Honda wants to revitalize the midsize sedan with the 11th-generation Accord

If you wanted a posh Honda sedan that didn't break the bank, you could always look at the Accord. PHOTO FROM HONDA

Midsize sedans are a dying breed with the advent of crossovers. You’ve heard that often already, but it seems like Honda thinks otherwise with the introduction of the 11th-generation Accord.

It looks a little Audi-like with its fastback silhouette and lights, don't you think? PHOTO FROM HONDA

Sedans from this size category have always had a more mature and elegant look to them compared to the sportier, boy-racer looks of the smaller compact sedans. This holds true for the Accord, which further takes the Civic‘s already-mature appearance with cleaner lines, a fastback silhouette, and blacked-out LED headlights and taillights.

It is still a handsome machine to look at, but from some angles, it resembles the fastback Audi A7 saloon, especially when it’s optioned with the larger 19-inch alloy wheels (it comes with 17-inchers as standard).

Expect most, if not all, new Hondas to look like this on the inside. PHOTO FROM HONDA

You could say that this is going to be Honda’s interior design from now on, with that single “mesh” strip, hidden vents, and a tombstone-style infotainment system, which was first seen in the Civic as well. It has been tweaked to look more mature this time. It also comes with new Body Stabilizing seats first seen in the CR-V, and is also touted to have class-leading passenger volume and rear seat legroom (40.8-inches), as well as 473L of cargo room with folding rear seats.

You get a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster as standard, and the LX and the EX receive a seven-inch touchscreen. On the higher-end trims (specifically Sport, EX-L, Sport-L, and Touring), you’ll get the large 12.3-inch touchscreen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but only the Touring receives the integrated Google services (Maps, Assistant, and the Play Store), a wireless charger, a heads-up display, and a 12-speaker Bose audio sound system.

At least all the variants receive Over-the-Air (OTA) software updates, so you’ll be able to keep your car’s software updated without having to bring it to a dealership.

Honda has also put safety at the center of the new Accord, with brand-new front airbags that are designed to minimize brain trauma from angled frontal collisions, with standard knee and rear-passenger side impact airbags.

The Honda Sensing safety suite also gets updated with a new camera and radar with a wider field of view, improving collision prevention performance, blind-spot detection range, and the addition of the Traffic Jam Assist feature.

It will also come with a non-hybrid, 1.5-liter turbo four-banger for the lower trims. PHOTO FROM HONDA

Finally, the car will be available in six trim levels. You have the gasoline-powered LX and EX, and the hybrid Sport, EX-L, Sport-L, and Touring.

The gasoline-powered variants will utilize the 1.5-liter turbocharged in-line-four and CVT combo (presumably the same L15BG found in the 10th-generation Accord) that has been tweaked to be more refined. Meanwhile, the hybrid models will have a fourth-generation hybrid system that mates two electric motors to a 2.0-liter Atkinson cycle four-banger.

The total system output of the hybrid is pegged at 204hp and 335Nm, while power figures for the 1.5-liter engine sit at 192hp and 260Nm.

The 11th-generation Accord will continue to be built at Honda’s Marysville Auto Plant in Ohio for the US market. With Honda pushing for the existence of its sedans in other markets, we hope that it will also be the case in our country, but it seems rather unlikely with how consumers massively favor the more practical crossover form factor.