"The Honda Accord
is the greatest car in the world," the guy with the inexplicable
mini-Mohawk, a lead designer for the company, was saying. "It is,
absolutely, without question."
He said this live-miked while sitting in a brand-new 2013 model on
the patio of a resort in Santa Barbara. Two-dozen car reviewers circled
around him like buzzards, waiting for him to utter something else
outrageous and uncomfortable. His Honda co-workers gritted their teeth,
muttering shutupshutupshutup under their breath. This was the
definition of an oversell. At some point, the guy realized he'd stepped
outside the bounds of conventional car hype, saying, "What I meant is
that the Accord does its job better than any car in the world." But the
statement had already been released into the wild, ready to be judged.
Shockingly, the Honda Accord is not the greatest car in the
world. It never has been, not even close, and, barring some catastrophic
event where dozens of contemporary models are suddenly wiped away from
history and memory, it never will be. The 2013 update of the Accord will
be available in many flavors, with a 4-cylinder engine or a 6-cylinder
one, as an automatic 4-door, a manual coupe, or a CVT, and even,
starting early next year, as a plug-in hybrid. It boasts a tighter rear
and slightly sleeker lines than previous models. But no matter the
iteration, the Accord will be what it has been for more than 30 years, a
reliable, safe, reasonably comfortable, moderately priced family sedan
running between $23,000 and $33,000. Few will be amazed and even fewer
will be offended.
On a beautiful day in mid-August, I drove several different versions
of the new Accord. The first one my partner and I got was a 278-hp V-6
with all the trimmings. Family sedans don't tend to be that fun to
drive, and this new Accord wasn't much of an exception. The front end
felt a little sluggish, it didn't corner brilliantly, nor did it
accelerate with a ton of gusto. Everything seemed a bit heavy, including
the brakes. The transmission, when we put it into Sport mode, whined
and churned when it was switching gears. It was fine. The Accord never
really claimed to be a driver's car.
But
it also had great leg room and fantastic visibility. Compared with
other cars of its class, where window height sometimes feels like an
afterthought, the Accord seemed to boast a 360-degree panorama, lacking
only a glass floor, a perk which no car maker has yet figured out how to
safely install. The Accord had other strengths, too. Side cameras,
which can be turned on and off, worked extremely well, greatly
mitigating the dangers of the blind spot. The rest of the electronic
safety-warning apparatus was also efficient, smart, and not annoying.
The version we had was fully appointed, with
breathable leather seats and a bit of faux-wood panelling, a higher-end
version of the Accord than most people will buy, more like an
entry-level Lexus, Infiniti, or, dare I say it, an Acura. At the very
least, it almost exactly resembled a high-end Toyota Camry. That's one
of the problems with the Accord, though, or maybe with all mid-range
cars these days: They're mostly alike.
At one point in our drive, we got stuck on a country road, where we
were winding toward a winery to be fed like pigs at the trough. A car
crawled along in front of us. I wondered why the test-driver was going
so slowly; even when they're running a quotidian Accord through its
paces, car writers try to drive like the Sennas they imagine themselves
to be. But as we got closer, I saw that it was actually a Hyundai
Elantra, not being test-driven at all. At other points in the day, I
mistook a Taurus, an Impala, and even an older Accord for the new one.
Such are the perils of a crowded category.
After lunch, I got into a 4-cylinder Accord with a CVT. This one had
cloth seats with bland gray material that looked like something you'd
find at an assisted-living home, no automatic seat adjustments, none of
the bells and whistles of the earlier version, and about 30 percent less
power to boot. It drove as you might expect. Eh. But it was still
roomy, still air-tight safe, and still had the same excellent wraparound
view. It also will cost several thousand dollars less a month, and
should easily meet the expectations of the thousands of faithful Accord
customers that Honda has carefully cultivated over the decades.
On fuel economy, Honda has followed the crowd; the most-efficient
4-cylinder gets a 29 mpg combined and 35 mpg on the highway; the
6-cylinder matches the 25 mpg combined posted by the 2013 Nissan Altima.
Honda hasn't released details on its hybrid version, which never sold
well in its previous edition, and won't go on sale until next summer.
Later, I also drove a preview version of the Accord plug-in hybrid,
arriving in about six months. Like the Prius plug-in, it has an
all-electric range of 12-15 miles, and like all electric cars, it boasts
a zippier, cleaner-feeling drive than a combustion-driven engine does.
With the Fit EV, Honda has proven it can do electric as well as any
manufacturer, and the Accord plug-in should be a nice arrow to add to
Honda's growing alternative-fuels quiver.
It's been a rougher-than-usual period for Honda. The Japan earthquake
and tsunami devastated production and development. The most recent
Civic, its other flagship car, has decent sales numbers, but has been
savaged by critics. Consumer Reports called it one of "five cars you're
buying but probably shouldn't." The company needs the Accord to do well,
and it almost certainly will.
The 2013 Accord isn't going to get you laid. No one's going to write
songs about its excellent safety features and visibility. But those are
precisely the qualities that will allow it to continue to vie for the
top spot in the car industry's most hotly contested segment. It's not
the greatest car in the world, but it's among the most competent and
reliable. Absolutely, and without question.
