Honda unveiled its refreshed mid-sized sedan on Thursday, complete with facelift and available 19-inch wheels on the Acura Accord.
The new car also sports updated technology, including Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto systems and a 7-inch touchscreen on EX and higher trims.
The Accord will continue to use its 2.4-liter four and 3.6-liter V-6 engines.
In addition to the new nose and updated technology, Honda says its signature sedan will offer a suite of safety features including frontal collision warning and collision mitigation braking, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning and a hint of correction.
According to our own Tim Cain, sales of the Accord have remained relatively steady since the ninth-generation Accord went on sale in 2013. Honda quietly killed the plug-in hybrid Accord this year, which is statistically just as rare as a Porsche 918 Spyder.
That facelift was evidently done by Joan River’s plastic surgeon.
Honda Accord: Now with more ugly
@bb, seems to work for Camry. It gets uglier and uglier with each facelift …cough…redesign (too bad I cant use autojorno’s clever slash-through there, I guesss the cough will have to do), I guess Honda figured theyd try that.
This is worse than any Camry though. This is almost as ugly as the Maxima.
Definitely getting there. Looks better than any current Lexus though. Shudder.
@bb I dont know about that. I find this the best of the three, the Maxima second, the Camry third (although it is better with the latest nose job).
Its interesting that the three US automakers have some of the best looking products in the segment with Fusion, 200 and the new Malibu, while the Japanese fight it out by out ugly-ing each other as the Koreans sneak by with decent looking products of their own. It used to be that the Japanese were the ones with bland-but-not-bad styling (1990s, 2000s), now theyve switched places with Hyundai as it takes that title (speaking of the latest Sonata).
Why do most new cars need to look like my grand kids “Hot Wheels” toys? Most are really distasteful……..but what do I know, I’m just an old foogie?
Somebody obviously loves them, they’re selling in great numbers.
Edit, I agree JohnTaurus…….the Fusion and Malibu are far more attractive than the “imports”.
At least it still has windows, something most of today’s vehicles lack. Might buy for that reason alone.
I saw my first new Maxima today – the rear is definitely cool looking, but that blocky front end is atrocious.
I think the guy who did the 2016 Silverado re-do moonlighted at Honda….
“You know what this car needs? More cowbell.”
– Christopher Walken
Moar schmeared chrome is what the kids today want.
That and Acura’s parrotfish grille.
A Joan River’s joke? What year is this? Didn’t she die last year?
I have to agree wholeheartedly.
I respect Honda engineering but some of the designs are just plain weird…every time they get it right they shake things up too much and change it, I don’t see them slowly evolve any design theme.
The 2004 3rd gen Acura TL was a clean and balanced design, just the right size too and in the 4th gen they butchered it with the cheap looking power plenum and bloated (tacky tech) styling…same for the TSX of that vintage.
The Accord above is an example of two cars, the side styling is simple and flows well and as you set get to the front it’s a completely different car, and a mess at that.
Let’s see how the more base versions of the new Accord look when seen in the real world, not in photos. Perhaps the reduced trim of lower-tier Accords will look better, especially if that beak is body colored. But I must say the past couple of generations of Accords have reminded me of 1990s Buicks.
As others have written, it seems the most attractive Asian cars are now coming from Hyundai and Kia, although I just purchased a 2016 Subaru Forester. Its clean design and old-school visibility were factors in my decision. If one really wants a four-door sedan and can handle a CVT, the Subaru Legacy is a pretty honest design, too.
Comment of the year!
They haven’t even settled the lawsuit by the F-15 to get its air intakes back from the new Fit; and now this.
Why does Honda management think Acura products look so good that they’re aping design elements and pasting them on Honda products?
Perhaps vision coverage is not part of the Honda benefit package.
I think someone at Acura just wants other people to appreciate their unique “beak” styling.
I don’t see the point though, no reason to have a grille if you just block it off.
Simply horrible
This “beak” looks similar to the one already on the Honda Spirior, I agree it was a bad decision though.
One more reason why you should just skip the Acura and get the Honda instead, why pay more $$ for more ugly?
They Acura TSX’d the nose, and ruined whatever was left of the rest of the Accord’s exterior, aesthetic attributes.
WTF.
Acura-itis is spreading like a malignant cancer to Honda!
No pictures of what horrors await on the inside…
There were on Autoblog. It keeps the dual screen setup in the center.
Yeah, there are very few changes to the interior, design-wise.
They made the top screen a quarter-inch SMALLER in height to plop in the bigger touch-screen on the bottom (complete with touch-and-swipe volume controls everyone’s bitched about)! Anyone coming from the 8-inch top screen (or “intelligent Multi-information display” (“iMid”)) in the 2013-2015 is going to be driven nuts thinking that something doesn’t look..”right”..every time they get behind the wheel of the new one! There’s even a “DLO fail”-esque thing very apparent around the HVAC vents on the center stack! I leave it to the B&B to see out early pix of that — you’ll see it right away, particularly if you’ve spent time in a 9th-Gen Accord to date.
At least they’ve finally put 60/40 splid-folding rear seats in the Sedans!
I already reported this, a day or two earlier on the Maxima post! There was an interior pic there as well.
Devious.
Car manufacturers are obviously working in concert to put a huge volume of eye-searingly hideous cars on the road, hoping we gradually become desensitized. Next, lay off the untalented design department staff and reap savings by using computer-generated designs. Salaries slashed! Profits made! Stock prices soar!
That’s the only scenario I can come up with where this design makes sense.
Ironically (because they’re otherwise rolling garbage), VW still makes timeless tasteful cars.
“Honda Lifts Cover Off Updated Accord”
Put it back on
You win! Close the thread now.
I’d like to know what it looks like in Europe and Japan before condemning Honda Tokyo, becasue I think the fugly problem is happening with only US models.
Since the TSX (Accord in Europe and Japan) was discontinued, Honda didn’t offer a replacement in Europe due to low sales while this Accord took its place in Japan.
Absolutely dreadful. Like your maiden aunt in platforms and a miniskirt.
It looks much better in other pics I’ve seen of it. Not as dreadful as the Maxima! 9 speed? Direct injected V6?
Nope and nope! Engines and transmission options are status-quo. (So forget any hopes of a 6-6 Sedan!) Even the high-end Touring Coupe with all the goodies doesn’t have a manual option.
Looks like an acura/ every other car on the road
Doh. 3.5 liter V6*
It looks like the 2012 civic’s grille and we all know how well that turned out.
What the Hell did you do?
WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?
Holy crap that is horrific in the pictures. Honda is getting the Acura beaks?
Are you feckin’ KIDDING ME?!?!
The best selling retail fullsizer in ‘Merica and this is what they do to it?
DLO fail up front, and appears a sliver of DLO fail by the rear c-pillar (I get the bigger chunk is a window, look closely).
The car looks like an Acura and a Camry were left out in the sun too long and they kind of melted together.
It also gets sparkly LED daytime running lights because that’s what all the cool kids get, and 19″ rims that have the black accents.
Jesus tap dancing Christ – no wonder sedan sales are down as a category. Can anyone other than Ford and Mazda make an attractive FWD bread and butter for the masses sedan anymore?
Huh? There’s no DLO fail on the Accord. The only thing I don’t like is that Honda couldn’t make the silver trim surrounding the windows go all the way around the mirror triangle mounts, but that’s been a Honda faux pas for quite some time.
Also, the Accord has had LED DRLs since its 2013 redesign.
Lastly, the Accord is not rated as a full-sized sedan, chiefly because of the trunk size. But it’s just about there.
It’s a D segment car.
Upon further inspection of the autoblog pictures, you are correct. There is no C-pillar DLO fail – so I apologize. The angle of the picture above has the chrome surround reflecting black, so it looks like an area of black filling in the DLO.
The autoblog pictures of the side view clearly show it is polished trim.
I actually think this looks good. But for those of you who don’t like it, I think this is *probably* an upscale sport trim, similar to the Camry’s new XSE level, and so it’s styled quite aggressively. Tamer models, like the LX, EX, EX-L and Touring, probably won’t look like this.
Unfortunately, all trims have the chrome beak.
Yes, this one’s a top-level Touring, the only one with LED headlights. (The halogen projector-beams on lesser trims look better-executed than the 2013-2015s, while my two LED low-beam festoons-per-side (as you can see in my avatar) will still probably look better overall than this LED array..we’ll have to see.)
If Honda wanted the chrome out-front, they could have started with the Coupe grille, then put a thicker bar on top and rounded it out with thinner bars towards the bottom, similar to the 2011-2012 Accord Sedan’s grille design.
The Accord I really liked was around 06-08. It was simple, and before it had the big dog bone door handles. And I liked the triangle rear lamps with LED dots. A very nice design.
http://www.petersonauto.com/vehicles/1HGCM66546A020862/1HGCM66546A020862_2.jpg
Nothin wrong with that one!
The revised Accord, now with 32 headlights and MOAR PLASTICHROME!
It’s getting to the point where the front end of a ’59 Cadillac looks better than today’s cars and especially pickups.
The ’59 Cadillac is probably one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
…The Accord will continue to use its 2.4-liter four and 3.6-liter V-6 engines…
Honda is sourcing V6 engines from GM now? ;-)
It’s a 3.5, same as Toyota.
It looks better in the videos of its unveiling than in the official stock photography. Calm down, people.
Damn, the current Accord was too good to last for long. Now we get this new “I got new shiny plastic chrome sunglasses” Accord. Not as hideous as the new Civic SI, but it’s getting there.
Echoing everyone’s sentiment here regarding the design of the 2016 Accord – ugly, expensive, complicated, bloated…definitely induces a speedy bowel movement!
I value my 2003 LX even more after seeing the dreadful photo of the 2016 and I want to wring the most value out of it for as long as I can. Nothing ever goes wrong with it. No frilly touch screen buttons, collision mitigation braking, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control or lane departure warning to malfunction.
Well 13-15 Accord it is then, thanks for making my choices a no brainer Honda.
When I saw first time current generation Accord I mistaken it for Hyudai Genesis (it a complement for Asian car actually, Hyudai and Kia make nest looking Asian cars because they hired European designers). The new Accord I would mistaken for a new even more uglyfied Acura. Current Accord is not a stand out in midsize segment but at least it looks elegant enough to tolerate, unlike Acura.
According to the latest rant by autoextremist all midsize sedans look the same (opinion with which I do not agree – car in 50s, 60s and 70s looked the same if apply the same criteria). So may be it does not matter. And most customers in 21th century in US especially prefer boring to ugly car designs anyway given the success of Accord/Camry/Altima.
Unlike the front, the a$$ on this is well done! The taillights are thinner, sleeker, and all-LED on all trims. Fortunately, Honda refrained from a past practice of swapping the position of the turn indicators and brake lights (last seen on the 7th-Gen — 2001-2002); the next MMC saw the extensive revisions to the back where the only commonality between pre-and-post-MMC decklids was the character line! Then the 8th-Gen (2011-2012) MMC picked up the reflectors which covered up an otherwise HUGE expanse of decklid!
Those reflectors looked like Pep Boys add ons. They did nothing for the design, came out of nowhere, connected with no other design elements and just added clutter.
Less is more Honda. You forgot that along the way.
I don’t really find it ugly at all, but I do tend a bit towards Honda fanboiism. Any car with a fairly upright windshield, and a relatively low beltline, looks decent enough to me these days.
Many of the secondary elements definitely look more at home in emerging Asian cities than they do in cheesetastic American Exurbias, or parked in front of German passivhauses or Italian villas. Understandably enough, as unless the Asian makers can establish “their” design tastes and traditions as equal to Euroean ones, they will forever have to contend themselves with trading at a discount. And realistically, as more and more of what matters in the world will originate from Asia, style and fashion trends will follow suit. Doesn’t mean us old geezers pining for a manual panther wagon have to fall in love with them, but our sons and grandsons very well might.
I don’t care much for the Acura beak. Honda needs to do away with that ugly beak instead of putting it on one of their best selling cars.
“So, what can we do to better distinguish Hondas and Acuras, since people say the designs are too homogenous?”
“Make the Hondas look even more like Acuras.”
“Mein Gott im Himmel!!! You sir are a GENIUS! Promote this man to Vice President immediately!”
Guess the Windows phone is dead.
Why did they Acura-fy the Accord? It was a good looking car before this plastic surgery disaster.
“The Accord will continue to use its 2.4-liter four and 3.6-liter V-6 engines”
Did you mean “3.5-liter V-6 engine”?
Yuck…hate the chrome Acura-ish grille. The thing is, when it’s car shopping time, which it will be next summer, my bride will march into the same Honda store she used for the last 3 cars, pick out an Accord LX (base model) in whatever color suits her fancy,probably black or charcoal gray, and be out of there in under 2 hours. The grille is irrelevant to her…it’s an Accord and she is content with that. She doesn’t cross-shop and she likes the sales guy.
At least there is a little family resemblance now. Honda likely figured people would be more accepting of Acura styling if they saw a softer version rolling around by the thousands in Honda form.
After several versions of ugly Accords, I thought they had finally gotten it right with the latest generation, I actually found it to be a very good-looking car. Then they go and do this. Ugh…
This is a lot of drama for a strip of chrome on the snout.
The Acura beak is a lot more prominent than this. And as I noted, go look at the reveal videos for the launch of the car, so that you can see some different angles and realize that stock photography doesn’t always resemble reality.
I prefer the 2013-2015 grill which visually connected those Accords with Honda’s era of relative technical brilliance in the 90s. Double wishbone suspension, VTEC, good ergonomics, etc. I would have kept the old one, but installed the upper-trim LED lights across more trim levels.
How bad is the turning radius with 19in wheels? The Accords with wide 18in wheels had a more restricted wheel turning angle to prevent the tires from rubbing.
I own a 2014 Accord EX-L and never liked the standard cast aluminum wheels. Would have preferred some brighter machined aluminum surfaces or something to better contrast with silver paint. The bright aluminum and contrasting black wheel style would look better on the silver and the white Accords.
Guess I’m the only one who LOVES it.
Scott,
A young co-worker really liked it.
And I liked the look as well.better off w/out the chrome,but I still like it.
Well, statistically there had to be SOMEONE who liked it.
Does anyone know if the OEMs focus-group their vehicle renderings before they commit to tooling?
My wife chose a 2014 Sport in the gorgeous “Modern Steel” color…same color as Baruth’s coupe….and I thought that year epitomized the modern sedan…graceful, understated, competently wrought, and handsome. With this refresh, it’s obvious they changed the fender stampings not at all, and just grafted on ‘new’ lights and fascia to the front end. My (rhetorical) question. When Honda came out with the new version in 2014, wouldn’t you think they chose the best-looking, most harmonious front-end treatments to go with the overall design of the car? So, if the original design won over all other designs, and the market approved of that design, why change it just for the sake of change? And that question really is appropriate for all the OEMs….what is the point of a mid-cycle refresh if all you are doing is investing capital to change the look of a vehicle that is already selling well?
The Mazda6 obliterates this.
“The Mazda6 obliterates this.”
Accord YTD: 155,746
Mazda6 YTD: 32,307
I don’t think a little ugly-face will change this much.
Let me start by saying that I am driving a 2014 Accord Sport.
I did not choose this car for it’s design, it simply does not look that good but it is very good on gas and it’s very cheap to lease.
This 2016 update looks even worst and the BIG news is the infotainment system, I can not emphasis enough how much I hate that system in the Accord I drive, at least once a week, I have to turn off the car completely in order for it to work properly, if I’m on the highway, I have to take the next exit so I can restart the system, and I did not say anything about the sound quality yet, my iphone speaker sound better!
So for Honda to come up with a new system that work with your smart phone? I can just imagine the problems to come.
I am driving rental cars from time to time, all of them with a basic sound system and all of them sound way better than the Accord.
“I am driving rental cars from time to time, all of them with a basic sound system and all of them sound way better than the Accord.”
I believe that the current generation Accord is the first Honda, ever, where the suck of the radio isn’t drowned out by the suck of the road noise.
Current automaker’s rule 1: Styling? We don’t need no stinkin’ styling.
Not great, but it wouldn’t be a deal breaker were I in the market for such a car.
What I don’t understand is why the Japanese brands let the styling from their luxury brands trickle down to the mainstream brands. Accord gets and Acura beak, Camry gets a 1/2 Lexus snout, and the Altima has way too many Q50 swoops.
My ’13 Malibu gets a new lease on looks – thanks Honda!
Edit: Honorary Mentions-
Lexus “Cylon”
Nissan “Gluteus” Maxima (Front end looks like A$$)
Hyundai: “What’s that black square thing under the badge” Sonata
And yes, the Chevy Spark is still worse than all of these, but the 2016 rectifies most of that.
Funny, as I read more in other sites such as C and D and the like. There are several if not most posters like the new styling. GMAB. OAF.
This can’t be the actual model! Tell me this is just the crash-test version, please!
WTF are they thinking?
Did somebody find the Aztek styling committee and give them too much
wabi sabi?
Yikes.