- The well-known Honda Accord is all-new for 2023, with a gas-only powertrain for lower trim levels and a quicker hybrid powertrain at higher trims
- The look is tailored and subtle, and better inside than out
- Honda hasn’t revealed prices. We expect it to start around $26,000
Honda today revealed an all-new 2023 Accord with simple, tasteful styling and hybrid options that are sportier than the gas-powered editions.
By Honda’s calculations, the Accord is America’s best-selling car over the last 50 years. It’s fallen behind the Toyota Camry in recent years, but the claim might well be true. You know Accords. You’ve been in Accords. If you haven’t owned an Accord, there’s probably been more than one in your circle of family and friends.
And America may have turned its taste to SUVs, but over the past year, we’ve renewed our interest in sedans. Amid high gas prices, sedan shopping has been growing.
So a new Accord has the potential to win the affections of millions. Through the first half of 2022, the Accord had slipped to become America’s 20th best-selling vehicle (the Camry was fifth in the same list). But the crown is in reach for Honda, if the company can get some of its midsize mojo back.
To do that, they’ll embrace hybrid power as a performance tool, and rely on sleek cabin design.
Understated Look with Fastback Profile
The 11th-generation Accord wears an upright grille and short front overhangs, giving the impression that it’s the agile cousin of a line of burly SUVs. Which it is these days, as Honda has leaned into rugged for its bigger vehicles.
But the Accord still slips through the air with a rear roofline you could almost call a fastback (but that’s a genuine trunk – the glass doesn’t lift). If anything, the look risks being too simple. The sides are businesslike when most rivals are emphasizing curves and angles. But it looks sharp with the right paint color and a set of dark wheels.
Honda has had the good sense to minimize chrome and keep the trim dark. That approach lends sophistication to designs that risk looking too simple.
LX, EX, and EX-L trims get black grille mesh, body-color side mirrors, and 17-inch alloy wheels. Sport and Sport-L get black side mirrors, a black rear spoiler, and 19-inch black alloys. Sport-L models add a black rear diffuser.
The top-level Touring trim gets gloss-black 19-inch wheels, plus silver and black trim for what Honda calls “a sharp, high-contrast look.”
2023 Honda Accord
Handsome and Practical Inside
Inside, the Accord gets the new family genes. Like the recently redesigned Civic and CR-V, the dashboard is bisected horizontally by a line of silver mesh that hides the air vents. It looks like one giant door-to-door air vent, but air flows only from designated spots.
A touchscreen rises above it as if it recedes into it when off (it doesn’t). The screen is just 7 inches on LX and EX models, with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability. But Sport, EX-L, Sport-L, and Touring models get Honda’s biggest screen at 12.3 inches, and wireless versions of the phone compatibility systems. Both screens keep a physical volume control knob, because Honda designers have driven cars before.
We’re fond of this screen placement, as the driver can check it without lowering their eyes from the road. We’re fond of the whole design theme, in fact. It’s handsome, and looks more sophisticated than the Accord’s price point.
Google everything comes built-in on Touring models, , including Google Assistant, Google Maps, and Google Play capability.
Honda claims the Accord has class-leading cargo space, with 16.7 cubic feet in the trunk. Gray or black cloth is standard on LX and EX trims. Sport gets its own black cloth upholstery plus aluminum pedals and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. Higher trims get leather. The Touring model has heated and ventilated front seats, plus heated seats in the rear.
Higher Trims Are Hybrids, With Additional Power
Honda engineers have been on a roll recently, sending out a series of new vehicles that are fun to drive for their price ranges. The 2023 Accord has all the ingredients to keep that streak going.
It rides on a stiffer chassis, with new front brace bars and a four-wheel-independent suspension tuned for engagement.
LX and EX models use a 1.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine (yes, Honda loyalists, with VTEC) good for 192 horsepower and 192 lb-ft of torque. It sends power through a continuously variable transmission (CVT) to the front wheels. That power level is table stakes in the midsize sedan game and should get you back and forth to work without much thought about your engine.
But those who want something sportier will end up in a hybrid Accord. The Sport, EX-L, Sport-L, and Touring models all pair a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine with a pair of electric motors for a combined 204 horsepower and 247 lb-ft of torque. It also runs through a CVT, but Honda has built in “linear shift control” to mimic that automatic transmission feel.
Gas-powered 2023 Accords get two driving modes – Econ and Normal. Hybrids get four, adding a Sport mode and a mode you can customize through the touchscreen.
More Driver Assists
The standard Honda Sensing suite of safety aides has been improved – the cameras that power automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control now have a 90-degree field of view, while the radar system sees 120 degrees. That should make the system safer in turning and cross-traffic situations.
The blind spot monitor now sees 82 feet – further than any prior Honda. Also new is Traffic Jam Assist, which provides light steering assistance below 45 mph to ease the workload in traffic.
It’s an impressive package and might be enough to help the Accord win consideration from some Camry shoppers. A lot will depend on pricing, which Honda hasn’t yet revealed.
