2017 Honda Accord Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Consumer tastes can be fickle. The station wagon was once the ultimate family vehicle, but it was soon replaced by the minivan. And now it...

Consumer tastes can be fickle. The station wagon was once the ultimate family vehicle, but it was soon replaced by the minivan. And now it appears the minivan has given way to the crossover. But throughout all these changes, the sedan has remained a constant, though itself constantly evolving to incorporate the latest automotive advancements. And if the sedan is the constant, the Honda Accord is the constant within the constant, delivering comfortable, reliable, and safe family transportation for four decades.

Incredibly, the Accord is in its ninth generation. This current-gen model arrived for the 2014 model year, has since been refreshed for 2016, and carries over to 2017. The ’16 refresh included new LEDs in the headlights, a grille that bakes in more features and detail, and other visual tweaks.

For 2017, the Accord adds a new Sport Special Edition, and the lineup gains some key safety technology and available Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Trims for the Accord are the LX, Sport, EX, EX-L, EX-L V6, and Touring. Standard features include dual-zone automatic climate control, an auxiliary audio jack, speed-sensitive volume control, and a multi-function steering wheel with controls for the stereo, climate, and i-MID information display. Also standard is Bluetooth connectivity with hands-free calling, smartphone music playback, Pandora streaming audio, and even SMS text-message capability.

The Sport (and Sport Special Edition) adds dual exhaust, LED fog lights, a body-color rear spoiler, and body-color side sills. The Sport Special Edition also features leather seating with red stitching, heated seats, and “Special Edition” badging.

Moving up to the EX brings heated power side mirrors with integrated turn signals and a wide-angle driver’s side mirror. The EX-L features full leather seating with heated front seats and a 7-speaker 360-watt premium audio system with a subwoofer. The range-topping Touring comes standard with a voice-activated satellite navigation system, auto-dimming high-beams, a parking sensor system, and the impressive Honda Sensing equipment suite.

Honda Sensing is comprised of adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning, a collision-mitigation braking system, a lane-departure warning and assist system, and a road-departure assist system. Together, these features help minimize the chance of an accident if the unexpected happens or you become distracted at the wrong time.

For climate, audio, navigation, and other functions, front passengers can utilize the two-tier center-console touchscreen system. The upper screen is purely digital, the lower a touchscreen. Certain functions have redundant hard buttons as well. It's not the most ergonomic system on the market, but Honda has made efforts to improve it from its original incarnation. After some acclimatization, many of the functions should come more easily.

The base engine for the Accord is a 2.4-liter inline 4-cylinder engine making 185 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque. In the Sport and Sport SE, that engine makes 189 hp and 182 lb-ft of torque. The EX-L V6 and Touring trims come with a 3.5-liter V6 making 278 hp and 252 lb-ft of torque. The LX, Sport, Sport SE, and EX come standard with a 6-speed manual transmission and are available with a continuously variable transmission (CVT); the Sport/Sport SE gets paddle shifters as well. The CVT is standard on the EX-L, and the EX-L V6 and Touring come equipped with a 6-speed automatic transmission.

EPA estimates for the 2017 Honda Accord are 23 mpg city/32 highway/26 combined for the base trim with the manual. Trims with the 4-cylinder engine and CVT return fuel economy of 27/36/30, and V6-equipped trims have EPA fuel-economy estimates of 21/33/25.

Every Accord comes standard with vehicle-stability assist, traction control, antilock braking with electronic brake-force distribution, and a tire-pressure monitoring system. The Accord also comes standard with a multi-angle rear-view camera with guidelines. EX, EX-L, EX-L V6, and Touring trims all come standard with Honda Lane Watch. This system is the ultimate blind-spot monitor--when you activate the right-side turn signal, a camera under the right-side mirror routes an image to the digital display, which provides guidelines to give you a sense of how far away a car may be in the lane to your right. Although this feature only shows the right side of the car, it would be interesting to see it applied to both sides.

Base MSRP for the 2017 Honda Accord is $22,355. A Sport trim starts at $24,415. The Accord EX starts at $25,730, while an EX-L starts at $28,820. As for the V6 trims, the EX-L V6 will fetch $30,895, while the range-topping Touring starts at $34,830.

Be it the highly affordable LX or the impressively well-equipped EX-L V6 or Touring, the Honda Accord remains one of the must-see cars among family sedans. According to Honda, the Accord is looking to continue its three-year streak as the most popular car in America (among individual retail car buyers). With a new Special Edition and new available connectivity features and safety technology, the Accord is poised to continue this trend.