2013 Honda Accord vs. 2013 Toyota Camry

Today I'll be comparing two of the most popular small cars available.  Just like my previous comparison between the 2013 Honda Civic and 2013 Toyota Corolla, this entry will look at the competing offerings Toyota and Honda have just above that sub-compact segment.  Full disclosure here, I have owned both a Honda Civic and a Honda Accord in the past, and right now I own a Honda Fit.  However, while there may be a bit of a bias on my part between the two manufacturers, I promise the numbers will not lie.

So let's move on to the competition!  Of course for this I will be using my trusty website, The Vehicle For Me, and instead of just choosing one trim for each model, I will choose a base trim, a mid-level trim, and the most premium trim, which will leave me with six trims to compare.  Regarding priorities, these will be similar as in the Civic vs. Corolla entry: cargo space, power, fuel economy, legroom, and passenger volume

Link to Comparison Page

The results here are pretty interesting, so what I'll do is look at the results for each trim level.

Base Trim

Toyota's base trim, the Camry L, runs a fairly close second to Honda's LX Sedan MT, with 79% and 83% scores respectively.  Comparing the two, the Accord wins in cargo space, power-to-weight ratio, passenger volume and front legroom, while the Camry wins in city and highway mpg and rear legroom, which is just enough for the Accord to squeak by.  Interestingly, you can see the choices each manufacturer made here.  The Accord at this level has slightly more power and space at the expense of some fuel economy, whereas the Camry makes the opposite choice, going for fuel economy above all else.  The differences are fairly minor between the two cars, but you may want to think about what is really important to you, but the Accord is also about $500 cheaper at this trim level.

Mid-Level Trim

It is much the same story at this trim level.  The Accord EX CVT gets a score of 81% whereas the Camry XLE gets a score of 74%.  These are about as premium a trim as you can get before jumping up to the much more expensive V6 engines.  At these trim levels, the Accord wins in cargo space, front legroom, and city and highway mpg (most likely thanks to the CVT transmission).  The Camry wins in passenger volume and rear legroom, and ties the Accord in power-to-weight ratio.  The picture here is a little bit muddier than at the lower level trim, and again it is very dependent on what your actual priorities are.  It is close enough here that I might actually lean towards the Camry for it's $500 lower price, despite the fact that it loses in total points to the Accord.

V6 Premium Trim

Here I've chosen the top-level V6 trims, and here the Camry starts to shine a little, just barely outdoing it's competitor in total points.  Indeed, the Camry earns 1714 total points and the Accord earns 1711 total points, which is really quite close.  Here, the Camry wins in power-to-weight ratio, passenger volume, and rear legroom, while the Accord wins in cargo space, front legroom, and highway mpg.  You end up paying an extra three grand for the privilege of driving the Accord though, so I really do have to give it up to the Camry here for achieving the same numbers for a lower price.  Both vehicles have similar horsepower and torque, with the Accord edging it out, but the Camry is light enough to make up the difference and then some.

Overall this is a much closer race than with the Civic and Corolla, and I'll leave it to you to make your own decision about which is better.  What are your priorities?