Topic: Test Drive: 2019 Honda Accord Touring 2.0

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All the car you need.
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[Jaeger]

Arguably, the answer to the "all the car you need" question from the Honda lineup is the Civic.  Hard to justify Accord over Civic based on need.  As for the plastiwood dash trim looking "convincing" - well, less so if you've ever been in a car with real wood trim.  It's perhaps my least fave feature of the Accord interior as it pretty much shouts pretentious fakery.  And I do hope that the highway rating of 7.4 is conservative.  My turbo Sonata consistently returned high sixes on the highway (when not chugging winter gas while rolling on knobby winter rubber).

[DriverJeff]

Arguably, the answer to the "all the car you need" question from the Honda lineup is the Civic.  Hard to justify Accord over Civic based on need.  As for the plastiwood dash trim looking "convincing" - well, less so if you've ever been in a car with real wood trim.  It's perhaps my least fave feature of the Accord interior as it pretty much shouts pretentious fakery.  And I do hope that the highway rating of 7.4 is conservative.  My turbo Sonata consistently returned high sixes on the highway (when not chugging winter gas while rolling on knobby winter rubber).

Here's the thing, I HAVE been in cars with actual, real lumber stuck on the dash.  The trend toward matte-finish, open-pore wood trim makes it pretty easy to replicate in the plasti-wood realm.  It is easy to exceed Honda's estimates -- not just with the Accord, but pretty well every Honda I've driven in recent memory.  I'm getting high-5s in mixed conditions on the CB650R this week.   

As for Civic vs. Accord, the Accord is not that much more money than a loaded-up Civic, but it is larger, nicer-riding and notably quieter.  It also offers all those same benefits (well maybe not quieter) than the $60,000 C300. 

[Jaeger]

Here's the thing, I HAVE been in cars with actual, real lumber stuck on the dash.  The trend toward matte-finish, open-pore wood trim makes it pretty easy to replicate in the plasti-wood realm.

Disagree completely.  The heavily glossed real wood trim that was the luxury car norm for years was much easier to fake - because the real stuff and the fake stuff shared a thick coat of synthetic gloss.

The visible variations in grain in open pore wood are much harder to fake if you are at all familiar with the real thing.  The totally obvious giveaway in the Honda is that there is absolutely zero variation in grain - it is all completely uniform - which shouts the fakery pretty loud.  I can tell you that the open pore wood trim in my Genesis looks precisely nothing like the flat, lifeless plastiwood in the Accord.

[DriverJeff]

Here's the thing, I HAVE been in cars with actual, real lumber stuck on the dash.  The trend toward matte-finish, open-pore wood trim makes it pretty easy to replicate in the plasti-wood realm.

Disagree completely.  The heavily glossed real wood trim that was the luxury car norm for years was much easier to fake - because the real stuff and the fake stuff shared a thick coat of synthetic gloss.

The visible variations in grain in open pore wood are much harder to fake if you are at all familiar with the real thing.  The totally obvious giveaway in the Honda is that there is absolutely zero variation in grain - it is all completely uniform - which shouts the fakery pretty loud.  I can tell you that the open pore wood trim in my Genesis looks precisely nothing like the flat, lifeless plastiwood in the Accord.