My parents were in town this week to look for a replacement for their 2010 Camry SE which was recently returned from a 4-year lease. Actually... it wasn't returned because it was purchased by one of my siblings who was in the market for a good 2nd car.
After some discussion, they narrowed down the choice between the Camry and Accord. My parents live ~450km from the nearest dealer support and have owned multiple Honda's and Toyota's over the years with no issues. They just didn't have the same confidence in the Mazda's reliability so the Mazda6 was excluded.
After the test drives they decided to switch to the 2014 Accord EX-L this time. I did take it out for a run last night and while it is big for my taste, it's a very nice sedan. For a large car it feels surprisingly nimble and light on it's feet. The suspension tuning provided a good ride/handling tradeoff and the 17 inch wheel/tire combo is better suited to our horrible roads here in NL. The steering was noticably better than their old 2010 Camry SE.
As many reviewers have said, the CVT in the Accord is very well done. For the most part, it tries to emulate a traditional auto by switching between a series of preset ratios. It is only when you try to aggressively accelerate that you sense that it is a CVT as the transmission tries to hold the engine in the sweet spot for torque and then changes ratios to accelerate.
Interestingly, the multi-angle back-up camera, blind spot camera, lane departure and front collision warning systems were popular options with my parents, as was the dual-zone auto climate control.
With an EPA combined fuel economy of 7.8L/100km, this would be just an amazing car for a long distance road trip.
