2014 Honda Accord

The 2014 Honda Accord is available in six different trims- LX, Sport, EX, EX-L, EX-L V6, Touring V6. At the starting price of $21,955, the standard features on offer are quite impressive with a 2.4-liter inline 4 engine, dual-zone automatic climate control, cruise control, loaded safety features, cloth seats, and 16-inch alloy wheels. The higher trims are equipped with a more powerful V6 engine, leather steering wheel, leather seats, heated options, and a lot more.

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The 2014 Honda Accord comes with plenty of options to choose from based on your requirements. We recommend going for the Sport trim as it offers the best value of all the trims in the Accord’s lineup. It provides you ample comfort and convenience creatures along with a host of safety features. If you want more power, then you can pick a trim with a V6 as standard.

As standard, the 2014 Honda Accord gets powered by a 2.4-liter naturally aspirated i-VTEC inline-4 under the hood belting out 185 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of maximum torque. The engine is mated with a 6-speed manual transmission and is complemented by a front-wheel-drive system. A CVT is available as standard on the higher trims and comes at an additional cost for the base trims. The other engine on offer is a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated i-VTEC V6 mill that pumps out 278 horsepower and 252 pound-feet of torque. The engine produces less power for a V6 to harness a little better fuel economy but has a decent torque curve.

With the base engine configurations, the 2014 Accord can accelerate to 60 miles per hour from a standstill in just 7.5 seconds and completes a quarter-mile in 15.8 seconds. The numbers are quite impressive given that the engine is not the most powerful one in the competition. The V6 engine performs even better with a 0-60 mph timing of under 6 seconds. The base engine of the sedan tops out at 125 mph, which is the second-best figure in the competition.

In terms of raw engine power, it is pretty much evident that the Hyundai does have an edge but couldn’t perform in real-world acceleration. Honda and Mazda come next in line in terms of engine power, but the former is the fastest to conquer 60 mph in the competition, followed by the latter. The Toyota, despite having an underpowered engine, does play well in the acceleration and is slightly better than the Hyundai.

With improved injection technology, the Accord can deliver good fuel economy. Especially for the performance the 2014 Accord offers, the fuel economy is adequate. In the city, the Accord will deliver up to 24 mpg, 34 mpg on the highways, and 28 mpg as a combined economy. The numbers are quite decent, and when coupled with a 17.2-gallon gas tank, the range is impressive with 481.6 miles combined.

Surprisingly, Honda stands last in the competition with a slight difference but produces similar combined economy numbers. Mazda offers a lot more highway mileage than the competition, and in our opinion, stays at the top in terms of fuel economy. Both Hyundai and Toyota produce better numbers than Honda and also have a better range.

With a very modern-looking cabin and decent creature comforts on offer, the Accord stands tall in the competition. The front seats are cloth-covered as standard, but the higher trims are equipped with leather ones and are equipped with multi-level heating and power adjustability. The dashboard is blacked-out and has a sleek design with the infotainment system at the middle, and the left sporting a very comfortable steering wheel and a digital-analog instrument cluster.

The rear seats come covered with cloth too and offer a very comfortable ride quality. Both the front and rear rows are quite spacious and fit up to 5 people without any issues. The seats are complemented enough by the head, shoulder, and legroom. Talking practicality, the car packs a decent-sized trunk, 15.8 cubic feet to be precise, and can fit a few duffels and suitcases without any issues.

Honda, Mazda, and Toyota have a better cabin space than the Hyundai, which has a large front row space but compromises for the rear, especially the legroom. However, it offers a bigger cargo space than the competition, followed by Honda and Toyota. The Mazda 6 offers the smallest cargo area compared to the other sedans in the competition. A few of the standout interior features are:

• 8-way power-adjustable front seats
• Heated leather steering wheel
• Dual-zone automatic climate control
• Dual illuminating vanity mirrors
• Interior air filtration

How intuitive is the 2014 Honda Accord’s infotainment unit?

For the budget, the 2014 Honda Accord holds some important features that are rare in the segment, and with the infotainment system on offer, the experience even gets better. The dashboard holds an 8-inch touchscreen display and uses Honda’s very easy-to-use UI. The touch responses are a bit laggy sometimes but do the job nonetheless. A few of the infotainment system features that are worth mentioning are:

• 8-inch touchscreen display
• SiriusXM
• 7-speaker audio system
• Speed sensitive volume control
• HD radio
• Navigation (Optional)

The 2014 Accord has a very sleek exterior design language like a traditional sedan. The front has sharp projector headlamps with LED DRLs and a pretty sleek intake grille too. The rear sports LED taillights and dual side-mounted exhaust cutouts. The car sits on 16-inch alloy wheels as standard and can be upgraded to 17 or 19-inch wheels. There are a lot of chrome parts fitted across the body, and that contributes to a lot better overall looks.

The exterior dimensions are pretty straightforward for a sedan. That means a longer wheelbase, length, and width. The height is set at 57.7 inches, and that is adequate for a sedan. At 5.8 inches of ground clearance, it is not the highest but enough to clear bumps and potholes. The sedan weighs 3,192 lbs, making it the second lightest sedan after Mazda 6.

The competition is similarly sized, with the Mazda having a slightly longer wheelbase, ground clearance, length, and surprisingly weighs the least. The Toyota weighs the most and shares similar dimensions to that of the Honda. The Hyundai has the lowest ground clearance in the competition. A few of the key exterior features are:

• 16-inch alloy wheels
• Projector headlamps with LED DRLs and tail lamps
• Chrome tipped dual exhaust outlets
• Heated mirrors
• Remote trunk release
• Power mirrors

Honda has worked on the existing chassis and embraced it to make it safer. The Advanced Compatibility Engineering II structure has a spring mechanism that absorbs and spreads the impact energy during a crash. The car has an enormous list of both active and passive safety features on offer and performs exquisitely in the crash tests. The NHTSA has rated the Accord with a complete 5-star rating, and the IIHS has not only rated it “Good” but also awarded “Top Safety Pick+”. If all these combined cannot put a smile on you, we don’t know what will. A few of the important safety features on offer are:

• 4-wheel ABS with traction control
• Lane departure warning system
• Stability control
• Tire pressure monitoring
• Emergency brake assist
• Passenger airbag occupant sensing deactivation
• Electronic brake force distribution
• Forward collision warning

For the price, we think that the 2014 Honda Accord is a sweet spot with a great balance between performance, reliability, and features, thus making it a great offering from Honda. And also, with a plethora of safety features on offer, it might be the safest sedan you can buy in the segment. All in all, the 2014 Honda Accord comes out as one of the most well-rounded packages in the segment for the price.