The accord is no more a "luxury" or "upscale" car than past generations or a number of it's competitors. On a somewhat related note, it's also not a "sports car" or an "evo killer" like some people have tried to label it. The accord (like it always has been) is a family sedan. Almost all relatively decent cars are wonderful while they are new. They sound solid, they feel solid, etc. Give it a few months and things will loosen up considerably, like they do on all cars. The difference that I have found between a lexus, mb and a bmw (or many other luxury/upscale car mfgs for that matter), is that the break in process isn't quite as defining and that things from those mfgs tend to retain their feeling of being "solid" for much longer. They also tend to use much higher quality materials and not nearly as much cheap hard plastic like honda does now.
The accord is definitely a good value, it always has been and is still. I would feel much better about throwing 25k at an accord than a Nissan and feeling like I got what I paid for.
While I understand the mindset for wanting for your new car to be something that it's not so you can feel even better about the purchase...it will never cease to grate on me when someone feels like they have to call their accord a luxury car, or a sports sedan/coupe in order to justify a purchase or feel better about it. The accord is chalk full of cheap plastics (increasingly so w/ each generation so it seems) and build quality/designs all but guaranteed to produce a plethora of rattles in the near future (but hey, cheaper for honda to make) while also still being a relatively heavy fwd car w/ well over 250 hp, and an open differential. Hardly makes me want to call it a luxury car or a sports sedan any more than I want to call the much more luxurious camry or somewhat sportier altima a luxury car or a sports sedan/coupe.
