SUV sales may be booming but Americans still buy a lot of mid-sized sedans and
these are among the most popular they're also recently redesigned we're testing
the Honda Accord Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry to see who comes out on top
helping me evaluate are my colleagues Aaron Bragman and Kelsey Mays after
several days of testing here's what we came up with so Aaron the Accord came
out on top what made it your favorite it feels the
most substantial to me the most refined almost like it's participating in a
class above the midsize category it feels a little bit more luxurious a
little bit quieter driving it around the streets of Chicago it's just got this
this heft to it that it must be a little bit heavier but I kind of like that in
the car like this it doesn't feel frenetic it doesn't feel jumping it
doesn't jump cheap and I think that really does count in its favor I agree I
think it did the best job of blending ride and handling comfort interior
materials and the multimedia system was by far the easiest to use that had crisp
graphics really nice knobs responsive overall the the interior was just very
comfortable and I could see myself you know buying this with my own money it
certainly has a lot of space inside as well the backseat has tons of legroom it
doesn't have as much Headroom though I mean I was a little bit cramped my head
kept hitting a headliner because that roofline it's really low it feels lower
than the other two cars the other two you're sitting up a little bit higher
they accord you when you get into it you step down into it you are sitting very
low in the chassis and if you're not looking for an SUV if you're looking for
a traditional sedan kind of feel really that's that's what you'd want yeah I
found a legroom to be great and Headroom was generous for me I also thought small
item storage space was great and cargo room trunk space was decent too it also
had the widest opening and passed through between the trunk and the actual
passenger compartment so if we had a couple of larger suitcases and the other
two cars you might have a little bit of an issue sliding them both in there the
Accord had more room than the others it just in terms of the pass through the
Accord is number one because it really has a lot of personality inside just in
terms of all the buttons and controls there's a nice big eight inch screen
with apple carplay and android auto and just excellent menu response
screen resolution a few things I didn't like about the Accord really start with
the transmission it's a CVT much like in the Altima but boy it takes an extra
second or two to really kind of get you that power now once you fully have the
power come in the Accord does have a nice amount of torque to it from its 1.5
liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine probably a little more power than that
Altima but the ultimate at least serves it up immediately the Accord makes you
wait another thing is ride quality now I didn't think any of them rode poorly but
the Accord just seemed to kind of surrender to quick elevation changes if
you dipped a wheel into a rut or kind of came upon a quick rise in the road the
Accord just seemed to kind of be discombobulated by that in a way that
the ultimate and the Camry both isolated you so the Altima came in second place
what are some of its hits and misses this really was a close competition I
mean second place is definitely not the first loser in this competition it was
that tight and all of these have some really good qualities the new Altima is
extremely impressive I really like the lightness of the vehicle that felt
really possible it felt like it handled really well the steering is super quick
super light and I'm really impressed with the powertrain especially this is
the first time I've driven a CVT a continuously variable transmission and
actually come away with enjoying the experience it's extremely responsive
it's got plenty of acceleration it knows when to downshift think about it there
really no gears but it knows when to give you some more power off the line it
was an impressive experience there's a couple things that wasn't quite thrilled
about with the Altima that steering is light and it's quick but it's also
enough there isn't much in the way of feedback when you're doing anything
twisty which admittedly people buying midsize cars aren't doing much twisty
Ness but you still want some kind of feedback to know what what the vehicle
is doing the Altima was closed for me too I was really impressed by it one
thing that I really liked was the multimedia system I thought they did a
great job streamlining it systems were clear new one is much better than the
old one also the powertrain that powertrain is my favorite hands
that Suniti like you said felt so natural made me check to see if it was a
CDT you really liked it it also felt quick it felt like it so quick I felt
athletic on the flip side that interior just felt so chintzy to me everywhere I
looked everything just felt cheap and it just you know looked cheap and I was not
impressed with it at all that was a huge negative and then the
second huge negative for me was the drive I just felt that it was very
uncontrolled too many bumps you know the bumps resonated through the cabin too
much and it was just an uncomfortable you know motion feeling for me so the
Altima is in second place what landed it there now some of us have complained a
little bit about its steering feel being a little bit numb but it's got a really
really quick ratio which makes it nice and crisp going into corners the car
just kind of feels lighter and more nimble overall another strength of the
Altima is value it comes in about 1800 dollars less than the price II Ascar in
the test the Accord and gives you a lot of features for that money it was the
only car with lane centering steering all the way down to a stop thanks to
lease ons pro pilot assist a feature that worked pretty well in our test car
here a lot of tech just for not very much money we like to see that a few
misses on the Ultimo's part cabin storage seemed a little bit tight
compared to the other two just in terms of space to kind of throw your stuff
quality inside just in terms of kind of - paneling and some of the areas around
where your knees and your elbows and your arms fall really did feel a little
bit of a cut below both what the Accord and the Camry brought now we know that
the ultimate gets a little bit nicer if you get to a higher trim level and we
had kind of a mid-level SV here but still kind of within the
same price range as the others and so when you got that in it not so great
so in third place is the camry how did it end up in third place so there really
aren't that many points separating third place and second place this was a very
tight competition everybody scored well in certain areas the Camry however I had
some issues with that interior I know you liked it but frankly I find the
design to be a bit weird there's like little trim pieces that don't match
anything else and a lot of the multimedia system and in particular I
think is still a generation behind were some of the best in the industry
driving dynamics it actually was pretty good I liked the engine and transmission
combination it still had plenty of acceleration despite being the
four-cylinder model the handling also I thought was pretty tight it did really
well with steering it actually had the lightness of the Altima but it actually
gave you some feedback unlike the Altima so there was some
skill advantages but again it's probably the most athletic camry they've ever
made but no Camry drivers ever going to drive it athletically anyway we enjoyed
it but I'm not sure that's really gonna translate into something that a consumer
would value overall it's still an excellent car it's just that I didn't
think it was quite as good as the other two in this test I disagree with you on
the interior it was by far my favorite I really like the design the stacked
dashboard the interesting trend materials it just really popped the
contrast stitching the little line down the seats it just showed a lot of effort
and it was interesting and it really appealed to me I'm with you on the
multimedia system I think it's a complete train wreck it is very old it
doesn't have apple carplay Android auto graphics are dated the buttons are just
a visual mess not my favorite I do however really agree with you on the
ride and handling balance I thought it was really composed really for the drive
part ring is great the 8-speed automatic did what it needed to do and it was
responsive and comfortable and yeah overall it was that was a winning
powertrain in my my opinion where I think the powertrain really falls short
is in noise it's got this loud gruff note that really drove me crazy
wind noise and road noise were also really way too loud overall it just was
on the highway especially much louder than the other vehicles you did notice a
lot more noise in the Camry I think especially than the Accord which to me
felt almost like a bank vault in terms of how how quiet and composed it was I
also had an issue with the Camrys backseat there isn't as much legroom in
there as there is in the Accord and the Altima both of which I thought had
extraordinary legroom and just sitting behind myself I'm about 6 feet tall and
I had plenty of room it stretch out in both of those cars and that's so much in
the Camry didn't even have much room under the front seat to fit my toes so
for me that definitely penalized the Camry in terms of interior space the
camera came in in a very very close third place nearly tying with the Altima
and it came in for a mix of good and bad in that area
chiefly its multimedia system really let it down there's a 7-inch screen when the
others had eight inches it was a little bit slow to react in terms of menu
response the the pixelation on the screen it's just a little bit grainy er
than the other two and a few other things that didn't have Lane centering
steering so it lost some points there the backseat when you folded it down
there's kind of a small opening to get to the trunk so a little bit of kind of
point here point their losses it kind of ultimately led to its third place now
that doesn't mean everything in the Camry was bad there was a lot that we
really liked the Camrys kind of upright high seating position is gonna appeal to
anybody who's coming out of an SUV it doesn't feel kind of a slam to the
ground it still feels like it's kind of a relatively easy car to see out of
there's lots of storage space and overall quality pretty good in this
vehicle lots of just touch points in this xle grade that we had were very
nice very nicely trimmed out especially even to the backseat an area with where
you got cheaper materials both in the Accord and the Ultima the drivetrain
probably the actually quickest car once everything kind of got gone but boy that
8-speed automatic transmission really kind of hampers you doesn't want to kick
down very much very quickly it was a tough competition and there's a lot to
like about all three but ultimately our winner is the 2018 Honda Accord for more
information including full scoring and results visit cars comm