by Dan Neil
LET’S BEGIN WITH your state of mind: You want to buy a sedan, mid- to
full-size, good gas mileage, nice cabin. You want it to look good, but
you’re averse to showy displays. Safety is important, so, seat belts.
A sedan! What a splendidly calculated choice. Let me be the first to
congratulate you on your sense of equilibrium. Four doors, four seasons,
four winds blowing. Makes you think.
You have lots of company. Four of the 10 best-selling vehicles in the
U.S. are front-drive, four-door, five-seat, C- or D-segment sedans,
about a half-million annually, representing nearly 20% of the total
light-vehicle market. These are the sturdy milkmaids of the middle
class.
But perhaps you’re wondering why a sedan seems so inevitable, given
that there are so many other kinds of vehicles, from a Mini Cooper
Countryman to a Ford F-350 Club Cab (long bed, fifth wheel), and every
coupe, cabrio and compact that flies or crawls? Family sedans do sort of
have a penitential air to them. You don’t own them so much as do time
in them.
It’s because you’re rational. You’ve taken a very complex set of
vehicle attributes, plotted them as coordinates in three-axis space—the
axes being money, performance, commodity—and concluded the classic,
three-box family sedan represents, altogether, the best compromise on
all fronts. Sedans have great-looking number clouds.
People shopping for family sedans are therefore predisposed to
extreme reasonableness. It is here that the Honda Accord has the segment
by the throat.
Has there ever been a more radically reasonable automobile than the
Honda Accord? Even its name means consensus. Big, but not too big;
attractive, but too familiar to be provocative; well-appointed, but
incapable of igniting sustained envy. The car’s trademarked engine
note—sweet, high, isolated—is flirtatious, never carnal. Across a host
of comparative metrics, from trunk space to fuel economy, from
horsepower to stopping power, year after year, the Accord strives not
for superlatives in any one category but a portfolio of general
excellence in all.
Example: The segment bogey at the moment is the great Hyundai Sonata
with a 2.0-liter, 274-horsepower turbo four-cylinder. The new Accord
EX-L and Sonata Turbo are almost identical in price (around $28,500),
size, interior room and cabin amenities. The Accord’s new
direct-injection 2.4-liter four gives up 89 hp (185 hp) but is lighter,
quieter and returns a whopping 4 miles per gallon better in combined
fuel economy with a new continuously variable transmission.
Since fuel economy matters all of the time and marginal advantages in
acceleration matter almost none of the time, reasonable people agree
that’s a constructive compromise. And while big horsepower is nice, so
is a refined, pleasant powertrain sound. The Sonata’s shimmering turbo
thrash is fun but not exactly family-friendly.
Plus, the Sonata…dear, don’t you think that’s too flashy to go out in? Flashy is for other people.
It’s no secret that Honda has had a miserable couple of years. Like
the rest of Japan, the company was deeply affected by the Great East
Japan Earthquake. Production was also disrupted by flooding in Thailand
last year. The yen has been strong and European demand weak.
And in the midst of all that, the U.S.-market products have slumped,
drifting into mediocrity, which is the stupid stepbrother of
reasonableness. Honda lost market share. The press was unkind to the
redesigned Civic—it’s possible I might have used the word “treason”—and
the company is now embarked upon what its chief executive last month
called nothing less than “global reform.” Please have him swing by the
U.N. when he’s done.
The early results can be felt in the Accord redesign, which returns
the nameplate to its usual holistic excellence. Actually, this car feels
less like a ninth-gen redesign than a proper sorting out of Gen 8. Even
though the car is 3.5 inches shorter overall, and even though the front
suspension has gone from double A-arm to McPherson strut, it looks as
though the team of stylists barely changed pens. The Accord is still a
deliberate, substantial hunk of sedan, with a spacious greenhouse, thick
flanks and large doors. A bit bovine, really. It’s an optical wonder
the way so large a car can seem to disappear before your eyes.
In the upper trim levels you can get LED headlamps that tuck under
the headlamp assembly like beaded eyelashes. That jazzes up the look
quite a bit. There’s more brightwork and definition around the car’s
grille—but not unreasonably so.
As I count them, the new Accord had three priorities, all achieved:
to regain competitiveness in fuel economy and powertrain sophistication;
to re-establish the brand’s advantage in refinement and noise
abatement; and to correct—even overcorrect, if possible—the impression
left by recent Hondas that management cheaped out on materials.
As for the first, the Accord will be available with three
powertrains: the 2.4-liter (185 hp, 181 pound-feet) with either CVT,
auto or manual transmission; the carry-over 3.5-liter V6, now with 278
hp (21/34 mpg) buttoned to the six-speed automatic only (the Accord
Coupe V6 will be available with a six-speed manual); and a 196-hp,
plug-capable hybrid powertrain arriving next year with a marquee economy
number of more than 100 mpg-e (gasoline-gallon equivalent).
I know the 2.4-liter is the newsy powertrain—the Accord’s first
direct-injection engine—but I have to tell you, after recently driving
big, clattery DI engines like the one in the Cadillac ATS[?], I was glad
to drive the Accord with the V6, which is still port fuel-injected and
still a spools to the 7,000-rpm redline with an easy athleticism and
aerospace smoothness. With the six-speed automatic pulled down into
Sport mode, the V6 cracks off a 5.6-second 0-60 mph time and pours
midrange torque over the first four gears. If the Sport mode feels a bit
too antsy, the transmission regular Drive mode is almost too calm
(balance, see?). If you engage the Accord’s ECON mode—the bezel of the
speedometer glows an encouraging green when you do—the Accord’s
powertrain gets downright aggressive in the fuel saving. I was seeing
almost 25 mph on a couple-hundred-mile interstate drive.
By stick and rudder, the Accord feels direct, agile and capable, with
quick reflexes summoned through the electric power steering system and
an appealing tendency to stay planted in corners. The light, lofting
ride compliance on the highway gives way to a surprisingly muscular
cornering on country lanes.
But the biggest improvement of the car brings together the second and
third priorities. This is a resoundingly more solid and satisfying car
than before, an impression of substance that extends from the door
handles to the seat frames. Wind noise at 70 mph is just about nil, for
instance. The cabin materials of our full-dresser V6—with fine-grain
leather seats, door gussets and steering wheel, as well as lovely
gloss-black resins and alloy trim—step way up from last year’s car.
Look, people who shop for family sedans are Vulcans, driven by logic,
denying the temptations of emotion. They constitute a self-selected
audience of the deeply reasonable and intensely practical. The new
Accord will resonate with them. I predict it will live long and prosper.
2013 Honda Accord V6 Touring
Price as tested: $34,220
Powertrain: Naturally aspirated 3.5-liter,
multipoint fuel-injected, 24-valve, DOHC V6 engine with variable valve
timing; six-speed automatic transmission; front-wheel drive
Horsepower/torque: 278 hp at 6,200 rpm; 252 pound-feet at 4,900 rpm
Length/weight: 191.4 inches/3,559 pounds
Wheelbase: 109.3 inches
0-60 mph: <6 p="p" seconds="seconds">
EPA fuel economy: 21/34/25 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo capacity: 15.5 cubic feet
Source;
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/10/06/review-2013-honda-accord-v6-touring/?mod=google_news_blog
