The 2024 Honda Accord Touring Hybrid is a top pick for those seeking a blend of electric and gas vehicle benefits
The top-end Honda Accord Touring Hybrid provides a smooth, spacious and economical ride.
As demand slows for all-electric vehicles, mainly because of range anxiety, many consumers are looking at hybrids, which combine the best of both electric vehicles and gas vehicles. Hybrids provide improved fuel economy in city driving, thanks to an electric motor, while doing away with range anxiety, thanks to a gas engine for highway driving.
I recently test-drove the Honda Accord Touring Hybrid. The Accord has been one of the top-selling mid-sized sedans for years.
This market segment has been largely abandoned in recent years by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (Chrysler). However, some other automakers continue to turn out midsize sedans, and current offerings, such as the Accord, include the Hyundai Sonata, Kia K5, Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy, and Toyota Camry.
The Accord, which was restyled for 2023, comes in three flavours. There’s the base EX model, with a 1.5-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder. The next step up is the Sport Hybrid. My tester was the top trim level, the Touring Hybrid, with a price tag of $44,500.
 The Honda Accord is a stylish and spacious mid-sized sedan. |
 The interior is dressed with a chrome grillwork that stretches right across the dashboard. |
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Both Hybrid models get power from a 2-litre 4-cylinder gas engine that produces 146 horsepower, along with two electric motors to bring the combined total horsepower to 204. Fuel economy is rated at five litres per 100 km in the city and 5.7 l/100 km on the highway.
The Accord sits on a 2,830 mm (111.4 in) wheelbase and is 4,971 mm (195.7 in) long.
The Touring Hybrid has several goodies not found on its cheaper stablemates, including a 12.3-inch colour touchscreen, ventilated front seats, perforated leather-trimmed seating surfaces, heads-up display, rain-sensing windshield wipers, body-coloured heated power door mirrors with integrated LED turn signal indicators that tilt down when in reverse, a rear UBS charging port and wireless charging.
The styling of the Accord is stylishly conservative: there’s nothing unusual, nor is there anything offensive. It strikes an ideal balance of being neither bizarre nor bland.
The most interesting part of the interior styling is the door-to-door grillwork of little triangles where the vents hide. It’s a more interesting approach than just a few round or rectangular openings to expel the air. The single dash-wide grill helps to give an appearance of wideness.
Otherwise, the interior is pretty plain. There’s a lot of black trim, broken up only by the chrome door handles. There are very functional gauges in front of the driver and a functional NAV screen in the middle of the dash above the console.
It’s spacious, and the convenience and entertainment features are better than many competitors. The sound system was a treat: a Bose premium sound system with 12 speakers. My only complaint was the tiny knob to adjust the volume. It was about half the size of the knobs for the heating and ventilation system.
On the other hand, I praise the Accord for the most logical position for the heated steering wheel button: it’s in the middle of the bottom of the steering wheel. That makes more sense than hunting on the console or the dash for the button. On one vehicle I tested on a crisp fall day, I couldn’t find the steering wheel heater button anywhere. I eventually found it on the left side, way down by the release for the parking brake.
The real treat in touring in the Honda Accord Touring Hybrid is the smooth, quiet ride, especially for a midsize sedan. The seats are excellent, the steering is responsive, and the handling is excellent. Combining those elements with the economy and practicality of a hybrid drivetrain, in a refreshed mid-sized sedan, no doubt this will be a very popular choice for many people. It’s no surprise the Accord was voted Best Family Sedan in the 2024 Auto Trader Awards.
The Accord is the most awarded vehicle in the history of the Car and Driver Magazine 10Best Cars list; it’s made the list 38 times, including the last 26 years in a row.
Dale Johnson is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who has worked in TV, radio, print and online. While the manufacturer provided Dale with a vehicle to test drive, the content of this review was not reviewed or accepted by the manufacturer.
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