The Honda Accord and the Mercedes-Benz E-class carry a lot of literal and figurative baggage, most of it good, some of it bad. Those allegorical Samsonites (or Tumis, in the Benz’s case) obscure that these cars are more similar than their differences in price, image, and execution would suggest. Yes, the Honda has long been the unassuming, unpretentious, and unquestioned definition of the modern family car, whereas the Benz mid-sizer has been filling country-club parking lots for more than half a century. But both are long-running, highly evolved models of protean versatility. And their confrontation at this year’s 10Best illuminates that, though their paths have been different from the start, they have converged on the same fixation: total driver satisfaction.

The Accord is a kitchen appliance, engineered to offer an ambitiously broad set of buyers a car that makes them feel smart and secure. It is quiet and roomy, safe and efficient, inexpensive yet well equipped. It is a rational choice in a sea of rational choices. What sets it apart, as we’ve noted in 30 past 10Bests, is the way it drives. This is the front-wheel-drive sports sedan that nobody seems able to consistently recreate, a car that flows from corner to corner with predictability and gratification, its engine loaded for exit, its preferred manual transmission slid tightly into gear. There is a controllability and a precision to the Accord that unburden its driver from thinking too hard about going fast. Or from really worrying about much of anything.

View Photos TOM SALT, MARC URBANO, ALEX CONLEY

The E-class strives to rid its driver of worry, too. It does so with its brand and the heritage accrued to it, but also with a trick bag of semi-autonomous features. Its new Drive Pilot cruise control can lock on to cars ahead at speeds up to 130 mph, providing a conven­ient excuse for inevitable run-ins with the law. “I swear, officer—I was just keeping up with traffic!” The E-class also offers Active Brake Assist with Cross-Traffic Function, which stops the car from barreling into intersections while its driver is texting. The car will steer evasively for you; park itself in a garage (a feature coming to the U.S. in a later model year); and communicate with its surroundings, the first production instance of what Mercedes-Benz calls a “fully integral Car-to-X solution.” Really makes you want to get behind the wheel, eh?

For those determined to drive themselves, there are delights galore. The new E-class is nothing if not obedient. It moves locomotive-like down an interstate, requiring no constant and annoying corrections at the wheel. And with a ­little steering lock and cornering loads in the tires, its metabolism rises as you gallop over a twisting road, deftly transitioning from curve to curve, the car doing the work.

“It speaks volumes about the Accord’s tuning that, with a single drive mode, it can be both a well-mannered, quiet, roomy car and a quick-witted, fun sporting machine.” —Alex Stoklosa, online editor

View Photos TOM SALT, MARC URBANO, ALEX CONLEY

Moreover, the new E-class’s interior is no longer the dour funeral director’s office of past Benzes. As in the S-class, it offers rolling-spa treatments in the form of massaging seats and perfumed interior air. The cabin is a tightly edited yet sumptuous place, with a full-glass-cockpit option, a Burmester audio package, tasteful wood inlays, and seats that, even in base form, make you want to lean back and order something from the galley. And yet: The Accord has more legroom in the rear.

TOM SALT, MARC URBANO, ALEX CONLEY

We were somewhat disappointed by the E-class’s base steel-sprung suspension, in that it transmits too many high-frequency jolts through the wheels to the structure. The base car never really floats over the road the way old Benzes or, for that matter, new Accords do. For that, you need to pop for the air suspension, which costs $1900 and is worth every penny. The air ride is spectacular; it feels as if it’s lowering your heart rate.

View Photos TOM SALT, MARC URBANO, ALEX CONLEY

So, unfortunately, does the engine. The Mercedes’ 2.0-liter turbo four strains valiantly and mostly silently to motivate the car. But despite its nine-speed gearbox shuffling for aces, the engine cannot match the lunging spirit of the Honda’s naturally aspirated four, regardless of the latter’s 50-plus-horsepower deficit. And the Accord’s V-6 positively shames the Benz and will until such time as the AMG E43 and E63 versions arrive.

Mercedes, God bless it, strives to stay at the bleeding edge of technological innovation, now increasingly defined as software development. But software is cheap, and it’s unfortunate for luxury carmakers that this technology has trickled down so much more quickly than hardware ever could. For while Honda’s safety suite, called Honda Sensing, can’t claim the technological leadership of the Benz’s semi-autonomy, it’s a pretty damn good net, one well suited to determined drivers who only occasionally admit to checking their phones.

The 10Best competition throws odd pairings together but always in the service of the same question: Is this the least expensive version of the best possible car? When it comes to the Accord, that answer is yes. The appliance is the driver’s car and the luxury good is the somewhat distant, automated one. How about that.

2017 10Best Cars: Return to Overview

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