Review: 2023 Honda Accord

The always-excellent Accord gets even better for the all-new 2023 model year.

Review and photos by Tom Sedens. There are always more photos at the end of my reviews.

Pricing: 2023 Honda Accord

Base price (Touring Hybrid trim): $44,799

Options: none

Freight: $1,830

A/C tax: $100

Price as tested: $46,729

I’ve always been a big Honda Accord fan – it’s an outstanding sedan in a highly competitive category that feels like it is dying a rapid death. Although most of the mid-size sedans available now are fantastic, nobody is buying them! But if you’re looking at this type of vehicle, the Accord needs to be on your list.

Exterior

While I liked the previous generation Accord styling, I like the new one a lot better. I feel that it’s cleaner, particularly when it comes to the front end and grille treatment.

Out back, the almost-full-width tail lights are very nicely done too , and Honda has stuck with the swoopy fastback styling which visually sets the Accord apart slightly from the competition.

I love the side profile of the Accord, and the 19-inch wheels on this top-trim review car are gorgeous with nice, fat 235/40-sized rubber.

While it’s an evolution of the previous Accord, this is a cleaner, more mature styling exercise. I think it’s a very handsome car – pictures don’t quite do it justice.

Interior/Tech/Convenience

The clean, modern look inside the Accord is refreshing. It’s ergonomically sound, and the materials are nice. The exception is that there is quite a bit of gloss black trim across the dash, centre console and door panels – all of it is an easily scratched surface that also picks up dust and fingerprints instantly. I’m not a fan of it here, or in any other vehicle. It’s not a deal breaker, of course, but I really do wish manufacturers would stop with the gloss black experiment.

I loved the perforated leather seats. They’re heated and ventilated, very comfortable even for longer distances and surprisingly well-bolstered. Both front seats are power-adjustable, and the driver’s side has memory settings. I appreciate that Honda has padded and upholstered the sides of the centre console instead of sticking with hard plastic there – knee resting drivers rejoice!

In typical Honda fashion, the car gets a great steering wheel – it’s heated and with its thick rim, it feels great in the hands. Behind it sits a fully digital dash. There are two gauges – on the left is a kind of power/charge meter and on the right a speedometer. You can change what is displayed inside each “gauge” making this a very flexible dash.

Honda’s new cabin trick is introduced here, with a mesh area extending the width of the dash wherein you will find hidden air vents. I really like this look.

The 12.3″ touchscreen is very responsive and crisp to look at with a nice simple user interface. I like that you can set up favourite buttons in a dock area, and that you can also customize the right-hand side as you see fit. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are wired or wireless and the 12-speaker BOSE sound system is excellent.

Shout-out to Honda for keeping the climate controls manual – I like the three knurled knobs and hard buttons that are on the centre stack.

There is a standard sunroof overhead. Honda includes a full suite of driver assistance technology in the Accord, regardless of the trim level.

Rear Seats

Here we have one of the Accord’s trump cards – the spacious rear seats are very comfortable and exceptionally roomy. At 5’10”, I had about 3 inches of head room to spare. Sitting behind my own driving position, I was able to enjoy a massive amount of leg room – it honestly felt like a limo and I had nearly a foot of knee room and tons of foot space under the front seats.

Rear passengers get heated outboard seats, adjustable air vents and two USB-C plugs while the middle seatback folds down to become an armrest with a couple of cupholders.

If you’re transporting little ones, there are two sets of child seat anchors.

Storage

The front of centre console houses a wide rubberized tray with a wireless charging mat and two USB-C charging plugs. Under the armrest lid is a storage bin with 12V plug.

The large (473L) trunk has a power lid release by the driver’s seat, which pops the trunk open and lifts the lid up. If you need more cargo space and/or length, the rear seats can be folded (pulling handles in the trunk) to utilize a large pass-though area.

Under the Hood

The Hybrid trims combine a 2L 4-cylinder and an electric motor for a combined horsepower rating of 204 and 247 lb.ft of torque. Power is directed to the front wheels through an electric CVT.

Obviously fuel economy is the story her – the trim I tested is rated at 5.0/5.7 L/100 km (city/highway). We ended up with an average of 5.5 L/100 km. This is after driving reasonably efficiently although never tying to hypermile the car or anything like that. Let’s just say I wasn’t pinning the accelerator all the time and occasionally drove it in ECON mode – in other words, it is easy to achieve this kind of fuel economy.

The Drive

Another shout-out to Honda for using a traditional lever to select your gear – I know it takes up more space on the console, but I much prefer this over the push-button situation gear selectors.

Acceleration is always buttery smooth. There are numerous drive modes – Normal, Sport, Individual and ECON. The individual mode lets the driver customize powertrain, steering responsiveness, adaptive cruise control and gauge appearance settings. It’s no rocket in Normal or ECON mode, but in Sport it is surprisingly sprightly off the line. But regardless of how you’re driving the hybrid Accord, it is always turbine smooth.

Hybrid braking has come a long way – there is no mushiness or weird regenerative feel to these ones. Rather than shift paddles, the steering wheel has deceleration paddles, which allow you to choose the level of regenerative braking that is automatically applied – it’s not quite one-pedal driving, but will almost bring you to a stop with just a little nudge on the brake pedal at the end.

There’s an E-button allowing you to toy with the car’s electric modes – you can choose EV mode all the time (until battery is drained) or automatic, and holding the button will enable the Charge mode, which turns on your gas engine to fully charge the battery for short electric runs later.

We found the hybrid system will happily sail on electric power at speeds up to 80 or 90 km/h on the freeway if there’s enough juice in the battery. In residential areas, if you’re easy on the gas pedal, it will let you drive several blocks on electric power only – it’s always fun to see how far you can go before the gas engine kicks in.

As one expects from Honda, the suspension is very well sorted. The ride is incredibly smooth and comfortable, and the handling is very competent although I did find there was a hint more body lean in corners than I expected.

The Accord is very quiet in all driving situations when it comes to road, wind and engine noise. In Sport mode, it will pipe some fake engine noises in through the speakers. Visibility out of the vehicle is outstanding with excellent sightlines in every direction.

The Verdict

WAF (Wife Approval Factor) was pretty high. She said it drives like an expensive car and is easy to live with. She wasn’t as excited about the styling as I was.

To sum things up, the new Accord drives like a really nice car and it happens to be a hybrid. Overall the driving experience is very upmarket – while the car is not cheap, it also doesn’t feel cheap in any way and it looks great as well. It’s easy to live with and does everything right. If you’re OK with the lack of an all-wheel drive option and the new Honda “let’s price all of our products higher than the competition” strategy, the Accord deserves a place on your sedan shopping list because it’s pretty awesome.