A 10Best victor 26 times, the Honda Accord has pretty much exhausted all of the glowing adjectives that D. Webster ever cataloged. The descriptor that characterizes the car right now, however, is “aging.”
Until we tackled our handling loop, in fact, the Honda Accord felt like a midpack finisher. Its transmission offers only five speeds. It tied with the Camry for dullest cockpit styling. Its 190-hp engine churns out the least torque. There’s no exterior latch to open the trunk. And it proved the noisiest at full throttle—a barrage of intake roar and singing belts and thrumming valves.
On our handling loop, however, the Honda Accord quickly became an ally, processing all dynamic inputs with confidence and immediacy. It felt uncrashable. The steering reveals road textures; it talks to you about remaining lateral grip; it gladly pursues one steady path with no midstream corrections. The brakes allow those gratifyingly smooth panic stops that you can magically hold on the edge of anti-lock. The chassis is so rarely surprised that it makes its driver feel invincible.
Read more about the 2012 Honda Accord
