TRIED & TRUE
While the Honda HR-V may seem a little pedestrian, its attraction is its heritage
The Honda HR-V simply stays with us because it gets better. Mild mannered, practical crossovers are rarely titillating, and the HR-V is up there with the most mild and most practical of them all.
But it’s in these kinds of circumstances where context is particularly important, and you’d be surprised how attractive a humble little HR-V can look when parked up next to something less appealing.
There isn’t much on paper to indicate the favourable outlook. The HR-V’s powertrain remains unchanged for 2019; a naturally aspirated 1.8 i-VTEC four-cylinder making 105kW/172Nm, paired to a
CVT. Most of the interior and exterior is unchanged too, which isn’t surprising given that Honda’s smallest SUV was given a tame but perfectly fine refresh last year.
There is one new addition, however. For 2019 Honda has unwrapped a new trim-level for the line-up — the front-wheel drive Limited. It’s priced at $35,500, sits in the middle of the range between the $32,990 Active and the $35,990 AWD, and is the model that we tested.
The Limited leaps out as one of the best value propositions of the line-up. Mechanically it’s identical to the $29,990 base model HR-V S, but many of its features are lifted from the $37,500 HR-V RS. These spec-sheet gains include leather upholstery throughout, heated front seats, and additional dressings of gloss black and chrome. Automatic LED headlights, LED taillights, fog lights, and rear parking sensors are among the few exterior additions.
As well as looking solid within its own line-up, the HR-V Limited also stacks up strong when compared to its compact SUV competition. It undercuts the Mazda CX-3 GSX and the upcoming Kia Seltos Limited, while the Toyota C-HR Limited nips it by a mere $10. It’s also cheaper at retail than the similarly wellequipped Holden Trax LTZ … although the whole Trax range is currently on run-out.
Being good value is one thing, but the critical issue for the current HRV, when faced with its rivals, is its relative age. It’s nearly five-years-old now, and there is a couple of areas where that age deficit noticable.
The most obvious is within the cabin. The nonplussed dashboard layout is a sea of black surfaces, buttons, and knobs. The Limited’s splashing of piano black and chrome is welcomed, although the trough of reflective black surrounding the gear lever seems to attract dust.
What exacerbates things inside is the 7in infotainment system. It’s older software than that in the CR-V and Civic (and even those systems have their issues). Here, the physical hard buttons are difficult to read and locate while driving, the menu design and structure is hugely dated, and there’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto offered.
The other element that lags behind some of the newer competition is the HR-V’s engine. The 1.8 produces punchy enough power for the segment, but does so with plenty of noise. At cruising speeds it’s reasonably silent, but in urban driving and onramp accelerating it’s a talkative unit. The presence of a continuously variable box doesn’t help this, but is somewhat cancelled out by the competent power figures. In our time with it, we averaged an economy of 7.5L/100km.
The HR-V still pulls some impressive tricks that the others struggle to match in the real world.
For one, it drives quite well. Under the skin it shares architecture with the Jazz hatchback, which somewhat explains why it’s so handy to drive. Corners are gobbled up without much trouble, the driver seating position is pleasantly low, and its ride is well damped — particularly for such a small vehicle.
The HR-V’s biggest strength though is how easy it is to live with. The quality of the materials is exceptionally high for a sub-$40k car. Get used to the infotainment, and you have a proven offering that’s hard to beat for livability.
And, of course, you cannot talk about the HR-V without mentioning storage space. Its rear boot hosts 437L of capacity with the seats up and 1032L with the seats down. Those rear-mounted ‘magic seats’ offer solid head and leg-room, and can be flipped upwards to allow for carrying tall objects behind the front seats.
Any SUV is in a competitive market, and the HR-V Limited updates are a nice way to freshen up the popular HR-V.
For those who covet for the tried and the true need not look any further.
The HR-V still pulls some impressive tricks that the others struggle to match in the real world.