honda_accord

honda_accord

Have you guys seen the new 2018 Honda Accord?  It doesn’t have as much character as the Civic Type R, but it is a lot more mature. The interior quality alone has increased from the old Accord, it is almost like you’re buying into Honda’s luxury brand, Acura. There’s a rumor that regular old sedans are going out of style, but the new Accord makes a solid case for a simple sedan as your family’s main mode of transportation.

The Honda Accord is a modest mid-sized four-door car that has been around since the late 1970s in one iteration or another.  The 2018 model will be the car’s 10th body style.  The new Accord is a sloped-roof sedan, costing anywhere between $23,000 and $36,000 depending on how many features you want.

The Accord is not Honda’s best selling car.  But it does rank close.  As of September, the Civic and CRV win that race, with about a quarter of a million sales for each.  Whereas the Accord comes in slightly behind, selling about 221,013 units to date.  Those numbers are actually pretty good considering the Accord hasn’t really been that popular.

The new Accord is lower, wider and sports a longer wheelbase than the outgoing car, although the vehicle is shorter in length.  Which means rear passengers will get about an extra two inches of leg room and trunk capacity expands to 16.7 cubic feet.  Sad news, though, there is no more two-door Accord Coup.  And the Accord Wagon hasn’t been around since Bill Clinton was president. But who wants a wagon anyway?

honda_accord

Honda’s engineers have promised that the 2018 model is safer and is better-balanced thanks, in part, to the fact that its center of gravity moved 10 mm lower.  Two engines are available in the 2018 models. A 1.5-litre VTEC turbo rated at 192 horsepower and 192 lb-ft of torque.  And a 2.0 VTEC turbo engine which is the same as the Civic Type R.  Well, kind of.  The Civic claims 306 horsepower and 295 lb-ft.  But in this version, it’s 252 horsepower and 273 lb-ft.

There is a 6 speed, manual transmission version.  However, most people will end up buying the 10-speed automatic transmission.  And it’s actually really good.  The shifting is clean and consistent, which makes for super smoothing cruising and passing.  The 1.5-litre engine is also available with the six-speed manual transmission.

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Many of you probably don’t care about all those specs, so you will be happy to know that the main interface has been upgraded as well.  And it looks pretty cool.  The main gauges have been replaced with a touchscreen information center.  Which is beautiful and digital.  The display area is customizable, which can tell you your speed, navigation, trip information and other numbers you might need.

So which of these features are actually improvements?  Both the old and the new versions are really the same when it comes to acceleration.  But the interior design of the old Accord wasn’t so great.  The outgoing 2017 model looked clean, but the new model has a high-resolution, full color, customizable gauge pod.  Which I mentioned earlier, but it’s definitely the feature to highlight.  At least from the perspective of improvements.  In the old version, the infotainment center had two screens, which made it extremely complicated and unnecessary, don’t you think?  They have replaced that with a clean looking new infotainment center and it looks amazing.  If you are in the market for a new car, are you going to consider the Honda Accord?