Terrific Turbo
10th generation Accord best Honda sedan in a decade
One of the backhanded compliments often foisted on mainstream automobiles, like Honda’s Accord, is that they’re so reliable they’re boring, the implication being that dependability must, perforce, always preclude passion.
Well, I’ve got some news for you. My dear old dad still speaks well oft his long-gone 1990 Accord EX-R.
Yes, it was reliable — in its 15-year tenure in the Booth family, it needed but an oxygen sensor and a CV joint to run as smooth as a top for 200,000+ kilometres — but that alone cannot account for the soft spot he retains for the boxy little Honda almost two decades since it passed from his hands to my son’s.
My dad also loved the little white sedan because it was sophisticated — hey, it came with an audio equalizer — stylish and he found it stupendously luxurious.
Which means that he’d love the new 2018 Accord 1.5T Touring. For one thing, that seemingly too small engine — only 1.5 litres in a car that weighs about 1,500 kilograms — is plenty peppy. It is turbocharged and produces 192 horsepower and the 192 pound-feet of torque. It’s an efficient little beast, especially mated to the continuously variable transmission, stout enough for more than ample acceleration. It feels noticeably more powerful than the normally aspirated, 2.4-L four-cylinder it replaces, and is in a completely different league than the little 2.2-L four that powered my dad’s old Accord.
Yet, it’s frugal enough to all but match the Transport Canada’s fuel economy rating. It is rated at 6.8 L/100 km, and I achieved 6.9 on the highway despite my 120 km/h cruising speed. I couldn’t match the overall 7.6 L/100 km for combined urban and rural driving, but the car’s actual 8.2 overall average was nonetheless not too darn shabby.
There’s also that solidity of chassis that dad liked so much after his previously steady diet of soggy American sedans. An excellent combination of control and compliance, there’s more than enough roadholding for the intended purpose — it is, after all, a family sedan — and more importantly provides a ride not so very far removed from, say, an Audi A4. Even the steering, variable-ratio and electrically boosted, provides decent feedback.
The last item that would impress dear old dad is that the new Accord, in Touring guise at least, really is a cut above. Leather abounds and the top-of-the-line model is fairly loaded with gadgets and goodies. First among those has to be the huge screen for the infotainment system. Though not fully emulating a conventional tablet, it is icon-based and pretty much a doddle to revise. Most impressive, however, is how the big screen has been integrated into the interior design. Not one of the fancier hideaway systems, the Accord’s fixed tablet nonetheless manages to look more integrated than similar systems in German luxury sedans. Yes, Honda does it better than Audi, BMW or Mercedes.
Other highlights include a TFTscreen gauge set that looks surprisingly analog and a bunch of onboard safety gear such as blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure mitigation and adaptive cruise control. And the cabin is fairly silent, blessedly free of tire whine and little wind noise intrudes on the cabin’s calm.
Downsides are few. The heated steering wheel speaks to a fear of a McDonald’s-like scalding-steering wheel lawsuit. Seriously, even with bare hands, I could feel little warmth. And come to think of it, the seat warmers are a little wimpy too.
Those of especially long legs might find there’s not enough front-seat travel. As well, the aforementioned lane-departure system doesn’t feel particularly sophisticated, wandering between the white lane lines like a drunk doing the perp march. Ditto the adaptive cruise control that performs a complete capitulation every time a car cuts into your lane while the computer is monitoring your speed. At least the Touring model’s adaptive cruise control has a LowSpeed Follow function that lets it crawl through traffic without the driver having to prompt it.
However, my biggest question were I considering an Accord, especially the Touring model, would be whether to move up to the top-ofthe-line 2.0-L version, which replaces the previous generation’s 3.5-L V6. Like the 1.5 L, it is turbocharged, and it boasts 252 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. But that’s not the reason I’d opt for the bigger engine; I was plenty satisfied with the 1.5T. Rather, it is the 10-speed automatic transmission to which the bigger engine is connected that I covet. The CVT works well in moderate driving and in its Econ mode, but in Sport mode or when accelerating hard onto an on-ramp, it causes the transmission to drone on a little.
In the end, though, CVT and other minor foibles notwithstanding, the 2018 Accord is another area where my dad and I would now see eye to eye. He no longer drives, so I will take up the mantle of Accord worship in his stead.
The 2018 is the best Accord in many a year, perhaps even since that fourth-generation beauty my dad loved so. Certainly, it’s head and shoulders above Honda’s most recent efforts.
As to whether it’s the best family sedan in the segment is a contention the Toyota Camry — also new for 2018 and equally dramatic in its improvement — would forcefully dispute. Nonetheless, the new Accord — 1.5 L and 2.0 L both — is the best family sedan from Honda in more than a decade.