2013 Honda Crosstour

The Honda Crosstour has the best of intentions Japanese used cars dealer. Take a acknowledged sedan, and lift its roofline to carve out added commuter and burden amplitude while attention the active feel that animated it aloft some noteworthy challengers.

It's a abundant idea, but the beheading on the Crosstour is bedridden by beneath burden allowance and added apathetic administration than it intends. It's a croaking Accord, now bare the Accord nameplate--it's just Crosstour now, thanks--and in truth, there's no best abundant of annihilation in accepted amid the two abreast from drivetrains, afterwards a contempo refresh.

The 2013 amend makes one affair evident: Honda's acutely authoritative an accomplishment to casting it as added of a crossover in design. It's a contour that's accurate to be a boxy sell. The angled roofline and five-door-hatchback architecture of the Crosstour can accomplish it arise a bit hump-backed from some angles, although the foreground is acutely Honda and tweaked this year (with a new slotted attending in foreground for added beheld width) to accumulate in clip with the attending of the 2013 Accord Sedan. Finally, Honda's added added cladding, down at the doorsills and about the wheelwells—cluttering the look, if you ask us. In short, it still looks like an awkward auto rather than a accurate crossover or SUV. Inside, the 2013 gets assorted abstracts upgrades, afresh to accord to those acclimated in the Accord Sedan.
The Crosstour retains four-cylinder and V-6 engines, and you'll apparently be accomplished with the able achievement of the abject 192-horsepower four and five-speed automated transmission. V-6 models get Honda's new Earth Dreams 3.5-liter V-6, rated at 278 application and 252 pound-feet of torque, affiliated to a six-speed automated with council wheel-mounted paddle shifters. While the Accord Auto has been ushered over to a front-strut layout—more tunable for ride and handling, Honda says—the Crosstour maintains the double-wishbone blueprint that for a longtime was a point of pride for Honda enthusiasts. Administration is added aided by foreground and rear balance confined forth with a foreground strut belfry bar, and the council is hydraulic-assist—standing afar from the electric-assist systems that accept been alien beyond the new Accord lineup.

Fuel abridgement has bigger beyond the board, too, with four-cylinder models alms up to 22 mpg city-limits and 31 highway, while the V-6 now gets up to 20/29 mpg. All-wheel-drive models bead 1 or 2 mpg against those numbers.

That's all accomplished and good, but the wake-up alarm still comes in the ability that the Crosstour is something added than just a five-door Accord, and that it neither drives bigger than the Accord Auto nor has added attributes (like added arena clearance) to accomplish up for it. The antecedent Honda Crosstour collection like an abnormally heavy, somewhat taller, and beneath active adaptation of the Accord Sedan—and we apprehend the 2013 Crosstour to be no altered in that respect, aback the amount fundamentals remain. The Crosstour continues to counterbalance about 300 to 500 pounds more, beyond the board, than a commensurable 2013 Accord Sedan; but even not alive that you'll be afraid to acquisition that abnormally at lower speeds the Accord Sedan's active feel is artlessly missing here.

At atomic at aboriginal look, the 2013 Crosstour teases a lot added account and versatility than Accord Sedans. Even if you're not a catechumen to the Crosstour's pumped-up-hatch administration ethos, it offers some key elements of crossover appeal. One is that it rides a brace of inches college than the Accord Auto and is about four inches taller altogether—which makes accepting in and out easier. In foreground there's endless of amplitude and headroom, as you ability expect, but in aback the bottomward abruptness of its roofline, as able-bodied as the actuality that it curves inward, makes allowance a abeyant affair for taller riders. The burden bearings is disappointing, too, as the strut building borrow on burden amplitude (there's not abundant amplitude amid them), although the seatbacks cast forward. One accessible feature, though, is that there's a ample stowage breadth (large abundant for a laptop bag or briefcase) beneath the burden floor, and the lid can be antipodal to an easy-wipe material, for addled gear.

At the time of writing, neither of the U.S. assurance agencies accept rated the 2013 Crosstour, but Honda has accustomed it an upgraded structure. in antecedent archetypal years its 'Marginal' appraisement for roof backbone has been worrisome. On the added hand, its safety-feature set has been added this year to cover accessible Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Advanced Collision Warning (FCW). Added assurance upgrades to the 2013 Crosstour are advised to advice it acquire top IIHS roof-crush assurance scores, as able-bodied as a 5-Star NCAP rating. The 2013 new cars in Dubai, forth with the Accord Sedan, action Honda's LaneWatch blind-spot display, which if you bang the about-face arresting on shows you a wide-angle appearance alongside the vehicle. Honda aswell re-shaped the rear headrests for bigger visibility.
Honda has bargain prices somewhat for 2013, and Crosstour EX models affection automated air conditioning with filtration, Bluetooth connectivity, a USB audio interface, council wheel-mounted controls, forth with an auto concealment rearview mirror. Top shelf EX-L V-6 models add dual-zone automated altitude control, acrimonious leather-trimmed seats, leather-wrapped council caster and gearshift knob, forth with HondaLink with Aha capability, Pandora, and Internet radio capability. The arrangement aswell rolls in the Pandora interface and voice-to-text SMS texting affection (Android and BlackBerry only), with pre-programmed responses.