Video: 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Vs. 2023 Toyota Camry Hybrid: MPG Challenge

They offer a lot of tech features and a lot of safety features and they're also pretty efficient for mid-sized sedans. And that's especially true if you look at the hybrid versions that both of 'em offer. And those are the models we have here. We have a Camry Hybrid XLE. It's rated at 46 miles per gallon combined by the EPA. And we also have a Honda Accord Sport L which is rated at 44 miles per gallon combined. But we wanna see what type of efficiency they get in our real world fuel economy test. So that's what we're on right now. Yeah, so we have a standardized loop. We're gonna start and end at the same point at the same gas station. It's gonna be over 200 miles. We're gonna make a couple of different stops so we can swap drivers and swap driving styles between the two cars. And we'll be looking at the trip computer readings and then also the calculated fill up at the end of the route. Yeah, and we're at our first stop right now. We've driven 46 miles of that approximate 200-mile loop. Mostly highway driving. And so far, the Camry Hybrid is returning according to the trip computer 47.4 miles per gallon. The Accord Hybrid is at 46 miles per gallon, so they're pretty close. We're gonna head off now and hit up our second stop. (cheerful music) All right, so we're about halfway through. We're at stop number two. And according to the trip computer, the Accord Hybrid is at 47.4 miles per gallon and is very close with the Camry Hybrid which is still better right now at 48.7 miles per gallon. And while the fuel economy is close, we are observing some bigger differences versus how they drive. Yeah, I was in the Accord and I really like how it drives overall while the roads are smooth. It's very refined, has very kind of crisp responses, but when you get on bumpy pavement, you really feel that firm riding suspension. It's just almost to the point of being too firm I think for if you live somewhere where you have to deal with kind of expansion joints on the highways or kind of some pockmarked roads. It could really get old after a while I thought. Yeah, I also noticed getting out of the Accord and right into the Camry just how much better the Camry handles road noise. So there is a lot of road noise in the Accord. (car rumbling) Over those roads, it was just a constant grumble from underneath the car. I had to compensate with adding volume on the sound system. So I can only imagine what it would be like talking to someone over those roads versus the same roads getting into the Camry right after. Not a problem. It's much better isolated from road noise. All right, so we're about halfway through the drive now. We're gonna go to our next stop. (cheerful music) All right, so we are at our third stop and we've been observing some pretty interesting trends. As the speed of our trip decreases, we are seeing the cars get closer and closer to each other's fuel economy. Right now, it's really close. It went from the difference of 1.4 miles per gallon to right now we are at 9/10 of a mile per gallon difference between these two with the Accord Hybrid at 48.2 and the Camry Hybrid at 49.1. Yeah, and I think that illustrates a bit of the difference in the EPA fuel economy estimates of these two cars because both do better in different types of situations. The Accord Hybrid's rated at 46 miles per gallon on the city, 41 on the highway, whereas the Camry Hybrid is rated at 44 in the city and 47 on the highway. So we started off with those highway speeds and the Camry was doing great. And now that we've slowed it down a bit for this portion of the drive, we're seeing the Accord do better with those slower speeds we're traveling. Yep, yep. So that's been really interesting to watch. And then we're still learning more about how these cars differ too. Yeah, I think we've been, you know, getting even more sense of the user experience of the screens and the controls and they both do a good job with a mix of sensible physical buttons and knobs. But the Camry Hybrid, I'm really surprised it doesn't have Toyota's latest multimedia system. This is one of their most popular vehicles and it still has the old system that really looks dated compared to the Accord Hybrid's with this nice wide screen, very responsive display. You were also commenting on the seat comfort in the Accord. Yeah, seat comfort. Even though the ride quality is a little harsher than the Camry, the seat comfort is just so much better. It's just softer. You feel like you sink into the seats a little bit. The materials themselves look nicer, feel nicer. In the Camry, I feel like I'm sitting on top of the seat whereas in the Accord, I feel like I'm just kind of sunk in part of the seat. So even though the ride quality is harsher in the Accord, I feel overall more comfortable driving it. Yeah, and even though it has that comfort, I was impressed with the bolstering too that it provides. So it keeps you in place if you wanna drive sporty, it is a sport model, versus the Camry which taking corners quickly, you know, I was sliding around it. Like the seats were not holding me in place as well. Yeah. Also note, we weren't doing that kind of driving. On this fuel economy though, we're just driving normally. We've done separate handling loops for the big evaluation, which, more about later, but yeah, this, on our fuel economy loop, we're 144 miles in. We're gonna end at a little over 200, so let's keep going. And I'm kind of curious if the Camry can hit 50 miles per gallon. We're getting up there. Yeah, we're very close. I think it's got a shot. (cheerful music) So we just wrapped up our drive. We drove about 200 miles in each of these and we were wondering at the last stop if we were gonna get 50 miles per gallon and we did and more in both of these. Times two. Yeah, the Accord Hybrid got 50.8 miles per gallon at the end of the trip, and the Camry Hybrid was at 51.9 miles per gallon according to their trip computers. And they were even higher from our pump calculation. The Accord Hybrid was at 51.8 and the Camry Hybrid was at 53.3 miles per gallon. Now those numbers are better than the EPA numbers by far regardless of which ones you're looking at. And we didn't change how we drove. We were driving how we normally do in the normal drive modes. But it's important to note that even though these are great numbers, they really shouldn't be the deciding factor for you if you're looking at these cars. After we filled these up, there was only a price difference of 70 cents between the Accord and Camry Hybrid. You're not gonna make your decision based on that. So what you are gonna make your decision on is comfort, roominess, how you interact with the multimedia system, how much cargo room there is, how well these fit child safety seats. We're testing all of that and more. And you can find those full results here on cars.com. (cheerful music)