Car

2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring: Review

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

This week, we spent the time driving the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring. Be sure to check out my previous 2016 Accord Coupe Touring review, because there will be a lot of similarities.

Exterior

The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring looks very similar to the other Accords of this generation. Whereas, other car companies go out of their way to show the “greenness” of the car by making it look gaudy futuristic, the Accord just has a nice Hybrid badge on the back.

The Accord has always been a bigger sedan than the Civic counterpart and you can definitely feel it when you’re parking. It fit in the garage quite uncomfortably too tight, which was interesting as the CR-V didn’t have any issues.

Nevertheless, I think it’s a good looking car, sporty enough and moderate enough to fit the general car consumer.

Interior

The interior of the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid is similar to the one from last year. There is still the physical ring as the speedometer, but it is now surrounded by a LED display, showing the charge of the battery and fuel. I wish they went full digital to be honest, but it’s a good balance.

Apple Car Play and Android Auto are still present which is great, but the same performance issues I had with the 2016 Accord Coupe is very much present. The display takes a good couple minutes to boot up Apple Car Play when the iPhone is plugged in. This is disappointing!

It most likely is the same unit found in last year’s Accord because it has the big black bezel for the Home, Volume, Menu and Back buttons, which are useless and I’ve never had to touch.

The use of the second screen above the GPS is used for a digital clock as well as for camera displays.

The rear view camera and blind spot camera are both very handy for parking and minimizing any blind spots.

An awesome feature that I love in new cars.

 

The smooth leather seats were for some reason super comfortable in this model! There was a lot of plush cushioning, that it might be my favourite car seat of all time! I also appreciated that there was rear seat heating.

Drive

Being a Hybrid, this car starts eerily quiet. Except for the noisy beeps it makes on start up, there is no engine ignition.

The 2017 Accord Hybrid Touring has a computer that dictates when the car will shift between 3 different Hybrid modes: Regular engine, Hybrid, and full EV. There’s also a button near the automatic gearbox that lets you toggle EV mode manually. I’ve found overall, the Hybrid computer is very finicky.

If you sneeze at the EV Mode, it’ll usually change to a regular engine immediately. You can’t initiate EV mode until you’ve been driving for a few minutes, as the Engine must be warm. EV mode can also be turned off by flicking on the AC.

The longer you drive the car, the easier I found to get the car to switch to EV mode and start using those electric motors. Nonetheless, I found myself pressing the Sport Button to get a more fun drive with snippets of EV mode to save a little bit on gas.

The cornering of this car definitely feels like an EV sedan, with a lot of weight and sliding. I think I prefer the Civic or the Accord Coupe handling a lot more. I think I used 50% less gas in the week than I do on my 2012 Honda Civic, so make of that as you will.

Final Thoughts

Just like the 2016 Honda Accord Coupe Touring, the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring has the problem “Who is this car for?” This isn’t for the full crazy hybrid car lover, as there are other EV options today for the same price. It isn’t for the budget concious consumers, this being an Accord trim and a Hybrid car. It isn’t for those who like luxury cars.

The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring was great to drive for a week, but I think the car would drive me crazy in a year. The start up beeping noise and the feeling of randomness from the Hybrid computer gets annoying quickly. That being said, I’ve never driven a huge variety of Hybrid cars so who knows what the standard should be.

Website: http://www.honda.ca/

Write A Comment