There’s a new luxury vehicle in town. The much-awaited 2008 Honda Accord gets an extensive redesign that includes all-new styling inside and out, a spacious rear seat, more standard safety features and more-powerful engines.

It’s been known that the Accord is always designed to be owner driven and this new iteration of the luxury bestseller does not veer away from this concept. The finish product is a sport-oriented sedan.

The new Honda Accord incorporates styling cues from other marques whose offerings are significantly upmarket, most notably BMW. A lookover of the new Accord shows a front fascia that’s a cross between the first-gen City and a Nissan Altima, particularly its grille and headlights. The rear-quarter of the car looks like a BMW 5 Series, what with the kink in the C-pillar and taillights that wrap around the side of the car. Inside the cabin, the Accord again remains conservative, favoring function over form. There’s a traditional center console and gauge cluster with easy to read fonts and ergonomic switchgear that blended well with the plush interiors.

The Accord's four-wheel independent suspension features a double-wishbone design in front and a new multilink setup in back. There are two basic engines available, including a 3.5-liter iVTEC V6 producing 275 ps and 34.6 kg-m of torque – supposedly the most powerful Honda ever produced. It also features a new Variable Cylinder Management system that can power the vehicle on three, four or all six cylinders. The other variant is a 2.4-liter inline-four producing 180 ps/22.6 kg-m.

The safety features are abundant. The 2008 Accord gets four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, Vehicle Stability Assist with traction control along with six airbags.

The Accord is available in Alabaster Silver (2.4-liter variant only), Bold Beige, Polished Metal Metallic, Night Hawk Black and Brilliant White Pearl (3.5-liter only). It will retail at an introductory price of Php 1.645 million for the 2.4S and Php 1.995 for the 3.5 V6.