Be consistent people... if the Accordhad won, everyone here would be saying: "See! The 2008 Accord is a megahit and the greatest!!" and "MT knows their stuff!". Now, to dismiss the CTS and MT as not worthy is just sour grapes. My 2003 Accord lost out to the Infiniti G35, and I had no problem with that result. I can appreciate anything that is good, and I don't worship Honda ONLY, like a fanboy.
BTW... the Accord scored lower than the Malibu in the COTY. Testers comments on the Accord stated that the Accord's interior is cold and busy... a step back from the 2003-2007. They were turned off by bland, uninspired styling. They praised rear seat room and acceleration, but hated the big car driving "feel"... very unlike any Accord before it. They miss how Accords have always felt like you were driving a smaller car. The 2008 gives no such impression.
As far as the CTS, it seems quite impressive. Reliability on the current model is average to above. Also, retained value is on par with the Accord (above average). At least be intellectually honest about the CTS's strengths.
The old CTS did nothing for me, the new one is intriguing.
