Hello,

In my case, it came down to power. The 2006 Accord Hybrid has a healthy 253 horsepower , while the Camry has just less than 190. The Camry Hybrid is really a great car, and I'll admit it gets better fuel economy. Since I'm using less than 6.7 liters / 100 km (i.e. getting more than 35 MPG) even in mixed driving, however, I'm already very pleased with the Accord's fuel economy. Under highway-only conditions, the Accord can go as low as 6.0 liters / 100 km in my experience (i.e. 38-39 MPG), so it's already efficient enough. The lifetime average, including some city driving and traffic jams, is around 6.5 liters / 100 km, and the best ever for a round trip was around 5.8 liters / 100 km (extremely light traffic conditions).

Also, it's harder to get a good deal on the Camry Hybrid. I got the Accord Hybrid with navi for just over $29 K (which is $900 to $1000 under invoice). Also, Camry Hybrids are basically gone as soon as they appear on the lot, making availability a bit of an issue. Still, the Camry Hybrid is a terrific car, and either one is an excellent choice! If you compare either of these cars to the BMW 3-series or Mercedes C-class, the advantage becomes immediately clear. Indeed, the HAH and TCH are the only "entry-level" luxury models that achieve the same fuel efficiency as small cars. When you consider that these cars weight more than 1600 kg (the weight of a 2005 Buick LeSabre) and when you consider their power and performance (TCH is only 1 second slower 0-100 km/hr than the very fast HAH), the fuel economy they achieve is truly astonishing.

BTW, I once had a 1991 Mazda 323 rated at about 7.1 liters / 100 km highway. It was definitely less fuel efficient than the HAH by more than 0.5 liter / 100 km since my HAH has no trouble beating the EPA rating. Since my round trip commute is more than 260 km (I live about 130 km from my job) that's more than 1.3 liters of gas per day. Even worse, emissions of the 1991 323 are much higher. Even worse, the 82-horsepower 323 had less than 1/3 the net horsepower of the HAH, making hill-climbing and merging quite difficult (I had an automatic transmission). The bottom line is that the HAH is the most fuel efficient car I've owned in addition to being the most powerful. Thanks to the AT-PZEV rating, it's also the least polluting.

HAH_fan_2006