The Accord is a commercial hit for Honda despite the rising preference for crossovers. At $24,970 excluding destination charge, the right-sized commuter also happens to be much better value than Honda’s CR-V.
The Accord gets really interesting after you level up to the Sport, which starts at $27,430 excluding taxes. Not because of the 8.0-inch Display Audio touchscreen or 19-inch alloy wheels, though. Customers who specify the Sport are further offered the 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder option, a powerplant with many similarities to the Civic Type R. Officially rated at 252 horsepower and 273 pound-feet (370 Nm) of torque from 1,500 revolutions per minute, this fellow is flexing a 10-speed automatic tranny.
I can’t stress enough how much this combo suits the character of the mid-sized Accord Sport, which tips the scales at 3,356 pounds (1,522 kilograms). Be that as it may, a Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody makes easy work of the Japanese interloper at the Barona 1/8-Mile Drags.
Priced from $47,835 for the 2021 model year, the muscle car marries the 392 HEMI with a six-speed manual transmission or an eight-speed automatic. This particular example, which flaunts White Knuckle paintwork and 20- by 11-inch wheels, is rocking the row-your-own tranny based on the sound of the upshifts. A rather heavy machine compared to the Accord, the Challenger in this configuration needs 8.90 seconds and 8.87 seconds to cover the 1/8-mile on the aforementioned strip. The Honda, by comparison, settles for 9.17 seconds on the first run and 9.23 seconds on the second run.
There’s an old saying that goes like there’s no replacement for displacement, and obviously enough, David can’t beat Goliath on this occasion. But not even Goliath can keep up the high-octane charade for long because Stellantis North America intends to electrify all of the brands it controls in the coming years. Dodge, for example, is hard at work developing a plug-in hybrid muscle car along with an electric muscle car.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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