WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

This month: the HR-V’s satnav lady

Sam Philip

The HR-V satnav lady speaks in an English accent so clipped and RP it’d put Moira Stewart to shame. Apart from when she says the word ‘motorway’, when, for reasons unclear, she breaks into a Californian surf bro drawl. “In 500 yards, take the moah-der-wehh.”

I cannot explain how this happened. At first I wondered if Honda had somehow... forgotten to record the original satnav lady saying ‘motorway’, so had to sub in someone else for that solitary word. But no, it’s definitely her, same lady, just apparently doing an microimpression of Keanu Reeves in Point Break. Maybe she wanted to show off her range. Maybe, somewhere deep in the HR-V’s satnav library, there’s an instruction she delivers in a flawless Irish brogue. I will keep digging...