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SPEAKER 1: This is the all-new 10th generation Accord.
It's one of the best selling cars in the United States.
But does it live up to its legacy?
For 2018, it's completely redesigned.
Everything is new.
It's wider, lower, and more comfortable than ever.
They've also taken a big step forward with the styling.
It's a lot more adult. It's more sophisticated.
And, to me, it looks a heck of a lot better.
I mean, check out the front of the car.
The grill really emphasizes the sense of width.
You've got these jewel-like LED headlights
on this Touring trim.
You've got 19 inch wheels on Sport And Touring models
that really fills out the wheel well.
And that's a great-looking wheel design.
It's got 17s on the base models, which look pretty good, too,
but 19s is what you want.
Coming round to the side, they've
got this really interesting faceting going on.
It's got this crease along the doors, which really
shows a lot of confidence.
Up on the roof, they have laser-brazed
the side of the car to the roof, so you
don't get that big, ugly rubber seam up there that you
see on a lot of other cars.
Coming around to the back, this is where it makes its strongest
statement, I think.
It looks kind of like an Audi A7 the way the roof line comes
down to the tail, the way you've got this really faceted-looking
tail light.
This is a handsome car.
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We're in the optional, and brand-new 2.0T,
which is a turbo-charged, 2-liter l engine.
It's the same engine, actually, that's
in the Civic Type R. It's slightly
detuned for use in the Accord.
And it's also made into a 10-speed automatic
transmission, which is debuting in any Honda in this car.
And I got to tell you, it shifts really well.
I mean, you'd think with this many gears,
it would never be in the right gear.
You'd always be hunting around, but it's the opposite.
It actually has a gear for every occasion.
So you are more likely to be in the right gear
at any given time.
And man, it changes gears smoothly.
There's no hunting.
This is a really nice transmission.
The power delivery is pretty seamless, too.
I mean, it's got plenty of torque down low.
You're never waiting for the turbo boost to ramp in.
It's always right there.
Now, it's not quite as urgent as the old V6 at the top end,
but down low, the turbo-charged four cylinder
that we're driving now, it's got more punch.
So if you're just accelerating at low speeds,
you're actually going to be better off with the new engine
than the old engine.
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We're in a Touring model, which is the new top trim level
for the Accord.
It's got all the bells and whistles,
leather upholstery, ventilated seats.
It's got this wood treatment on the interior.
And you'll notice this little funny symbol
embedded in the wood here.
That's instant Bluetooth pairing for Android phones.
So it's there for a reason.
It's also got cheap, wireless cell phone
charging for those phones that are so equipped.
And overall, this cabin is really airy inside.
There's a sense of width that is really nice.
And part of that is these slim A-pillars,
which also improve visibility.
They increased the wheelbase of the new Accord.
And most of the gains came into the back seat.
I'm 6' 1".
I'm sitting behind myself, if I was sitting in the front seat.
And I've got miles of leg room.
My head's kind of brushing the headliner just a little
bit, but I'm totally comfortable back here.
It's huge.
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So even though this is a bigger car on the inside and a longer
wheelbase, it doesn't drive like a big car.
It picks up its feet really well.
The car feels pretty tidy.
It's sporty in the way the Honda's have always
been sporty, which is not overtly stiff or tied down,
but a supple ride that doesn't beat you up.
But you still have an idea of what the road is like.
You have some steering feel.
It feels confident, and it feels capable.
One of the complaints from the previous Accord
was that the infotainment system didn't have a volume knob.
It had this touch-sensitive interface.
They solved that with, wait for it, a volume knob.
Really, this infotainment system is
lifted from the current Odyssey, and it's a big improvement.
They're also including Honda Sense,
which is a suite of driver-assistance features,
as standard on every Accord.
So you think that the price would go way up as a result,
but it's only gone up a little bit.
So you're getting a lot more standard equipment and a newer
car for not much more money.
It's kind of a win-win.
Base 1.5T versions of the Accord will be available in the middle
of October.
The 2.0T, like we're driving now,
that's going to be another month away, in November.
There's also a hybrid version coming
in the beginning of 2018.
So it's a little bit further off.
But one cool thing about the hybrid
is that there's no compromise to cargo space or rear-seat room
because they're able to package the lithium ion
battery underneath the seat.
And so you still retain full seat-folding capability
and everything in a hybrid, which is pretty unusual,
and it's a pretty neat trick.
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Fun fact, Accord sales are so great that they're
bigger by themselves than all of Volkswagen's lineup
or all of Mercedes-Benz's lineup.
So you can see, this would have been really easy for Honda
to make it bland and mainstream, the Katy Perry
of mid-sized sedans.
But they didn't.
They took a chance here with the styling.
It's really bold.
And even though I've only driven it for a couple of hours here,
I'm impressed.
And I can't wait to get one back at our office
to do a full test on it.
For more information on the 2018 Honda Accord,
check out Edmunds.
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