Yahoo Autos The 2023 Honda Accord Is Still Relevant to Enthusiasts
The 2023 Honda Accord has officially entered its 11th generation. This makes the Accord sound like a cross-eyed family of profligate European aristocrats that endures despite wars, fashion, and the changing of the guards. But there’s nothing cross-eyed or obdurate about the Honda Accord. In fact, one of the keys to the Accord’s extraordinary lifespan is its uncanny and natural ability to change with the times while still holding to that bright spark of relevance we know is impossible to fake. It somehow feels the right kind of aristocratic.
The Accord has been around in the United States since 1976, when it was introduced as a hatchback. It was a tidy little machine based on the smaller Civic, with a quieter, more powerful engine. Honda chose the name because they felt it embodied a “desire for accord and harmony between people, society and the automobile.”
Talk about aristocratic.
With a 1.6-Liter inline-4, this 168-horsepower family car found the harmony it was looking for. It’s parsimonious fuel needs in the midst of the oil crisis and the surprisingly comfort interior (and not unpleasing exterior design) translated to the Accord immediately planting a flag in Detroit’s back yard. And so begins a bloodline that had led to 20 million units sold
The Honda Accord has been endured for eleven generations fora simple reason: People love it. And not just family guys trundling to and fro from the savings bank job to picking up kids from hockey practice. Even enthusiasts – the cross-eyed types like me who lusted after the Accord’s more appealing cousin, the Prelude — saved a special place in their hearts for the Accord. I have owned four of them.
A very informal polling of my Gen-x colleagues and friends reveals that over the years we’ve owned 18 of them, in all of the many variants: the hatch, the sedan, and the station wagon, which carries with it an extraordinary level of personal nostalgia. Among the many cars I’ve owned, sold, or inadvertently destroy, the one I miss most is my 1987 Honda Accord wagon.
Alas, there will be no more Accord station wagons. Instead, the 2023 Honda Accord comes in six trims packages built on a new modular platform and powered by a variety of mix-and-match powertrains. A two-motor hybrid comes in four trim packages—Touring, Sport-L, EX-L, and Sport— and a 1.5L Turbo comes in the old-school trims, either the EX or the top-end LX.
The exterior of the 11th gen is longer than the previous version, primarily to accommodate the hybrid drive. The length is most noticeable at the front overhang, and is accentuated by a pronounced belt-line that traces a graceful and uninterrupted gently curving from the LED headlights to the taillights. The overall feel is that of a sexy fastback, and feels like a shot across the bow of Kia and Hyundai, whose sedans have reset the market in recent years.
I took a Hybrid Sport out for a spin along the coast of Encinitas, California, and the proceeded to get lost in the mountains while looking for a famous pie store somewhere in just foothills west of Anza Borrego. This is not a sports car in the way we know sports cars. The hybrid system mates an Atkinson-cycle 2.0-Liter i-VTEC inline-4 that makes 145 hp with two electric motors which generate 247-pound feet of torque. Most of the time, the set-up—let’s call it a power unit—operates as a series hybrid, meaning the electric motors drive the wheels directly, while the carbon-burner is connected to the electric generator and starter motor and functions as an electrical generator, supplying power to the hybrid battery and the propulsion motors.
The interior is simple and elegant (simplicity is luxury in the age of multiscreens), and the latticed metal strip that crosses the dash is a nice touch—textured and not overly designed.
Make no mistake: this is a front-wheel drive family sedan. But I’ll be damned if, while traversing ridgetops in old reliable Cali twisties, I found myself enchanted by its performance capabilities. My red Sport package is mounted on 19-inch alloy wheels and 235/40R19 all-season Michelins. There are three modes—EV, Hybrid, and Sporty The modular platform is remarkably planted. The steering is a little light but feels sportier than it should. There was minimal understeer, all things considered. The car was difficult to upset, and playful when pushed. The just-shy-of 250-pounds of torque was plenty to get my blood pumping.
By the time I reached the pie place in Julian, I felt that tug of nostalgia that I always get with older Accords. It’s a family car, but it’s in my family. In a land where the crossover is king, the Accord has to be perfect to remain relevant. The new Accord comes close.
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