2010 Honda Accord Crosstour

Browse our New Honda Accord Crosstour Inventory!!!

Summary

As you've no doubt noticed, we live in an increasingly specialized society. Used to be you just got a cup of coffee. Now you've got your espressos, your vanilla lattes and your caramel macchiatos to choose from. And in the vehicular world, now you've got the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour. Neatly splitting the difference between a family sedan and a crossover SUV, this fastback Honda is billed as a grand touring vehicle geared toward active "Empty Nesters." You know the type: The kids are now on their own and so are their parents. Perhaps Mom and Pop have taken up golf, tennis or paintball and are looking for some practicality and luxury along with distinctive styling that makes it plain that they're not shuttling kids around anymore.

Full Review 2010 Crosstour

In my humble opinion, the miscalculation with the Crosstour's Facebook moment was that its shape is so complex, so unusual, it's almost impossible to accurately convey to a 2D audience (even here in this story). The car almost refuses to be photographed; it needs to be physically pondered on two moving feet, watching the surfaces blend and emerge as you change perspective. And while -- even after lots of pondering -- we might all agree that the Crosstour is not exactly museum material, parked next to Toyota's Venza or Nissan's Murano (as Honda smartly arranged) the Crosstour is aesthetically competitive. Sure, its stern appears to be in an early stage of the Porsche Panamera's elephantitis, but it's a pleasant visual adventure nonetheless. In the sedan, where the rising side creases empty into nowhere, here the grooves neatly transition from a concavity to a convexity and then nicely resolve into the rear bustle. Alas, the biggest problem is the Crosstour's rejiggered Accord snout; pulling out of the driveway I asked my wife if she saw anything wrong with the car's appearance. She pointed to the nose and then slightly fluttered her flattened hand. Signal to the folks who penned that wondrous-looking FCX Clarity (also a big four-door hatchback): It's time to stage that revolt against the sausage-makers in Honda's mainstream design department.

Interior Design

Inside, the Crosstour's Accord origins are entirely familar, and a good thing, too. Our example was an EX-L with Navi (Crosstour's trims consist of either EX, EX-L, or EX-L with Navi -- no base LX), and it makes for a very premium environment. Unique to Crosstours are blue instrument lighting effects, a nice faux wood trim, and interiors that are either all black, or, like ours, a split, upper black/lower tan motif. Compared with the sedan, there's a smidgeon more head- and shoulder room, but the news, naturally, is the cargo bay's nominal 25.7 cubic feet (expanding to 51.3 when the split rear seats are folded) vis-a-vis the sedan's puny 14.0.

Lifting the hatch raises the aft portion of a two-part security screen (an EX-L feature), revealing a handsomely finished flat-floored luggage compartment (including scrap plate) that's conveniently extensible via twin rear-accessible seatback releases. It's an awfully handy volume, though the multilink rear suspension's spring towers do noticeably intrude. Stashed under the reversible floor panel (carpeted on one side, plastic on the other for grimy items) is a removable and washable, 1.9-cubic-foot plastic bin; under the stern is a space-saver spare that lowers by cranking.

From the driver's seat, the split-window rear view is tolerable (and thank heavens for the Insight-like second window and available backup camera). However, in every other direction, the view's great, and why not what with you sitting some two inches higher (look to the taller section tires and/or available 18-inch wheels that contribute some 1.4 inches of it).

Dynamically, the added height's hardly noticeable. This is partly creditable, we're told, to curious, new springs (yep, second small coils) added above the front shocks. It's said to aid in keeping the inside tire better planted during cornering (hmm); interestingly, it was also employed on the original Acura Legend back in 1987. An old Honda trick, it would appear. Whatever, the result is unlike any Accord I've ever driven. It's smooth, supple (though rarely floaty), and simultaneously nearly absent the tire noise we've come to grudgingly endure in Accords. Frankly, it rides more like a big Toyota or Lexus. The steering too, is more languid, with intentionally slower response than the Accord sedan. Again, Lexuslike.

Driving the Crosstour

While the front-drive Crosstour's underpinnings are essentially Accord (the AWD version being 60 percent so), there are plenty of interesting new tricks that are sure to appear among its brethren. The latitude given the V-6's cylinder deactivation (it can drop to four or three powered cylinders) has been increased, while the consequent vibration and noise have been nixed by active engine mounts (which actually vibrate in sync) and noise-canceling tactics within the cabin. Two other developments are rev-matched downshifts and the inclusion of cornering data into the transmission's shift strategy (any detection of lateral g suppresses unwanted upshifts). What's amusing is that none of this is noticeable.

One of the journalists at this event asked why not just bring out an Accord wagon, rather than this less capacious fastback hatchback. The corporate answer was that Honda wanted to offer something different and sportier than what's currently available. Fair enough, but what the Honda rep forgot to mention was that Americans — for reasons that escape us — just don't warm up to wagons unless they're expensive and of European descent. It seems that despite some attractively styled and sporty wagons the buying public still unfairly equates the term "wagon" with those dorky mom-and-dad mobiles many of us grew up with.

If you've been inside an Accord, then the Crosstour's cabin will be immediately familiar, as the fit and finish is excellent while the instrument panel, center stack and door panels are virtually identical.

Conclusions: Who should buy?

This vehicle is geared towards empty nesters, or anybody who requires significantly more cargo capacity than a sedan but wants something sportier and less ubiquitous than a crossover SUV. "What we are sure of is this is one delightful car to drive, as well as a lot more useful than the Accord sedan." says Motor Trend This is an example of form over function, however, and as such the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour doesn't offer as much cargo nor as much passenger (when compared to a three-row vehicle) space as similarly sized crossovers.