2023 Honda Accord: Car and Driver 10Best

What’s the old saying? Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and the Accord making C/D’s 10Best list? This year is a little different in that Honda is shaking up its offering with the 11th-generation model. Our favored powertrain, the turbo 2.0-liter paired with a 10-speed auto, is dropped from the lineup. For 2023, you get a turbocharged 1.5-liter paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission or the hybrid. That’s it.

On paper, the new Accord looks like much less of a contender without the blue-chip enthusiast bent of the 2.0-liter combo. We barely got over the Accord dropping the manual transmission following the 2020 model year. In both cases, Honda couldn’t make a business case to keep them, so tough love it is. Flirting with single-digit take rates will do that.

As 10Best jurors, we equally weigh value, mission fulfillment, and fun. Seeing as the Accord costs about as much as the outgoing model and the 204-hp Hybrid is targeting 46 to 47 mpg combined (we expect the 1.5-liter powertrain to deliver 32 mpg combined), we can’t really knock it there. Mission fulfillment, too, is above reproach. With a spacious back seat and a cavernous trunk, it serves well as comfortable transportation for five adults. There aren’t many family sedans left, let alone one that can garner all the aforementioned praise.

Honda

Here’s where the on-paper analysis gets crumpled up in a ball: The new 11th-generation Accord remains fun to drive. Even the Hybrid is fun. You can still enjoy hustling it down a country road. It might not be as exhilarating as the old 2.0, but it’s still plenty capable. Passengers might even believe the hybrid transaxle has some actual gears it’s changing, but it doesn’t.

The fact is, you can feel the award-winning richness of the Accord before you even leave the parking lot. It’s smooth, quiet, refined to the nth degree, and good-looking. It doesn’t just feel expensive, it looks the part now too.

Much of the Accord’s structure carries over from the last generation. It gets a small increase in chassis stiffness and strength but nothing revolutionary. For the screen-centric, the hybrids get a thin-framed 12.3-inch touchscreen. Honda ditched native navigation for the whole line because it realized its customers use their phones. Touring models get Google Built-In with a yet-to-be-determined number of months included with purchase. Sign in to a Google account, and your Google history will be in the car. That is if you have a Google account. Or just stick with Apple CarPlay. To us it’s still the best, just like the Accord.

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Specifications

2023 Honda Accord
192-hp turbo 1.5-liter inline-4, 145—hp 2.0-liter inline-4 + 2 AC motors (204 hp combined); continuously variable automatic, direct-drive
Base (C/D est): $29,000–$34,000

Performance (C/D est)
60 mph: 6.7–7.2 sec
1/4-Mile: 15.1–15.7 sec
Top Speed: 115 mph
EPA Fuel Economy (C/D est) Comb/City/Hwy: 32–47/29–48/35–47 mpg

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