BY ROBIN WARNER
The Honda Accord has been a Car and Driver favorite for many years. For proof, one needn't look any further than this: It has won our 10Best Cars award 20 times in the past 24 years. That's a record even Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher can't touch. Like Schumacher, the Accord is the benchmark of its class, the one all other mid-size sedans are tested against. Not because it has the best engine, chassis, or styling, but because it brilliantly combines a good engine with a well-balanced chassis and tasteful styling to make something much greater than the sum of its parts. In its most recent comparison test, Honda's entry comfortably bested the Ford Fusion, the Hyundai Sonata, and the bestselling Toyota Camry. But those were V-6-powered sedans, not the four-cylinder models that make up the majority of sales. So we borrowed a Honda Accord SE, equipped with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder and five-speed automatic, to see if the mass-market Accord still hits the mark.
Buying an Accord? We recommend the four-cylinder.
Pocketing keys to a new Accord requires $19,220. That puts you in the Value Package model, a manual-transmission-equipped stripper with 15-inch steel wheels and a minimalist, two-speaker stereo with a CD player. However, even the stripper comes with ABS, six-airbags, power locks and windows, and air conditioning. Our SE test car stickered at $22,220, which includes the $800 five-speed automatic transmission and other goodies such as 16-inch aluminum wheels, rear disc brakes, folding rear seats, and a six-speaker stereo with a CD changer (right). We think the SE is the Accord to buy because it gets you the decent stereo and proper wheels and brakes without the frivolous extras. The next trim level up, the EX, costs almost $2000 more, and getting a V-6 adds another $2000. The extra money, combined with the V-6's worse fuel economy, makes the four-cylinder the better all-around car in our minds.
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