On the inside, that poise comes almost completely apart. You could live with the Accord; you could even grow to love it. You could not, however, claim that it had a cohesive interior design. There’s just too much going on: dual screens and a multi-function control knob, lots of different plastic surfaces, plenty of buttons. And what, I ask you, are you supposed to use a dash-mounted HDMI interface for?

Having said that, the Accord is quite good from both a comfort and overall fit and finish standpoint. The sheer amount of cabin space will boggle the mind of anyone who owned an early Accord, with decently bolstered front seats and comfy rears. Um, comfy rear seats.

The trunk holds a respectable 439 L of stuff, but has the old-style exposed arms (in Honda’s defense, these fail far less than gas-shocks). There’s also a perfectly good pass through if you want to buy a dowel, or a towel-rod, or a flagpole or a single oar, or a hockey stick or an extra-large novelty pencil. I exaggerate of course, but not since the old Nissan Maxima has there been such a small opening – and no split-folding? Tsk tsk.

From a technology standpoint, the Accord is also a mixed bag. As we discovered on the launch of the new Honda Pilot, Honda is hamstrung a bit by the cost of their camera-based lane-watch system; it’s really neat technology, but it also presents an either-or situation with regards to blind-spot monitoring. You can’t have both in the Pilot, and in the Accord you only get a camera. The three-way backup cam is pretty great though.

Using the touchscreen interface is less wonderful, and there does seem to be a great deal of redundancy between the steering wheel controls, multi-function knob, regular buttons, and touchscreen. If we can again look to the Pilot as being ahead of the Honda curve on tech, its large and simplified screen could replace most of this – but leave the volume knob, please!

Press the Accord’s deep-red starter button – the same colour as the one in an S2000 roadster – and you start getting the sense that there’s something beyond the practical going on here. The console shifter is conventional, the steering wheel free of flappy-paddles, and yet once you’re on the move, the Accord becomes quite delightful.

Honda’s 3.5L V6 makes a brisk 278 hp at 6,200 rpm and 252 lb-ft at 4,900 rpm. That’s certainly enough; when on the move it has the potential to prevent a WRX from getting in your way while merging. Thrust is straightforward and smooth, with a lovely little VTEC hiss at the end. The transmission is a conventional six-speed automatic, but it’s well-tuned.

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