For the past two decades, Honda鈥檚 Accord has been a benchmark car, one of the best sedans you can buy for the dividends of all those 40-plus-hours a week. But competition, like rust, never sleeps, and it has been attacking the Accord鈥檚 flanks for years in the form of Altimas, Fusions, Camrys and Sonatas. The ninth-generation Accord, therefore, had to come out swinging.
And so it did, launching with an appreciably lower price, starting at $24,000 for the base car and rising to $35,290 for the V-6 Touring. The Honda Accord Sport I tested came with a retail price of $26,690, but the manual-transmission version costs $25,490 before freight. That doesn鈥檛 mean paying extra for the many things we desire on our cars, either 鈥� things like attractive 18-inch aluminum alloy wheels, projector headlamps, fog lights, dual exhaust, leather-wrapped steering wheel, Bluetooth, a back-up camera, heated cloth seats, dual zone climate control. That鈥檚 all included in the Sport.
Twenty-five grand for all that? The 2013 Accord Sport just defined what it means to be the best value of any new car on the market. Nor does the new Accord Sport look like a $25,500 car. With graceful lines, an attractive face, roomy back seat and an ample trunk, the Sport feels more like a $35,000 car.
While the cloth seat material might feel more like polyester (a sign of cost cutting), the interior is more remarkable for what it does not do 鈥� confuse. At every stage of control, from adjusting the clock to setting the audio functions to measuring fuel consumption, the Accord is so easy to figure out it makes an iPhone 5 seem like a Sudoku. For the first time in months, I climbed into a car and quickly figured it all out 鈥� without resorting to trial and error or reaching for the manual. And when I suspected a certain button must do this or that 鈥� it did! I was almost shocked.
It鈥檚 as though Honda tested its controls on Grade 7 boys rather than some haberdashery of Mensa recruits. Seniors, women and men with little patience (that鈥檚 about 99 per cent of us) will love this interior.
All that doesn鈥檛 mean, however, the interior is dull and unsophisticated. There鈥檚 an excellent audio centre, a segregated dual-climate-control, an easy-to-read 8-inch screen with lighting that is equally easy to adjust. Likewise, the main instrument cluster doesn鈥檛 look cheap, neatly displaying outside temperature, fuel consumption and trip info in one place, flanked by large readouts for speed, fuel, RPMs and engine temperature. Even the steering-wheel audio controls are cleverly placed.
All of which shows that Honda must have thought long and hard about the cognitive process people demonstrate when using electronic devices, then tested those patterns over and over to make sure drivers wouldn鈥檛 have to think twice about performing a command that might take their eyes off the road for longer than necessary. It works wonderfully.
The materials look and feel better than the last generation Accord, and visibility is above average. The driver鈥檚 seat could use a pinch more travel and the door handle can sometimes seem like a long reach, but the seats feel comfortable. Storage is better than par. There鈥檚 an obvious place and plug for a smart phone. Text messages and emails can be read back to the driver while in motion 鈥� but my phone鈥檚 directory could not be accessed while driving, requiring a voice command that frequently failed to comprehend my frustrated English. That single nanny prevents me from giving this interior the A-plus it otherwise deserves.
High marks must also go to Honda鈥檚 continuously variable transmission. While most CVTs are about as thrilling as the flu shot, Honda鈥檚 CVT acts almost like a regular automatic, making such clean transitions I frequently forgot I was driving a CVT-equipped car. Paddle shifters were, surprisingly, included on the base car and did a respectable job of making shifts feel manual. While the six-speed manual will still provide a more engaging drive (and save $1,200), the automatic won鈥檛 be difficult to live with. Same goes for the ride, which borders slightly on the soft side without sacrificing the feel of sporty drive.
Nor is the amount of power unsatisfying. Coupled with the CVT, the Accord felt sprightly, easily able to spin the front tires with a liberal dose of throttle. The Accord鈥檚 new 2.4-litre four cylinder idles quietly, the chattering of a new direct injection system only just audible. Out on the road, wind noise is minimal. Reach for the Accord鈥檚 maximum 189 horsepower and 182 lb.-ft. of torque and the Accord responds with a surprising snarl as it climbs to 100 km/h in 8.7 seconds. While the Ford Fusion might stop more quickly, the Accord鈥檚 brake pedal felt firm and immediate, able to bring the car to rest from 100 km/h in 46.6 metres.
Fuel economy measured by Transport Canada rates the Accord Sport at 7.8L/100 km city and 5.5聽highway. My week-long average of combined city and highway driving was 10.6 L/100km, but the three previous recordings in the fuel log showed an average of 8.4.
Honda seems to have learned valuable lessons from the universal yawn that greeted the 2012 Civic: Buyers really do expect more when a brand-new model comes to market. The all-new 2013 Accord is not just a big improvement over the old Accord; it is once again the new standard by which all sedans should be judged.
