Fuel prices in the Lower Mainland are no longer funny.
If once we faced down the brain-boggling expense of filling up our cars with a rueful laugh, hopeful that the situation was temporary, there’s certainly no frivolity around the gas pumps these days. I may or may not have recently heard some light weeping.
Thus, while our cousins south of the border snap up ever more pickup trucks and three-row crossovers, West Coasters are taking a good hard look at the family truckster and wondering if something designed to save on fuel wouldn’t be a better investment. Especially if we could go back in time and buy it two months ago.
What better timing for Honda to release the latest edition of their Accord Hybrid, a sensible family sedan that just happens to have a primary focus on sipping fuel. Canadians already love our Honda products – the Civic has been the best-selling passenger car in Canada since the Backstreet Boys were popular – and if you’re already looking at moving up into something a little larger to haul around growing kids, the Accord is probably already on your list.
But there’s added expense to be considered, as the hybrid Accord is about 10 per cent more costly than an equivalently equipped conventional four-cylinder model. Let’s take a closer look to see whether going Hybrid is worth the price of admission, or whether you should just grin and bear it.
Design
Purpose-built hybrids like the Toyota Prius or Hyundai Ioniq make much fanfare of their green intentions with unusual styling that usually places aerodynamics ahead of attractiveness. If efficiency is your paramount concern, Honda has the Clarity, which works very well especially for short-range commuters.
The Accord Hybrid is a more direct rival to the Camry Hybrid, in that it’s a very conventional-looking sedan that’s hard to differentiate from the rest of the range. If it weren’t for the Hybrid badges on the front fenders, you might not notice that there was anything different about this car at all.
Seventeen-inch wheels are standard, in a pattern that’s relatively sporty (hybrids often get fitted with weird-looking alloys for aerodynamic reasons). The rest is the fastback-look updated Accord styling that’s overall attractive, albeit with a bluff grille that doesn’t please all onlookers.
Taken as a whole, especially in a darker colour, it’s a safe choice. Note that the available palette is very limited, with just black or pearl white on the base model, and the addition of a dark blue on the Touring.
Environment
One thing Canadians haven’t loved about their Hondas in recent memory is the interiors. Too clever by half, a series of half-baked measures involving split dashboards, dual touchscreens, and confusing menus have left more than a few fans cold.
Happily, the refreshed Accord addressed almost all issues with a handsome, driver-centric cockpit that replaced complexity with a simple and comfortable layout. As the Hybrid is essentially the same as the regular Accord, it too benefits from the changes.
Visibility is very good, something that’s not true of many modern cars. The uncluttered dash is refreshing, and the large icons used on the high-mounted central touchscreen make navigating through the infotainment easy and painless. There’s also both a volume and tuning knob for old-fashioned no-look adjustments.
Rear seat passengers have adequate headroom, but if you’re raising a couple of basketball centre forwards, there might be roomier options. Touring models get heated seats in all four positions, and the feel of the cabin is overall spacious.
Perhaps most impressive is the near total lack of packaging drawbacks. When hybridized passenger sedans first came into the market, trunk space was often the first victim of battery requirements. The Accord Hybrid now has a 30 per cent smaller lithium-ion battery than the previous model, and the wheelbase stretch applied in the generation changeover makes for even more room. You get a 473-litre trunk and a 60/40 split-folding rear seat.
Basically, the Hybrid has everything you like about the standard Accord, without compromise. And then there’s the good news under the hood.
Performance
The regular-grade Accord comes with a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces 192 horsepower and 192 foot-pounds of torque. It’s peppy and fun to drive, and at 7.2 litres/100 kilometres mixed mileage, is pretty frugal for a big sedan.
However, turbocharged engines can be a little thirsty when they’re pressed. Real-world results can be much closer to 8.0 l/100km, even if you’ve got plenty of highway on your commute.
The Hybrid is a heavier vehicle with its battery pack (about 100 kilograms more than a CVT-equipped base Accord), but is still peppy to drive and light on its feet. Total peak horsepower is 212 h.p., with 232 foot-pounds of torque available from essentially zero r.p.m.
It’s not quite as nimble as a Sport version of the Accord with a 1.5-litre turbo-four, but the Hybrid is still fun to drive. Even better, if your driving style is more relaxed in traffic, the seamless low-end torque and ability to use the paddle shifters to increase battery regeneration and slow the car makes commuting a low-effort affair.
With cabin noise well-muted – the Hybrid is even quieter than the standard Accord – this is far beyond the old buzzy-but-fun Honda products we all grew up with. We’ll touch on fuel considerations below, but as a driving experience, the Accord is just the thing for modern traffic.
Features
At a little more than $33,000 to start, and a little less than $40,000 when fully optioned, the Accord creeps its way up into luxury territory. However, with driving assists like lane-keeping and automated cruise control, and adaptive damping smoothing out the ride, the Hybrid has a luxury feel, if not a snobbish badge.
The 2.0-litre naturally aspirated gasoline engine is relentless at returning great fuel economy, easily hitting or exceeding its 5.0 l/100 km city, 5.1 l/100 km highway mileage. The only real issue is a lack of rebates to defray the initial sticker shock – as a plug-in hybrid, the Accord would get a bit of a break.
Green light
Composed, quiet, and comfortable ride; still fun to drive, and not over-heavy; practical amount of space.
Stop sign
Touring model is expensive; lack of colour offerings.
The checkered flag
A great way to enjoy the drive and still pass up pain at the pump.
Competition
Camry Hybrid ($31,490): With the same kind of hybrid powertrain that’s proven reliable for millions of Prius-driven miles, the hybrid version of the Camry is a nice safe bet for families (so is the Prius, come to think of it).
However, with a rush to be the best-selling mid-sizer in the U.S. market, the Camry doesn’t quite have the upscale feel of the Accord. It’s nothing obvious, just that the Honda product has a more cohesive interior, and a bit higher quality to the build. If you’re mostly concerned about saving fuel, and resale, the Toyota still makes a strong play for your dollar.
