Fifty years.
That is how long the Honda Accord has been wandering the asphalt. It started in 1976. Back then, it was just the bigger brother to the Civic. An upscale step up. Today it sits at the peak of something strange.
Car and Driver loves it. Obsessively.
For 40 years in a row the Accord made the 10Best list. That is a run most legends can only dream about. The 2026 model did it again. Uninterrupted. It’s practically the magazine’s mascot now. We like the thing. It works. It’s efficient. Comfortable even. But more than that, it drives with a spark. A mid-size family sedan that refuses to be boring.
Shrines and Speed
Want to worship at the altar of Motegi? You can.
The Collection Hall sits near the racing circuit in Japan. Inside, 150 artifacts scream history. You’ve got Soichiro Honda’s first racing car, a Curtiss engine roaring in a tiny chassis. Isle of Man TT bikes. A Formula 1 car from the sixties, the RA272, frozen in time. Even a HondaJet hangs there. And ASIMO. The robot stands there, awkwardly still, while history burns around him.
The Accord gets its own stage.
A new display flanks a lineup of generations with two stars: a 1991 Ohio-built wagon and a European Type R. The 1991 model? We loved it. It made our list, marking nine straight years for the Accord when we started tracking these things.
That was the golden age. The public voted with their wallets. The Accord became America’s bestselling car. It was everywhere. Kids grew up in them. When their parents handed down the keys, a new generation of fanatics was born. Just like the Civic taught people to love engineering, the Accord taught them to trust it.
It gained a V-6 later. A powerful one.
It kept the manual transmission alive when the rest of the industry wanted it dead. A stick shift in a family car? Heresy then. Now? We beg for them back. There was even a coupe phase. Stylish. Sharp.
And the wagon.
We miss it.
“We miss the wagon.”
The 2026 hybrid captures the magic, though. At a glance, it’s mundane. Roomy trunk. Soft seats. Great MPG. But twist the wrist and the spine shows. There is a driver’s car hiding under that sensible coat. Dr. Honda would smile at that. An impish grin. The formula remains untouched after all these decades.
Leather and Distance
Honda is celebrating. They have merchandise.
If you are in Japan, you can buy Accord stuff. Hats. Mugs. Shirts. The usual clutter. But look closer. There’s a collaboration with a leatherworker in Kyoto. They are turning old Accord seats into new goods. Belts, maybe. Wallets.
Recycled upholstery into high-end leather products.
Pretty cool, right?
It is limited to Japan, of course. So unless you live in Kyoto, you’ll have to wait. Wait for the scalpers. Wait for eBay. It always happens. Citizen Watches did a Prelude reissue once. Japan exclusive. Half an hour later? It was on eBay for three times the price. Human nature.
You won’t get the merch though. Not immediately.
So what do you do?
Take the long way home.
Find a twisty road. Leave work behind. Drive fast, carefully, and listen to the engineers doing their job. That’s how you honor fifty years of engineering pride. We should all hope to have this kind of spirit when we turn fifty.
