An Accord is an Accord is an Accord (Hybrid)

After a very loving overnight in our long-term Honda Accord Hybrid, started think about what I really liked most about it. Naturally, I first went to the hybrid setup looking for a place to stake a claim. What I discovered, however, is that the biggest reason I have for recommending this car has nothing to do with it being a hybrid, and everything to do with it being an Accord.

An Accord--the most virtuous form of vanilla that any carmaker could ever imagine building...

And underappreciated, too: A solid, if not awe-inspiring body. A roomy, well-appointed, high-class interior--remember, this is the car whose forefathers invented modern-day automotive interiors with inexpensive (but not cheap) materials and controls that were the most intuitive the world had ever seen. And it's got a powertrain that's in synch with the suspension, and brakes that stop the car without drawing attention.

It's a hybrid? I couldn't care less. It's got a powerful V6/electric motor system that gets Civic levels of fuel economy, and that's very nice, but what still makes me turn on to the idea of driving it is that it's very much an Accord: quality, reliability and unfussiness incarnate. The fact that it's a hybrid doesn't move me, because if it didn't drive like an Honda Accord, I couldn't be moved--that was the problem with the first-generation Prius (the anti-Toyota) and the original Honda Insight (call the zookeeper).

The Accord Hybrid is an honest-to-truth Accord first, and a hybrid second.

Richard Homan, Inside Line Editor in Chief

Categories: 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid