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Battle of the benchmarks: Honda's all-new accord aims to dethrone our 2007 car of the year
In the automotive world, there's no shortage of archrivals-two major players that battle for supremacy, day in and day out. Whether it's for sales titles, track times, or magazine comparison-test victories, being number one is an automaker's ultimate goal. From Camaro versus Mustang and Evo versus Sti to S-Class versus 7 Series and Supra versus Z, these combats of style, power, and agility have defined competitors throughout history. Today, no clash is more significant than...Accord versus Camry? You bet.Over the past decade, the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry have waged war over "bestseller" bragging rights, with each moving around 400,000 per year. Camry has taken the title nine of the last 10 years, but Accord has always been right on its tail, even grabbing the title in 2001. For greater perspective, since Toyota introduced the Camry to the U.S. in 1983, it has sold nearly seven million copies; the Accord, which bowed in 1976, has found almost 10 million buyers.
Last year when Toyota introduced its seventh-generation Camry, the SE V-6 version -- mightiest of the lineup -- promptly laid claim as the most powerful (268 horses) and quickest (0 to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.6 at 97.0 mph) Camry ever sold in America. Not only did it possess more horsepower than a Porsche Cayman, but it was also just as hasty to 60 and through the quarter mile as a 300-horse 2007 Jaguar XK. The new benchmark? Absolutely.
Honda's Accord, then in the final year of its seventh generation, was a stellar sedan in its own right. But in light of the new Camry, its age was beginning to show. As a company that prides itself on innovation, Honda is never happy when its most important model can be described as aged. For 2008, the tide has changed, as the only thing old about the Accord is its name.
Introduced to the media in Boston, the all-new Accord is fresher than an heirloom tomato at Whole Foods. Every aspect of the eighth-generation car, from styling and interior to engine and chassis, has been reworked. The hybrid has been dropped, as have LX trims for V-6-powered cars; the coupe gets sexy styling and an available six-speed manual (see sidebar), and there are two more-powerful four-cylinder options for the sedan (see sidebar). Rather than simply report our general impressions of the new Honda, we thought it wiser to commandeer a topline EX-L V-6 and pit it against the aforementioned king of the class, the Camry SE V-6. With a bit of finagling, some secrecy, and a 4 a.m. wakeup call, we managed to squeeze in a full day of comparative driving around Beantown.
Accord versus Camry. And may the best benchmark win.
The Challenger
"This looks like a BMW," says the valet at the Four Seasons as I exit the silver Accord. He should know, as he parks plenty of Bavaria's finest at the swanky hotel near Copley Square. Photog Vance agrees and, as he points out the character line that spans the length of the body as well as the Hofmeister kink in the C-pillar, I, too, begin seeing hints of the 3 and the 5 Series. There are traces of the Acura RL also, but overall the theme is quite Teutonic.
Armed with the more grownup facade -- the pushed out, raised nose; the six-point grille with chrome surround; the large, rakish headlamps; and prominent fender flares result in a more refined look -- the new Accord has, no surprise, grown up in size. With a passenger volume of 106.0 cubic feet (in the base car) and a trunk that swallows 14.0 cubic feet, the Accord is now classified as a large sedan, placing it in the same class as the Ford Taurus and the Toyota Avalon. Compared with the 2007 model, the 2008 is 3.2 inches longer, 1.1 inches wider, and 0.9 inch taller. Further, the wheelbase, at 110.2 inches, is 2.3 inches greater than its predecessor's and 0.9 inch longer than the Camry's.
The benefits of the larger body manifest in increases of nearly every interior dimension, notably 0.7 extra inch of front headroom, 0.4 inch more rear legroom, and 1.3 inches of additional front shoulder room. With the more capacious cockpit comes more freedom to enjoy the richer interior, which, in our EX-L tester, was fitted with leather upholstery, heated and power front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, and a 270-watt audio system with XM Satellite Radio. Our tester also had the available nav system -- now controlled solely by a dash-mounted rotary knob a la the RL -- which brings Bluetooth capability to boot. Per Honda standards, interior quality is a step above the previous iteration's, and fit and finish are top notch.
While being bigger, the body is stronger and sleeker. By utilizing more high-strength steel (48 percent versus 39 for the 2007), a unit-body frame rail system that positions the rails above and inside the floor, and Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure, which helps disperse energy and protect passengers in a frontal collision, the Accord boasts a 20-percent jump in torsional rigidity. Naturally, front, side, and curtain airbags are standard, as are active front head restraints. So when it comes to the all-important crash-test scores from NHTSA and IIHS, Honda projects the Accord will receive the highest. No projections are needed in the wind tunnel, though, as the Accord has already bettered its performance due to a drop in the coefficient of drag from 0.34 to 0.31.
The control-arm front suspension-an Accord hallmark-carries over, albeit with revised geometry, anti-roll bars, and spring and damper rates as well as the addition of a tower brace for added stiffness. The big news lies within the rear suspension, where an "in-wheel" multilink design supersedes the previous control-arm setup. Composed of an upper A-arm, two tubular lower links, and a single toe-control link, the rear suspension, according to Honda, provides 40-percent-greater lateral rigidity and improved ride, handling, and braking. Aiding in handling are a 10mm-lower center of gravity, a new Variable Gear Ratio steering system, and slightly wider 225/50R17 Michelin tires, which get stopping orders from four-wheel disc brakes with electronic force distribution and brake assist.
Those chassis enhancements will come in handy when prodding the 268 horsepower from the new 3.5-liter V-6. Up 24 horses and 37 pound-feet of torque (now at 248) over the previous 3.0-liter, the 3.5 features i-VTEC variable valve timing and, similar to the Odyssey minivan, Variable Cylinder Management. Unlike VCM in the Odyssey, though, which can switch only from six- to three-cylinder power, the Accord's system operates in six-, four-, or three-cylinder mode, the middle by deactivating one cylinder per bank and for, say, driving on the freeway at high speeds. With three-mode VCM, the Accord V-6, mated to a five-speed automatic, will achieve estimated fuel economy of 19/29 mpg-markedly superior to the 3.0 liter's 18/26 (2008 methods) -- while running on regular gas and meeting ULEV-2 and, in CARB states, PZEV standards.
The Incumbent
As with all incumbents, there's not much new to report on the Camry. If you're a reader of this magazine, you know its resume. Not only did the redesigned seventh-gen model win our coveted 2007 Car of the Year award, but in an April 2006 comparison test, the hybrid version spanked its greenie foe, the Accord Hybrid, and in a November 2006 comparo, an SE V-6 handed walking papers to three sporty rivals -- Chevy Malibu SS, Mitsubishi Galant Ralliart, and Nissan Altima SE-R. Toyota's top dog was also America's bestselling car in 2006, and, through the first half of 2007, it's once again leading the pack, on pace to sell over 480,000 units. Not bad for a year's work.
For this guerilla get-together, we rang the friendly folks at Toyota P.R. and were delighted to learn that a well-equipped SE V-6 resided on the East Coast. The most performance-oriented Camry available, it was the perfect choice for a rendezvous with its counterpart from Honda. Armed with identical horsepower and torque outputs as the Accord's V-6, the Camry's 3.5-liter delivers 19/28 mpg and ULEV-2 emissions. Though not as green as Honda's PZEV engine, Toyota's 24-valve mill provides virtually identical fuel economy, thanks in large part to the extra cog in its six-speed automatic, which, unlike the Accord's five-speed, offers a sport-oriented manual mode. The sport theme carries over to the chassis, too, with stiffer springs and dampers, larger anti-roll bars, a 10mm-lower ride height, 17-inch wheels, and body reinforcements, relative to lesser Camrys.
Full Article (long!):
2008 Honda Accord vs. 2007 Toyota Camry - Head to Head - Motor Trend
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