2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan Review (Part 2)

2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan Review (Part 2)

The front rotors succumbed to the cutter at two scheduled service appointments, plus a third trip solely to address the return of the vibrating middle pedal. Our dealer turned the rears once. Honda's 36,000- mile warranty covered the first two events, but the third time, at just more than 37,000 miles, cost us $158. Despite these issues, our Accord still had enough metal left after 40,0 miles that its 70-mph stopping distance shrank a bit from 175 feet to 173.

2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan front view

The Accord's four-cylinder felt more powerful on the street than would be indicated by its on-paper 189 horsepower, four stronger than in a standard four-cylinder Accord thanks to the dual exhaust fitted to Sport models [see the accompanying chassis dyno plot in specs]. Accentuating its smoothness is one of the best-shifting manuals extant. The crisp throttle response of the naturally aspirated engine stands in contrast to laggy turbo charged fours that have become common of late. Our Accord delivered the same 6.6-second zero-to-60-mph times at the beginning and end of its 40,000-mile test. No logbook commenter registered regret about passing up the V-6 model.

2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan engine

Accord Sport models wear 18-inch aluminum wheels and a pair of chrome exhaust tips as standard equipment, plus fog lamps and a spoiler. We liked the look of the wheels, though when we dinged one this spring, replacing it made us $451 poorer (plus $28 labor for remounting the tire). One of those fog lamps broke but was fixed under warranty. Leather, navigation, satellite radio, and heated seats are not available on Sports, and we missed them. As with nicotine, alcohol, and autoerotic asphyxiation, it always proves easier to proclaim this sort of stuff unnecessary than to actually go without.

2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan wheel detail

Halfway through our test we noticed an intermittent whine coming from the front of the car, one unrelated to the lack of seat heaters. We mentioned it at the 30,000-mile service, but the dealer was not able to identify its source and an additional 10,000 miles did nothing to reveal its origin. Combined service charges for oil changes, filters, and inspections cost us $61 at 10,000 miles, $143 at 20,000 miles, and $152 at 30,0 miles, bringing the Accord's total maintenance and repair bill to $1219. This is not unreasonable considering that the car returned an impressive 29 mpg while in our hands.

“A person with BMW dreams but a Walmart budget could buy this car and never be ashamed of his station in life. It's that good,” read one logbook entry. Yet for all the praise heaped upon our Accord, we often overlooked it as commonplace, leaving its keys to languish on our sign-out board whenever sexier stuff rolled through. Yes, we drove the Accord to California to let our West Coast editors have a go, but it did not engender the kind of wanderlust or pride commensurate with our esteem.

2013 Honda Accord Sport Sedan side view

But that may be part of this machine's appeal. “The Accord’s greatness has always derived from its ability to disappear under its driver,” we wrote in our 10Best analysis. That it also acts as a vanishing cloak for roadway stress, only to reliably reemerge from the ether when called upon, makes the Accord one of the smartest choices on the market. Just be sure to keep your garage locked, lest it truly disappear.