2023 Accord hybrid feature will make you a better driver
What is it? “Motion management system” in hybrid models of the 2023 Honda Accord.
What’s it do? Shifts vehicle's weight imperceptibly to improve handling in rain, snow and tight corners.
How much will it cost? Standard on Accord hybrids.
When can you buy it? On sale now. SAN DIEGO − Are you driving exceptionally well today, or is it the car?
Sorry to break it to you, pal, but if you're at the wheel of a 2023 Honda Accord hybrid, at least some of the credit goes to Honda's motion management system, which uses imperceptible tweaks to power and to brakes to create noticeably better handling in tight corners, on wet pavement and snow.
The new system — standard on '23 Accord hybrids and likely coming to other hybrids across the automaker's range soon — reduces understeer, the supremely unnerving experience when you turn the steering wheel, but the car keeps going straight.
Sensors continuously compare the angle of the steering wheel — the direction you want to go — to the angle of the front wheels — the direction the car's actually going. When the instruments indicate the two are about to diverge — in plain language, you're about to lose
control — electronics fractionally reduce power to the front wheels and apply brake force precisely to help the car turn.
Mazda has offered a similar feature it calls G-vectoring with its conventional gasoline engines for several years.
The result? Smoother driving, with fewer corrections and adjustments.
Judo, for cars
The car's weight is tipped slightly forward — increasing load on the front axle, and with it steering grip — while wheels on the inside of the curve are slowed, increasing the impetus to turn. Like judo, the motion management system uses the vehicle's mass and momentum to your advantage.
Unlike traction control systems, which reduce power and apply brakes noticeably, motion management system's intervention was undetectable while I was on a drive that was rife with sweeping curves, tight corners, inclines and dips.
I did notice exceptionally composed, balanced handling through the long series of maneuvers in the two Accord hybrids I drove, one with 17-inch alloy wheels, the other bearing 19s.
Was it me or the 2023 Accord? I'd love to take credit, but the car did all the work.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.