HR-V has the goods to be a hit
Road Test: 2017 Honda HR-V
In today’s market, small is big. Several manufacturers are coming out with huge sport utes — at the recent New York Auto Show, it seemed like almost everything unveiled had three rows of seats — but consumers are increasingly looking at the other end of the scale, to the subcompact SUV segment. Honda entered it last year with its all-new HR-V, which morphs into the 2017 model year with no changes.
The HR-V is based on the Fit, a hatchback that makes the most of its compact footprint with a roomier-than-expected interior and a brilliantly designed rear seat for flexible cargo space. And for the most part, the HR-V does the same. There’s a good amount of space for occupants, while the rear “Magic Seat,” as Honda calls it, folds three ways for extra capacity.
Honda sends out the HR-V in three trim levels — LX, EX and EX-L Navi — all using a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine with 141 horsepower. At $21,150, the LX comes with front-wheel drive and a six-speed manual, but buyers can choose a continuously variable transmission (CVT) for an additional $1,300. With the CVT, the LX can be optioned with allwheel drive for $24,750. The EX, at $24,950 in FWD form or $27,250 with AWD, comes only with the CVT. My tester, the top-of-theline EX-L Navi, exclusively uses the CVT and AWD setup, and is $30,450.
The transmission keeps the 141hp engine revving high on acceleration to give it a satisfyingly spunky feel from a stop, although it gets wheezy when you ask for passing power on the highway. A ring around the speedometer glows green with approval when you’re driving efficiently and turns white when you’re not. The CVT is well tuned, with no rubber-band feel, and offers seven artificial shift points if you want to run sequentially through the virtual gears yourself. There’s also a Sport mode, but I found it just made everything noisier, without enough actual sporty performance to make it seem worthwhile.
The electric power steering is light but with considerable road feel, and while it’s not as athletic as competitors such as the Nissan Juke or the Mazda CX-3, it rounds the curves confidently and is fun to pilot.
Equipped with good winter tires, my all-wheel tester easily tackled a late-season snowfall on the other side of the American border that was heavy enough to close a couple of highways. The system runs primarily in two-wheel drive for fuel efficiency when conditions are good, but almost instantly tacks up the rear wheels when needed, so slippery conditions were never an issue.
The bad roads made three hours out of a drive that normally takes two, and while the HR-V’s seats proved okay for shorter trips, their short cushions were equally short on support for this longer one. Heated front seats are standard on all three trim levels, whether the fabric chairs of the LX and EX, or the leather — hence the name — of the EX-L. A heated steering wheel, my new favourite feature, is not available.
The low lift-over makes it easy to pack the cargo area, while the rear seats fold flat, with a single lever and one motion, for more space. The front and rear passenger seats also fold backwards for packing longer items, or the rear seats can be flipped up, so tall items can be plopped on the floor. But for all that, small-item storage up front could be better. Instead of a cubby on top of the console, there’s one below it, where stuff is harder to reach. And don’t store your pen in the pen holder alongside, as the lip inside the opening makes it nearly impossible to retrieve it.
I’m also less than enamoured with Honda’s love of flat glass — in this case, on the infotainment and climate controls. Changing the temperature or the fan requires looking way down on the centre stack to be sure you’re hitting the right spot, while that infernal touch-screen volume slider for the stereo ran me completely through my extensive vocabulary of bad words. Fear not the dial nor the toggle, Honda, for they are good.
While all trims include a rearview camera with parking guidelines, the EX-L exclusively gets lane-departure and forward-collision warning systems, which chime a caution if you drift out of your lane or look like you’re about to smack into the car in front of you. They are strictly warnings, though, and don’t nudge you back or hit the brakes as some systems do.
Both the EX and EX-L also include LaneWatch, a Honda-exclusive system that broadcasts what’s alongside the car, shown in the infotainment screen when you activate the right-hand turn signal. It has its pros and cons: It’s a wider view than you’ll get from the mirror, making it easier to see upcoming cyclists or pedestrians, but unlike a blind-spot monitoring system, it only tells you what’s on the passenger side, not on the driver’s.
A few things could use some tweaking, but overall, Honda has a solid contender thanks to the HR-V’s roominess, multi-folding rear seat, effective all-wheel-drive system and intelligent pricing. As Canada goes small, I expect this one to be big.