Honda Accord Crosstour

Honda Accord Crosstour

Consider the new Honda Accord Crosstour, which joins a nascent group of vehicles trying to carve out a niche between conventional sedans and crossover utility vehicles, which are themselves supposed to be more carlike than truck-based, body-on-frame S.U.V.’s. The Crosstour slides into Honda’s lineup between the Accord sedan and the Pilot utility vehicle. Other similar new entries are the Toyota Venza, Acura ZDX and BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. All have a sloping fastback on a slightly oversize crossover body. Any could play the lead if Pixar followed up its movie “Cars” with “The Hatchback of Notre Dame.”

The problem is, fastbacks look good only on small cars, a lesson that carmakers relearn every decade or so. In the 1960s, the Rambler Marlin was the teacher. In the ’70s, it was the A.M.C. Matador coupe. At the end of that decade, Buick and Oldsmobile saddled their Century and Cutlass Salon models with sloping rear ends before quickly reversing course amid public revulsion. More recently? Well, need we mention the Pontiac Aztek?

In pictures, the Honda Accord Crosstour looks like a four-door Accord onto which a big, sloping rear end has been grafted. Seen in person, it’s clear that the Crosstour is a bigger — longer, taller — car. Indeed, the two share no exterior body panels.

What’s surprising is that the bigger Crosstour has no more passenger room. (The difference is less than 1 percent, as measured by the Environmental Protection Agency.) In the Crosstour, the driver and passengers sit about two inches higher, and the car easily accommodates a six-foot passenger behind a six-foot driver. There’s also no crouching down — or climbing up — to get in.

Inside, you see a dashboard lifted from the Accord. The Crosstour doesn’t bother with the regular Accord’s lower trim levels. It starts as an EX for $30,380 — that’s $2,865 more than an EX sedan. The EX-L, at $33,280, adds leather and a few minor niceties. EX-L buyers are invited to spend even more on a navigation system with backup camera ($2,200) and all-wheel drive ($1,450).