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Video: 2023 Honda Accord: Up Close
By Cars.com Editors
November 10, 2022About the video
The Honda Accord, one of the bestselling sedans in the U.S., is redesigned for 2023.
Transcript
It makes me very happy to be able to notify you that the ultimate demise of the big American family sedan has been delayed at least a little bit, because we now have this, the new 2023 Honda Accord.
So, what, you're gonna tell me that because it's a Honda, it can't be considered the epitome of the American family sedan? Well, according to Honda, Americans have bought more Accords than any other passenger car in the last 50 years, and the thing's built in Ohio. So, I mean, those two qualifications pretty much guarantee its status in my mind as the ultimate American of family sedan, but as its competitors have started to ride off into the sunset - I mean, there's no more Chevy Malibu, there's no more Ford Fusion - Honda still says that the Accord does very well for them, and so they've updated it and given us this 11th-generation version, and I hope you like hybrids because boy, do we have a hybrid. The biggest and most obvious change to the '23 Accord is the styling. It's been cleaned up considerably. Gone is that heavy chrome brow that they used to have over the front end, and they've given it a much cleaner look both to the front end and all the way down the sides. I don't know about you, but if you take a look at this more upright front end, it's a bit more angular and I actually see some new Ford Mustang in the front end, which is a little unusual, but, frankly, it looks really good, especially down the side. You've got this really strong character line going from the front all the way down to the back, where you've got new taillights out back that really do look completely different. The '23 Accord retains its fastback roofline shape with a really good sloping arc, but they've done a couple of things, like cleaning up this D-pillar art here. It no longer has that weird upkink that you saw in the '22 Accord, and that we currently see in the Civic, as well. The glass slopes down at a really nice angle here, and you have a very short trunk, as well, but this is still a trunk. This is not a hatchback. The glass is fixed. All of it leads down to this full-width strip of LED taillights, which is new for '23. That looks a lot sleeker, a lot more futuristic, and gives the entire Accord a cleaner look. Powering the new '23 Accord will be a choice of two powertrains. The LX and EX trim levels, the base models, are going to get a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder, making 192 horsepower and 192 pounds-feet of torque, and if that doesn't sound like a whole lot for a car this big, really not that much for a car this big, but you have an option of the hybrid powertrain, which is actually going to power over 50% of Honda's volume, according to the company. Now, that one makes 204 system horsepower and 242 pounds-feet of torque. That's their next-generation two-motor hybrid system. Honda says that the hybrid is going to be a lot of fun to drive, more than the current one is, but we have to look at some of the competition here. When you look at the new Toyota Crown, for instance, it's base hybrid makes more horsepower than this Accord Hybrid does, and its performance max version makes 340 hp. That's almost 140 more horsepower than the Accord Hybrid is going to make, and I wouldn't necessarily call the Crown all that much fun to drive. So with Honda telling me that this is really going to be a fun-to-drive Honda Accord Hybrid, I'm gonna have to file that into the "You're gonna have to show me" file. If you like the interior of the new Honda Civic and the Honda CR-V, you're gonna be pretty happy with what they've done with the 11th-generation Accord, as well. The corporate design theme for those two vehicles is really quite present in the Accord, as well, and it looks just as good here as it does in those other two vehicles. You've got the mesh pattern in the dash that hides the air vents, which is really kind of a neat touch, but the Accord also has a much more digital footprint inside than it did before. There's a 10.2-inch digital display screen replacing the gauges that's going to be standard across the board in all trim levels of the new Accord, but that touchscreen over there is something else. The normal standard touchscreen for the Accord is going to be a 7-inch unit, which is kind of on the small side, but you can opt for this 12.3-inch touchscreen, which is, frankly, on the large side. That's the largest one Honda has ever offered. If you get it in the top Touring model, it will also come with something called Google Built-In, which brings a lot of the Google functionality into the vehicle itself. Now, in order for that to work as you want it to, you've gotta have some pretty strong data connections for either the car or your phone, where some of the voice commands we found can be a little bit sketchy, but, frankly, if you're living somewhere where the data signal is good, it'll work pretty well for you. A couple of really key, interesting things to point out about the new interior is that it still has buttons. They haven't gone to a completely touch-sensitive panel interior like a number of competitors have. The climate control still has knobs, still has switches and more interestingly, there's still a gear shift in here, as well. You don't have the typical push-button transmission that we've seen in a number of Honda crossovers and SUVs. You've still got something to grab onto and actually shift, and as long as that thing still stays in here, it's OK in my book. Backseat room is still really very good. There's tons of legroom back there, although headroom can be a little bit short given that this one has a moonroof and it does have a dramatic sloping roofline, but look at this trunk. Look how much room is in this trunk. You could fit all kinds of suitcases in here. You really still think you need an SUV? So, if you are one of those people remaining who still wants a sedan over an SUV, well, frankly, look at this thing. The new 11th-generation Accord is sleek, it's slick, it's got a fuel-efficient hybrid powertrain. It's supposedly more fun to drive. We'll let you know about that one in the future. This really does seem like an excellent option for sedan intenders. Now we don't know pricing and we don't know fuel economy. Both of those are gonna be released closer to the vehicles on-sale date, which we are expecting to be January of 2023, so right around the corner. Now, when we have all of that additional information, you'll be able to look everything up on Cars.com.
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