2010 Honda Accord Crosstour

What’s in a model name? What is an SUV in your mind? Big, trucky, fuel inefficient. A minivan? Big, boring, soccer-mom transport. A station wagon? Boxy, clunky, old folks’ wheels.


Beyond some level of utility and practicality, not much positive comes to mind about any of these. That’s why automakers seldom use those designations even when they probably should—except when they have no choice (a minivan is a minivan, after all)—and have purged a lot of such out-of-favor vehicle types from their lineups.


But what about a CUV (crossover utility vehicle), or simply “crossover”? What does that fairly new label mean to you? To some, it’s still a clean slate. To others, it connotes an artful blend of SUV/minivan attributes and more car-like styling, handling and fuel economy.


No surprise, then, that the field of crossovers of all shapes and sizes from almost all automakers is proliferating like weeds in springtime. It is where a majority of buyers are going, some moving down in size from trucks and SUVs, others moving up from less practical cars.

Crosstour: Aptly Named

So here comes Honda’s new-for-2010 Accord-based crossover, unabashedly named Accord Crosstour. It is essentially an Accord wagon, except its rear roofline is aerodynamically sloped instead of squared off, which sacrifices some cargo room but preserves respectable backseat headroom even for six-footers. But please don’t call it that.


Or maybe it’s an Accord five-door hatchback. Except that hatchbacks, despite their improved practicality vs. trunk-backed sedans, have never caught on with U.S. buyers. So Honda prefers you to see it as a crossover and named it accordingly (pun intended).


Is such a half-breed a car, or is it a truck? While some crossovers, especially the larger ones with three rows of seats, are more SUV-like, this one strikes us as closer to a car. As far as government classification goes, the signals are mixed: for emissions and fuel economy testing, the EPA sees it as a passenger car. For safety certification, NHTSA calls it a truck.