Northern Exposure: 2013 Honda Accord Sport

Review and photos by Justin Pritchard and his mom, Angie Pritchard

Angie Pritchard with 2000 and 2013 Honda Accord 2013 Honda Accord Sport. Click image to enlarge

Not that it’s a big hit to my ego or anything, but there’s a Honda Accord expert in my family, and it isn’t me.

Angie Pritchard is my mom. She drives a grey, four-cylinder, automatic 2000 Honda Accord EX, which replaced her trusty 1996 Honda Accord EX. It was powder blue and equipped similarly.

After my mom got her newer Accord, the 1996 became Dad’s work beater, then the kid’s car, then my sister’s daily driver when she moved out of town. The blue 1996 had 400,000 kilometres of reliable service under its belt when the family finally sold it.

Now, mom’s 2000 Accord has 245,000 trouble-free clicks on the odometer, too. Both Accords posed few problems, started reliably at 30 below, and got mom around when she needed to purchase ingredients or come visit her favourite son [Aren’t you her only son? –Ed.]. That son, incidentally, puts thousands of kilometres on a new car every week – though when it comes to Honda Accords, Angie is the authority in the Pritchard family.

So, charged with creating an evaluation on the new 2013 Accord Sport, I decided to hand the keys to Mom for some insight. We traded Accords for the better part of a week.

I am, after all, desensitized to things like back-up cameras and electric power steering in a way. I see them every week. Mom doesn’t. She’s been driving the same car every day for years, and I can hardly imagine what that’s like.

Turns out it was, largely, a list of the new Accord’s thoughtful features that she loved the most. After a few days in her possession, we went for a ride to discuss what we thought of the latest ‘bread and butter’ Honda family sedan.

All said and done, the Accord expert liked the thoughtful touches, the car review expert loved the ride, and both of us (for the first time ever) agreed on something. We loved the powertrain.

At the end of the day there’s nothing mind-blowingly incredible about this new Accord. As has always been the case for this long-lived model, it just ticks all the right boxes as something easy to drive, nice and comfortable, and ready for action all year round, for years to come. Pricing from $23,990.

“The steering is really easy when you park it, I liked that”

That’s the electric power steering. When the car is moving at parking lot speeds, it signals the power steering system to work harder, so you don’t have to. You get normal steering feel at highway speeds, and an easier time parking. At low speeds, you could steer with one finger. Mom likes that. Her old Accord requires a lot more work. I noted the steering in the newer Accord to be well matched to the size, weight and suspension calibration of the new model at highway speeds, too. Not too quick, not too heavy. Pretty much feels just right.

“It’s so smooth shifting”

That’s because the tester had a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission), which executes the smoothest gearshifts possible: none at all. With no gears to shift, power comes on a linear wave, rather than in ‘steps’. This saves you gas, and makes acceleration smooth and seamless. Mom loves what that does for the refinement. And since she’s not exactly an enthusiast driver, she’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference from a good automatic.

Even as an enthusiast driver I could appreciate how Honda set this one up. Without having to operate within a predetermined number of gear ratios, the CVT transmission can be used to ‘shape’ the vehicle’s power curve – and Honda’s engineers have had some fun with this one. Punch it, and you get a solid leap forward, followed by a nice, peaky, high-rpm pull that blends with the additional output when the VTEC system really gets working. It’s remarkably athletic.

2013 Honda Accord Sport. Click image to enlarge

“I’m going to use this all the time”

Mom was talking about the ‘ECON’ button. Press it, and the Accord’s computer brain makes changes to the sensor in the gas pedal, the engine, and the transmission. These changes work with your gentle driving to help save fuel. You press this when you’re trying to drive as efficiently as possible, which mom always does.

Test fuel mileage, recorded after a combination of mom’s green driving and my lead foot, landed at 9.5 L/100 km. Note this figure was collected during a winter test, with winter tires, on a low-mileage tester that hadn’t completed engine break in.

 “I love that screen that lets you see what’s behind you”

That’s the back-up camera. It’s standard on every new Accord sold, because Honda says everyone wants one. It helps with parking and navigating while you’re in reverse, and makes the area in and around the Accord safer. Winter sees it easily blocked with salty road spray, but a lick of your finger and swipe over the tiny lens as you walk by clears it.

“The turn signals blink 3 times, on their own?”

That’s an added convenience when you’re changing lanes. Tap the stick once, and it blinks the blinker 3 times. Makes you look like a more courteous driver, even if you aren’t.

“The lights stay on, on their own”

Left in ‘AUTO’, the headlights turn on when it gets dark, turn off when it’s not, and even stay on for half minute after you lock the car, so you can see your way up to the house in the dark. You can set the timer for this system in the vehicle’s settings menu.

“I accidentally pressed a button, and the car asked me what I wanted to do”

Unfamiliar with steering-wheel mounted controls, Mom had accidentally pressed the voice-command button, which causes the Accord’s pretty female voice to assertively say “PLEASE SAY A COMMAND”, after which point a beep suggests you issue a request. You can ask for a phone contact to be dialed, a radio station to be set, and the like.

“I floored it in a parking lot, once, to see the torque”

Wow, I’m definitely my mother’s son. That torque came from Honda’s 2.4L Earth Dreams four-cylinder engine. It doesn’t shoot rainbows and saplings from the tailpipes like the name implies, but it’s very clean, promises to be great on fuel and is remarkably athletic. You get 190 horsepower. That should be enough for most drivers, and a V6 is available, with over 270 horsepower, if you’re not one of them. The four-cylinder piece sounds appreciably grunty, and transmits nearly no vibration or harshness back into the cabin when pushed.

Pricing: 2013 Honda Accord Sedan Sport
Base Price (Sport): $25,490
Options: $1,200 (CVT)
Freight and PDI: $1,640
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $28,430

Crash test results
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)