Accord Hybrid drive - as good as Tesla

For the Accord the Federal tax credit is $3626.

Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit (IRC 30D)

 

Is there a particular reason this seems to be more common on Honda lots than others? Over the past few years I shopped a Pilot for the wife and checked out a Civic/Fit for myself. The dealers I went to all had these "protection packages" on every car with their overpriced "door edge guards" and such. Quite a few more already had the "paint protection" type nonsense already on there.

Even the dealerships I didn't visit in person indicated they had extras on the price via their website. I also notice a lot of newer Hondas in the area have those awful looking door edge guards on, so I guess customers aren't pushing back against it like I would have. Ugly and offer questionable value for protecting anything. I can say one dealership in the area actually touted in their price quote to me that they didn't do any of that stuff, and was where I was likely to buy if I did get a Honda. Even if you deducted the extras from the other dealer's prices, they were still lower. Half of the Honda dealers didn't even want to play my email price quote game, including the salesman who I test drove with.

The Toyota, Subaru, Mazda, and Ford lots I visited didn't go nearly that far. Some cars had the usual floor mats, integrated mud flaps, and/or wheel locks but not all of them like Honda. Frankly the absolute way the Honda dealerships tried to pack the sticker reduced my enthusiasm for wanting to buy something. It just seemed like another layer of dealership sleaze and another thing I would have to negotiate away should I actually buy there.

If I remember correctly the one Honda dealer I visited last summer had a small markup on the Accord Sport sitting in their showroom, since I guess the Sport models were in high demand. I had to laugh at that one. The last time I remember seeing that at a Honda dealer was when the S2000 came out.

 

If the OP was at all serious about buying, not letting him take it on the highway was a mistake. Maybe they are in short supply and/or the dealership is just nervous, but how do you really buy any car, without seeing what it can do at highway speeds? I know if I couldn't take a new car out on the highway for a test, then my response would be I can't open my wallet.

Especially a "new" Hybrid. Am I going to buy it not being familiar at all with how it handles and operates on the freeway?

I know dealerships don't want to rack up a lot of miles with just casual test drives, but I've often thought that at least every dealership should have a representative vehicle from each popular model they sell. One that is treated as a demonstrator and in which longer more expansive test drives can be offered.

Right now, at most dealerships you are asked to make a huge financial purchase, and "test drives" are really a joke.

But the OP's experience? "IF" I was serious about buying, and I let that be known, I've never had a dealership refuse to let me take the vehicle on the highway....I wouldn't purchase if they did not.

 

Honda dealers I've gone to say they are only getting one or two Accord Hybrids per month. For that reason, they are not allowing casual test drives, and I'm fine with that.

San Leandro Honda had a 2014 Accord Hybrid EX-L yesterday with a $2,000 asking markup for $34,695 total sticker price. Nice car, but notably reduced trunk space doesn't help matters at all.

Was having my Prius serviced in Milpitas, rented a 2014 Camry SE for 2 hours. Stopped by Honda next door and said I'd like to hear how quiet a conventional EX-L sedan is on the highway nearby. So I drove a few miles. The Accord had a little bit more elevated cabin noise on the rougher pavement. I'd also have to add an inch or two of contoured pad on center armrest, cause I couldn't get as good of grip with my right hand on the wheel as I'd like to. That's the extent of it. I'm not buying into an Accord anytime soon.

The Camry SE had a nice power driver's seat with Ultrasuede insert. The seat felt really good, but it bothered me to look down at my knees and see that steering wheel skewed a couple or so inches right. ...

I looked closely at a previous generation Camry (hybrid actually) to find that gen's steering wheel was centered wll in front of the seat. Trouble is at that time, the power seat didn't lower all that much in the car and I remember noticing that in about 2008 or 2009.

No car is perfect, but I'd choose an Accord over Camry. And btw, that Accord driver's seat was very nice.

 

I've looked at the Camry hybrid and wasn't a fan of the interior at all. The Accord is a nice car. Unfortunately, after owning a Civic hybrid, I just don't have the same faith in Honda's hybrid technology as Toyota's HSD. That being said, Honda dealerships are crooks. They charge ridiculous fees for add ons, force some on you (the Honda dealership here automatically adds this parking brake system that blinks the tail lights when you brake and they do this modification and charge for it automatically before delivering any car) and I remember looking at the Civic SI with a $10,000 mark up for being the only SI they had and they felt it was worth $33k for a Civic...

That being said, if I had the money, the Avalon hybrid is so nice. Really, the new Avalon is a beautiful car. Probably one of the best car designs I've seen Toyota produce.

 

I'm sure that probably IS the reason they don't want high miles racked up and intensive higher miles test drives. BUT....seriously...would you ever really buy a vehicle that you hadn't put on the freeway?

I don't think anybody should.

Honda needs a bigger initial release supply, or SPECIFICALLY supply each dealership with one hybrid accord which is designated to be the official "demonstrator". If they really want to sell them.

Because I would never buy a vehicle that I wasn't allowed to put through all the paces.

 

I'm pretty sure the Avalon rolls on the current Camry chassis and unfortunately, the Avalon has the offset steering wheel just like the Camry. Mute point for me since I don't want a car as big as Avalon.

Maybe Honda dealers are 'all' crooks in your area, but can't be the case everywhere. See how Honda's are sold nationwide? I doubt everyone is willing to get hosed just to have a Honda car.

I'd like to see more attractive options in the alternative car / hybrid marketplace. Given the Accord Hybrid's newness, high price and cozy trunk space, I don't get overly excited about it.

Like said, Honda is supplying about one to two Accord Hybrids per month per dealership to sell. They probably already know there's a bunch of hybrid aficionado's that would like to take an Accord Hybrid for a spin to check it out with no real intentions to buy.

Yesterday, I went to South Bay Honda and simply said, I want to see how an Accord sedan (conventional) does on the highway nearby. The 'retail' salesguy said ok, lemme copy your DL and we'll go. Now, if I had said, let's test drive the Accord Hybrid, I think the salesguy's first words would have been, how seriously are you considering one? .. and the 2nd words would have been, let's talk to my manager.

but of course, if someone was seriously considering to buy an Accord Hybrid and wanted to thoroughly test the car, Honda would let them.

I heard last year Honda was going to be production constrained on the Accord Hybrid for some time....

Keep in mind the Accord Hybrid engine and transmission are sourced from Japan, not from the US like the conventional sedan.

 

starting to get some fuelly info on the new accord hybrid. looks to be getting 42ish mpg. that is really good for the size car it is. It sure is no match for the prius as some have stated. I really hope that this car is super reliable and brings more good press for hybrids.

 

The Accord hybrid is at 39.1mpg on Fuelly at this time. The 2014 Prius and Camry are at 44.7mpg and 37.5mpg(the Camry entries are split). There are 28, 18, and 15 entries for each model there. The 2014 year needs to be used for comparison, because any others will have at least a spring and a summer of driving in the data, which the Accord hasn't have yet.

The Accord should best the Camry, but not the Prius. It could close that 5mpg gap though with warmer weather.

 

how is it that doug sees 42 and you see 39? and shouldn't the prius improve as well?

 

Perhaps someone entered or corrected an entry that lowered the average in the 12 hours between our posts. Fuelly isn't a static database.

The Prius will improve, but it is a known factor since there hasn't been any major changes to the MY. Previous year models are averaging around 47 to 48 mpg now. They and the 2014 might get to 49mpg during the warmer months. The Accord hybrid is an all new model with a different hybrid system than Toyota's. It may respond differently to seasonal changes. Getting than expected to warmed weather, or simply more negatively affected by the cold. The likely hood is that 5mpg gap will not change, but we can't call that with certainty yet.

 

0-60mph time ... better than Honda
Multi function display - better than Honda
Handling - better than Honda
EV range - fugedabaudit
Charge speed - fugedabaudit
Safety - fugedabaudit
Etc

.

 

fuelly list the camry hybrid as a seperate model, and accord you have to sort the 2014 by engine type this caused it to display the list of accords with mpg for each car, but gave me no total mpg for all the miles on the accord hybrid. So I guessed. I thought my guess would be much closer than that. some of the people who get better mpg must be driving less distance. This makes sence to me because I usually get better mpg the more I drive in town.

 

There is a seperate Camry hybrid listing, but there is also some listed with the regular Camrys that can be filtered out. When you filter for the 4 cylinder Accord hybrid, Fuelly gives you a 2014 entry. I got the 39.1 mpg off that bar. when you click on the bar to see individual cars, the site drops the filter and traditional car entries are included.

Fuelly and Gassavers was bought by the same group about a year ago. Since then, they have merged the sites. Using Gassavers to replace the rarely used Fuelly forums. Right now, the new owners are working on the back end of the fuel economy tracking. Improvements and fixes should be arriving, hopefully sooner than later.

 

True - but by the same token there are some Ferraris that have plastic interiors ( the f40 comes to mind )
.

 

I guess the accord plug in with leather 50,000 plus, seems to expensive. we need plug in cars that are less expensive.

 

Gotta love Honda and their dealer markups.