this past July. She is a high-mileage driver, due to her professional situation, putting on about 3,000 miles or more per month. This is our fourth Honda/Acura product, and the previous three have been exemplary in every way.

This one: not so much. At 5000 miles, I checked the dipstick and, to my horror, it was dry. Not low, but dry. Dealership records show the oil level being verified at the pre-delivery inspection; don't know if I can rely on that, but for now I'm going to operate on the assumption that it's true. Because of the dealership's PDI, and because I have NEVER needed to add ANY oil to our previous three Honda cars (on which we have put a total of over 475,000 miles - !) I admit I was somewhat unconcerned about checking the dipstick until it hit 5000 miles. So, I added oil when I found the dry stick -- over 2 1/2 qts. to bring it up to the "full" line. I noticed the oil being quite dirty as well, even after adding over 1/2 the engine's total capacity in clean oil. (I should add that, the oil pressure idiot light never flashed, the valve train sounded fine, there was no smoke from the exhaust, and no other signs of heavy oil usage present).

On this discovery, the dealership called it in for its first oil change, with the instruction for us to bring the car in every 1000 miles thereafter for them to monitor any usage. Bottom line to this point: It has used another quart and a half in 3000 miles (8000 total on the car now) since the dealership's oil change. Our service advisor wants to watch it until about 10,000, and if it's still using oil at this rate, he's talking the possibility of an engine tear-down(!) to check rings, valve train, etc. No thanks -- the car will leave our hands before I accept a dissected/rebuilt "new" engine. Or, at the very least, I would demand that Honda provide free additional warranty coverage out to 120,000 miles or so (which is just nicely broken in by our usual daily-driver standards).

Many questions/worries: 1) Does anybody else have or know of this problem with the current V6 used in the Accord? 2) What, if anything, can we additionally demand of the dealership or Honda at this point? 3) What kind of long-term issues might result from the engine operating at 2 1/2+ quarts low near the end of its first 5000 miles? 4) We're only getting, at most, 23 MPG so far, during nearly 100% highway driving at 70-75 MPH (and this is the VCM engine); some tanks have been in the 20 MPG range. Could this poor mileage be related to whatever is causing the oil usage? I would certainly think so? 5) HOW MANY OF YOU WOULD GET OUT OF THIS CAR AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?

Thanks for any input the group can share. I pains me to have to run a post like about a Honda, after our great experience with our previous Hondas, but truth is truth. At this point I can tell what brand we will NOT be shopping again in the near future . . .

Thanks again.