Debating Camry or Accord hybrid for next car

my wife went from 2 camry's to two hycams. this one is the xle with everything but the larger gps screen.

the honda is looking good, and you should test drive both cars. reliability hasn't been proven on the honda yet, they made them for a year, then stopped for a year, now they are back.

the thing you are likely to find with pricing is that honda doesn't like to deal much, whereas, you can probably pick up a 34k hycam for 29-30k.

 

The Accord hybrid system isn't just a motor hooked up to a traditional transmission. Hyundai's and Honda's old IMA and new double clutch, one motor is, but the Accord uses a two motor system. It actually simpler than Toyota's HSD; it is a series hybrid in which the ICE for the generator can clutch into the drivetrain at higher speeds.

Honda didn't stop building it for a year, just selling it in North America as they moved production for here to Japan. It was still available in Japan. But Honda did burn many with their handling of the problems with the IMA cars. If you aren't in a rush to replace, wait a year to see how it goes.

 

You might look at an Avalon Hybrid (leather is standard in all models), generally deals are easy to get on the Avalons and the price difference might be smaller than you would think (Vs a Camry)

 

hyava is a great car.

 

For what it's worth, you can find a quick overview and a detailed review that I wrote recently here:

10 Things You Need To Know About The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid

2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Review – First Drive

Also, you may want to consider the new 2016 Chevrolet Malibu which is very competitive with the Accord and Camry hybrids and has gotten excellent reviews. It is cheaper than the Accord but has almost the same gas mileage.

The big advantage of the Camry is that it's design has been around for many years and it has excellent reliability. The downside is that Camry's gas mpg is looking a bit uncompetitive vs. the Accord and Malibu.

Unfortunately, I haven't reviewed or even driven the new Malibu hybrid yet so I can't compare it for you based on personal experience.

 

The Malibu uses a variation of the hybrid drive system in the Volt. It prioritizes hybrid fuel economy instead EV performance. In terms of cargo utility, the rear seat is a full 60/40 fold down one. I believe the trunk floor might be raised compared to the ICE model, and it likely loses the spare tire.

For completion, there is also the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. It might look like the least sophisticated hybrid with a motor mated to a traditional step transmission, but the fuel economy matches the Camry with the city and highway values flipped. It has a full folding rear seat, but it appears to be only on the high trim model.

 

accord mpg's are close to epa. gen4 seems to be doing better. while accord is competitively priced at msrp, reports are that it is not competitive at point of sale.

 

hycam has a full size spare, completely under the trunk.

 

Yes, basically. The car is moved in reverse by the bigger electric motor using energy from either the battery pack and/or the gas engine spinning the generator motor.

I don't remember offhand. I assume you could find out by looking on the Toyota and Honda websites.

Yes, in that sense they are similar. In terms of the transmission itself, they are very different internally but they drive somewhat similarly in that there is no conventional sudden automatic transmission shifting from gear to gear during acceleration. It feels smooth even though a clutch actually connects the gas engine directly to a fixed gear leading to the wheels at speeds above 40-45 mph when you aren't accelerating too hard. This fixed gear is equivalent to the 6th gear of the Honda manual transmission. I think the main thing a driver would notice is that the engine may operate at a noticeably higher rpm at times than it would in a Prius hybrid or Malibu hybrid. Those hybrids have electrically variable gearing ratios instead of fixed gearing so they have the flexibility to run the engine at a lower and less-noticeable rpm under some driving conditions.

No clutch on the Prius means there is one less part to fail but automatic clutches of the kind used internally in the Accord or Malibu hybrid transmissions are generally very reliable and last for 200,000+ miles unlike manual transmission clutches which are a wear item that need to be periodically replaced. That's because the Accord and Malibu hybrid transmission controllers can carefully match the rpms of the two sides before the clutch is engaged so the operation creates much less friction or wear that in a manual transmission.