In case you’ve purged what the 2022 Honda Accord looks like from your mind in favor of more immediately useful information like the oil pan drain plug torque spec on your daily driver or that new ridiculously complex password your workplace’s IT department gave you, here’s a brief reminder:
Pretty handsome, right? Sure, the chrome monobrow and massive grille date the front end a touch, but the long wheelbase, sloped roofline, and sharp character lines cut a great profile. There’s nothing hugely offensive about the outgoing Accord’s styling, plus there’s plenty to like.
The interior’s pretty good too. Material selection is great, the lid for the center stack compartment is nicely-damped, piano black is kept to a minimum, and every button is wonderfully clicky. The cabin of the old Accord has such a sense of quality to it. Plus, the ergonomics are brilliant. Everything has a real button or knob, all the controls are within easy reach, and the driving position is pleasingly low with plenty of steering column and seat adjustment. Right, refresher over, time to compare old to new.
First, a disclaimer: All new Accord models are subject to a relatively reasonable $1,095 freight and PDI charge, and we’ll be including this in pricing because it’s not a fee you can get out of. Let’s start with the important stuff – the affordable trims. The base Accord LX starts at $28,390 including freight, just $775 more than the outgoing Accord LX. Mind you, the new Accord LX seems to be at a disadvantage to the old one when it comes to equipment. The new infotainment system features a seven-inch screen rather than the old car’s eight-inch screen, dual-zone automatic climate control is no longer on the base trim, but the new car gets an all-digital gauge cluster and a horsepower peak 500 RPM higher in the rev range. Peak output of the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine is unchanged at 192 horsepower and 192 lb.-ft. of torque, but fuel economy is down one mpg across the board. If you want more than just the basics in a new Accord, you’ll need to pony up $30,705 for the EX trim which doesn’t have a true analog on the outgoing car. The EX model adds an eight-speaker audio system, heated seats, dual-zone climate control, and a moonroof. I reckon this is the value pick of the range as it gives you all the toys you could reasonably want at a very sensible price. Sure, it may cost $630 more than the outgoing car’s Sport trim and not come with flashy 19-inch alloy wheels or a leather-wrapped steering wheel, but heated seats are a wonderful bonus and 225/50R17 tires are a whole lot cheaper to replace than 235/40R19 tires, so you should close than $630 gap on tires alone if you keep your Accord long enough.
If you’re looking for the big fuel economy savings of a hybrid powertrain, the new Accord starts to get pricey. The base hybrid trim is gone for 2023, with the Sport trim serving as the new gateway to electrification. Ringing up at $32,990, it’s $825 more than last year’s Hybrid Sport trim and a whopping $2,915 more than last year’s standard Sport trim, but comes with some extra goodies. Not only is power and torque up two horsepower and 15 lb.-ft. over the old hybrid model, the cabin gets a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system that looks pretty slick. That seems well worth the $825 price increase, although it’s worth noting that the gas-only Sport trim is no more. Oh, and the Sport trim still gets all manner of cosmetic bits like 19-inch alloy wheels, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, black mirror caps, and a black rear spoiler, for all your posing needs. Moving up the range, the 2023 Accord EX-L starts at $34,635, $500 less than last year’s EX-L Hybrid model but $700 more than last year’s standard EX-L model. So how much does the new EX-L lose for it to gain hybrid power for just $700? Well, wireless charging is no longer on the menu and there’s no indication that the new car gets last year’s 450-watt 10-speaker stereo, but that appears to be about as far as the decontenting goes. You still get heated leather seats, front and rear parking sensors, second-row USB charging ports, and all the luxury-oriented toys of the Sport trim, so the EX-L seems like it offers great value.
New for 2023 is the Sport-L trim, which combines the visual tweaks of the Sport with the leather upholstery of the EX-L, plus black rear valence trim for a little something extra. At $34,970, it may be worth the $335 premium over the EX-L trim, provided you’re willing to live with the more expensive 19-inch tires and the fuel consumption hit. Those big wheels knock economy down from 51 MPG city, 44 MPG highway, and 48 MPG combined to 46 MPG city, 41 MPG highway, and 44 MPG combined. Finally, we reach the top of the 2023 Accord pyramid with the plush Touring trim. At $38,985, it’s $300 more than last year’s Hybrid Touring model but $955 cheaper than last year’s Touring model. However, it does come with a whole lot less power than last year’s standard Touring model. Honda’s brilliant turbocharged two-liter K20 engine is banished from the Accord lineup, leaving the new car on the back foot by 48 horsepower and 26 lb.-ft. of torque. While you may have once bought a top-trim Accord to get power and toys, the new Accord Touring is more focused on efficiency and toys. Mind you, most of the toys confined to the Touring trim are fairly useful. I’m talking about ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, wireless charging, a heads-up display, Google built into the infotainment system, and a 5G hotspot. Of course, this comes on top of everything in the EX-L trim, plus some other bits like 19-inch wheels and a 12-speaker Bose audio system.
So how does the new Accord’s pricing stack up against its closest competitor, the Toyota Camry? Well, the Camry is cheaper on the low-end. A base Camry LE is $27,315 including its $1,095 freight charge, some $1,075 cheaper than an Accord LX. If you want a cheap hybrid midsize sedan and don’t care too much about toys, the gap widens even further. A Camry LE Hybrid stickers for $29,450, $3,540 cheaper than an Accord Sport. However, the current Camry dates back to the 2018 model year and trailed the outgoing Accord in refinement. Plus, once you move into the middle of the range, the Accord is neck-and-neck with the Camry on value. Overall, the 2023 Honda Accord seems to be mostly worth its premium on paper, with one big catch. The base LX trim has been decontented with two very noticeable alterations being the removal of dual-zone climate control and the use of a smaller infotainment screen. It should go without saying, big decisions like that can really affect how nice a car feels. If you have a hard budget cap of $30,000 and want a midsize sedan, your money should go further by either picking up a leftover 2022 Accord or shopping elsewhere. However, excluding the LX trim, the new Accord looks decent on paper. An updated design with plenty of hybrid trims for not a whole lot more than comparably-equipped examples of the outgoing car seems like a good thing overall. Of course, cars aren’t driven on paper so I’ll wait until I’m behind the wheel to reach a final verdict, but unless you want that torquey two-liter turbo motor in your life or are dead-set on keeping things cheap, don’t rush out to buy a 2022 Accord just yet. (Photo credits: Honda)
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A 2023 Civic EX sedan with the 1.5T is equipped pretty close the Accord LX. But it could be that Honda drops the LX Accord in 2024 and this was just to mitigate headlines on price increases, because that would have been a $3k increase in base MSRP if they dropped it from the start as they did with the new CR-V.
No base Hybrid might make some sense if a Civic Hybrid does come to our market, that would surely slide in under $30k.
– Engine Seizure!
I had the air-bag recall done about 5 years ago. None of the air-bags deployed when the 2012 exl hit a telephone pole at 20 mph and broke the telephone pole in half!!! Beware!!!!!!!
I finally found out about the class action lawsuit for the excessive oil consumption yesterday (1 Qt per 1,000 miles), 2 years after the engine sezure. I spoke with honda headquarters (1919 torrance blvd, torrance, ca 90501) today for an hour and a half. mostly on hold waiting for Alma to get her stupervisor Markita to come to the phone.
Their telephone computer recognized my phone number even though I had never called before and knew I had a 2012 exl, but Alma acted like she didn’t know anything… she asked me for my VIN number, but when I took a minute to find it, and asked why the computer knew it so why can’t you look at your computer she said the last four digits would do. She wasn’t aware of any class action lawsuit for the excessive oil consumption, but later said my vin number was not included.
I explained in detail to both of them how the $7,000 engine replacement and the three months of not having my exl and all the time I had to spend trying to get any help probably cost me somewhere around $100,000. I explained that I had 5 hondas previous to this 2012 that I had driven to the moon and back (350,000 miles), and I would buy another honda if they would help with my $7,000 cost of the engine replacement, but they adimately expressed to me that they would not take any responsibility for the engine sezure, or the faulty airbags!
After hanging up with Markita, I looked up and found the guys phone number who was the main person involved with the “Honda Motor Excessive Oil Consumption Class Action Lawsuit” in California. I called his cell phone and he was very nice, but explained that all he got from all the time and effort was $500, free oil changes, and spark plugs as long as he owned the Honda. He had given it to his parents, and bought a Tesla. Not with the $500 of course… SMH
Their phone number is:
1 (800) 999-1009
If you want to get the run-around yourself!
Todd Faircloth Macon, GA
Seating seems to be one area Honda is decontenting – CR-V and Accord had 4-way lumbar adjust and dropped to 2-way on the 2023 models. Plus Civic Si dropping heated seats.
But that’s not good for planned obsolescence… so instead, keep that sort of design away from affordability for the masses whenever is appears in a product by only allowing it for rare/”exclusive” cars that rich people are going to snap up and never drive, and instead keep recycling various baroque fads while making each successive generation of vehicle fatter, heavier, more feature-laden, more angular, angrier-looking, less engaging to drive, and most of all, more profitable…
Automatic climate control had been standard on every Accord since 2013!
Bring back the DX model with black door handles and manual windows LOL
Same thing with touch screen size. Does it really matter that much? Nah.
And I’ll definitely take 17″ wheels over 19″ any day. Even 16″ will do.
This is all just brochure fodder to get envy marketing going. “You mean you bought the base model? But you could of had this cool trinket for only $900 more, or $7.50 over 10 years.”
The base LX has all the features I’d want and more. I don’t need heated seats (I actually dislike heated seats), don’t need a multi-zone HVAC system, I don’t need a lot of stuff that comes standard in cars these days. And even the base model has way more power than I need. I’d be happy to sacrifice some power for better fuel economy.
So from that perspective, I want a car that is a manual. If I must get an automatic, then I want it to be a good hybrid… but in a base trim
What I DO need is a vehicle that has decent space and headroom in the back seat, decent truck space with a big trunk opening so bulky items will fit, good reliability and low operating costs.
So basically I won’t be buying an Accord for reasons that have nothing to do with unnecessary fluff features.
But if they come out with a Honda Civic hatch with a hybrid powertrain, that would be something I’d consider (along with a base model with the manual)
However, the current gen non-hybrid base Civic hatch has some pretty optimistic pricing. When comparing it to a Prius, the Prius costs only about $600 more in Canada after tax and gets substantially better fuel economy.
The extra performance the Civic has doesn’t add any real value since the Prius is already good enough in terms of performance for a daily driver.
I’ll drive my 2.0 sport until the wheels fall off…or the gr86 become widely available.
They won’t.
New one looks much better than the old unibrow. Gives me a bit of a final gen Impala vibe, which I always thought was a terrific-looking sedan.
I had the air-bag recall done about 5 years ago. None of the air-bags deployed when the 2012 exl hit a telephone pole at 20 mph and broke the telephone pole in half!!! Beware!!!!!!!
I finally found out about the class action lawsuit for the excessive oil consumption yesterday (1 Qt per 1,000 miles), 2 years after the engine sezure. I spoke with honda headquarters (1919 torrance blvd, torrance, ca 90501) today for an hour and a half. mostly on hold waiting for Alma to get her stupervisor Markita to come to the phone.
Their telephone computer recognized my phone number even though I had never called before and knew I had a 2012 exl, but Alma acted like she didn’t know anything… she asked me for my VIN number, but when I took a minute to find it, and asked why the computer knew it so why can’t you look at your computer she said the last four digits would do. She wasn’t aware of any class action lawsuit for the excessive oil consumption, but later said my vin number was not included.
I explained in detail to both of them how the $7,000 engine replacement and the three months of not having my exl and all the time I had to spend trying to get any help probably cost me somewhere around $100,000. I explained that I had 5 hondas previous to this 2012 that I had driven to the moon and back (350,000 miles), and I would buy another honda if they would help with my $7,000 cost of the engine replacement, but they adimately expressed to me that they would not take any responsibility for the engine sezure, or the faulty airbags!
After hanging up with Markita, I looked up and found the guys phone number who was the main person involved with the “Honda Motor Excessive Oil Consumption Class Action Lawsuit” in California. I called his cell phone and he was very nice, but explained that all he got from all the time and effort was $500, free oil changes, and spark plugs as long as he owned the Honda. He had given it to his parents, and bought a Tesla. Not with the $500 of course… SMH
Their phone number is:
1 (800) 999-1009
If you want to get the run-around yourself!
Todd Faircloth Macon, GA
