NUTS AND BOLTS: HONDA HR-V

Bottom line: The all-new 2016 HR-V goes to the top of my list of affordable, sensible, high-quality, high-utility vehicles. Just pay attention to trim levels for the best value for you. Ride, acceleration and handling: It gets good marks in all three, with a small caveat. Long trips, 300 miles or more, might be better enjoyed with additional seat cushions. The leather-covered seats in the EX-L Navi were a bit hard on a long drive. Head-turning quotient: The HR-V, regardless of trim level, looks perfectly at home on any church or school parking lot. Body style/layout: The new HR-V is not a shrunken CR-V, nor is it an enlarged Fit. Honda clearly thought about this one. It fits everything most of us want and need in an urban vehicle, available with front-wheel or all-wheel drive. There are three trim levels: LX, EX and EX-L. Capacities: Seating is for five people. Maximum cargo capacity is 58.9 cubic feet. The rear-most seats fold floor-flat for bulk packages, the passenger-side front seat goes down to accommodate a load length of eight feet, and other interior arrangements easily are made to handle a vertical stack height of four feet. The fuel tank holds 13.2 gallons of gasoline (regular grade works fine). Mileage: I averaged 32 miles per gallon in highway driving. Pet note: The HR-V is dog-friendly. There was easy ingress and egress for Rosa Parks Brown, our 84-pound chocolate Labrador. On long runs, she fell asleep on the rear seats. Safety: Standard equipment includes ventilated front and solid rear disc brakes, four-wheel anti-lock brake protection, emergency braking assistance, traction and stability control, tire-pressure monitoring, and side and head air bags. Pricing: Base prices for the 2016 HR-V range from $19,115 for the front-wheeldrive HR-V LX to $25,840 for the EX-L Navi with all-wheel drive. Estimated price as tested is $26,720 — $25,840 for the fully loaded EX-L Navi plus an $880 factory-to-dealer shipment fee.