Fresh Accord has Mercedes in its sights

NEXT GENERATION

at a hatch — it’s not, but it does bear more than a passing resemblance to Audi’s A5 Sportback from some angles. It promises to be a goodlooking sedan when revealed later this year.

Beneath the sheet metal sits Honda’s Global platform. It is scalable, so it underpins everything from the Civic and CR-V to the new Odyssey and now Accord. The format can be made wider and longer, with the front and rear architectures being scalable as well.

The focus of the drive was to test the new top-level powertrain. The base Accord will run a 1.5-L turbocharged four married to either a sixspeed manual or Honda’s continuously variable transmission (CVT). There will also be a hybrid based on a 2.0L naturally aspirated engine.

The boss engine, which replaces the current V6, is based on the same 2.0L turbocharged four that makes the Type R such a raucous ride. In this case it has been retuned to suit a larger family-oriented sedan. No specs were given, but it will have more horsepower than the outgoing V6 (278 hp) and less than the Type R (306 hp); the smart money says around 295 hp. The new engine drives an equally new Honda-designed-and-built 10-speed manumatic transmission that comes with paddle shifters. It replaces the six-speed automatic in the outgoing car. As with the base engine, there will be a manual transmission choice as well (could this spell a Type R Accord Coupe?)

The new box is slick and well sorted, resisting the urge to hunt for the right gear when driven at city speeds or when an incline is encountered. There are three modes: Eco, Normal and Sport. In Eco, the upshifts come fast and early to promote fuel efficiency. Normal balances the shift strategy, while Sport stretches them out to delve into the meaty part of the power plateau. On the drive, I got into 10th gear on the long back straight of the track when in Comfort. Sport locks out some of the gears to emphasize better performance; at 200 km/h the highest gear I could access was seventh.

The new powertrain pairing brings surprising performance. There was the merest hint of lag off the line (the lower gear ratios do a good job of masking it) and a strong mid-range. Hammering the gas pedal at 120 km/h saw it drop a couple of cogs and pull to speed quickly.

The ride is equally well balanced. It is smooth at speed, but hunkers down and limits body roll through corners. The steering follows this lead. It has good feedback, but, as with many family sedans, it felt a little light at speed.

Final specs and pricing will be revealed closer to the release in late fall, although Honda Sensing will be part of the package. Asked which car was the benchmark Honda aimed for, the engineer said “Mercedes-Benz C- and EClass.” Lofty competition indeed!