It’s the strangest sensation: you get behind the wheel of the 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid, fire up the engine, and the next thing you know…there’s a smile on your face, your foot is to the floor and one single, persistent thought runs through your brain: no way this is a hybrid.

It’s true: the Accord Hybrid is a hoot to drive -- the un-hybrid hybrid -- a disguised assassin on the road just waiting to eat the next performance car it encounters. Whoo-haa! Obviously, the engineers at Honda, already having mastered the art of saving gas and lowering pollution with the Insight and Civic Hybrid, turned their attention to other worthwhile goals, namely: make a really quick sedan that gets compact-range gas mileage.

Someone will enjoy his or her bonus checks this year. This car is so much more fun to drive, it almost got booted from the test. It’s just not fair to compare this with a commuter like the Prius, or an SUV like the Ford Escape Hybrid. Based on the Accord EX sedan, what’s notable about the driving experience are the brakes and the powertrain. More than just a hybrid, the Accord also uses cylinder deactivation to help improve fuel economy -- three cylinders shut down during, say, freeway driving. Braking is also much more sophisticated. As part of the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system, there’s an IPU that stores energy that comes from deceleration and braking. Ninety-five percent of the energy is retrieved and stored. All this technology led to some nice performance on twisty roads and off-the-line grunt, but there were a few rocky spots – some drivers could feel the regeneration working when they applied the brakes. And then there’s the price: $30,000 and counting for what amounts to a very conservative-looking performance sedan. With that price, our tested fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon from the partial hybrid system and an emissions rating of ULEV instead of SULEV, this is not the kind of car your typical hybrid buyer is shopping for. It’s for the guy who loves Honda, and wants the fastest Accord sedan on the road.

And there sure ain’t anything wrong with that. If you’re shopping for driving prowess, would like to save a little gas, and don’t really care about turning heads on the road, check out the 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid. And do yourself a favor –- stop reading hybrid stories.