Honda Accord Hybrid Touring checks all the boxes

The newest Accord is sleeker, with better-integrated styling elements front and rear. It’s 2.7 inches longer, with a 0.4-inch-wider rear track that gives the car a broader stance visually but also improves stability.

Under the hood, the big news is that Honda has discontinued the 252-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four, which itself was a replacement for the 272-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 available in 2017 and earlier models. Also gone is the six-speed manual available with the turbo four in last year’s Sport model.

Now, the Honda is powered one of two ways: a 192-horsepower 1.5-liter turbo four or a 204 total system horsepower two-motor hybrid. Both use a CVT (continuously variable transmission) programmed to emulate actual gear changes.

The Accord Hybrid’s Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy estimate is eye-popping: 44 mpg combined city/highway. The Accord Hybrid models like our tester offer one-pedal driving and four selectable drive modes. Hybrids also get an all-new motion management system that controls deceleration in corners to reduce understeer and improve traction. Body stiffness, ride comfort and steering feel all have been improved, but the Accord was so good before, you’d likely need instrumentation to detect the changes.

The trunk is big by modern standards at 16.7 cubic feet. And rear-seat legroom is among the most generous of any vehicle we’ve tested: 40.8 inches.

The instrument panel is all new, spreading the hidden dashboard vent design from the Civic, where it debuted last year, to the Accord. If you’re not familiar with it, the vents are behind an intricate metal screen that runs the length of the dashboard from the steering column to the passenger door. Toggles control the direction of the air flow.

Improving on perfection

The base price of the 2023 Honda Accord Touring (the top-of-the-line model) is $38,985 including destination. It comes with a lengthy list of standard features, including leather-trimmed seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel, Bose Premium audio system with 12 speakers, 12.3-inch color touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, illuminated USB ports, dual-zone automatic climate control with air filtration, driver’s 10-way power seat with memory (four-way power seat for the front passenger), heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a comprehensive suite of active safety features, rain-sensing wipers, moonroof and 19-inch alloy wheels.

There’s also three years of unlimited data for in-vehicle apps, which Honda values at $540 but charges zero. It’s an all-in-one package, meaning the $38,985 base price (with destination) is also the as-tested price.

This is the debut year for Android Automotive in Honda products. Honda’s not alone in switching to this operating system; Volvo, Nissan, Mitsubishi, GM, Stellantis (Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram), Ford, Lucid and BMW all have signed deals to license the system. Android Automotive allows carmakers to embed a series of services from Google, including Maps, Play Store and Assistant. Don’t fret, Apple users, it does accommodate CarPlay.

Volvo had what can best be described as a bumpy rollout for its Google-based infotainment system, and there were some glitches in our Accord Hybrid Touring, too. Although I set it to recognize my iPhone 14 as the primary device, it did not. Never. Not once. Every time I got in the car, I had to punch “Smartphone Projection,” select my phone and tell it I wanted Apple CarPlay.

Once I did that, it worked – for two minutes. After that, every single time, the screen went black for five seconds and then returned. This could have been a glitch in just this vehicle (it all worked flawlessly in Volvos since it got Android Automotive and Apple CarPlay to work together), but – especially since Honda has only recently gotten its infotainment act together –it’s a little concerning.

That aside, my response to the 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring is an unqualified “yes.” As it always has, the Accord checks every box, overachieves on expectations and – somehow – improves on what we had thought was perfection.