Honda HR-V
REPORT 4
£32,260 OTR/£36,035 as tested/£443pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Does Honda’s eco champ stand out from the crossover crowd?
DRIVER
Charlie Rose
HAVING JUSTIFIED THE HR-V AS A SUITABLE WORKHORSE FOR THE TG video department this month I had my sights set on something far more testing Glastonbury Love it or hate it it’s the holy grail of the British festival scene and with revellers descending on a field in rural Somerset you better be sure you come prepared for every eventuality
Having toyed with the idea of catching the train down for no more than a second my wife and I set about accumulating as much camping equipment as we could physically stuff into the HRV A large tent inflatable mattress gas cooker cool box chairs table the list goes on Fortunately the space that Honda’s ‘Magic Seats’ provide in the rear once again excelled at gobbling up the large unusually sized objects
The HRV’s e HEV hybrid powertrain consists of a litre cyl petrol engine and two electric motors which operate seamlessly around town giving me an impressive mpg Sadly as soon as you get up to higher speeds where the engine sends power to the wheels instead of the battery the mindnumbing drone of that engine and eCVT transmission begins
The HRV does however redeem itself with a well designed comfortable cabin containing an abundance of gadgetry like a in display with Apple CarPlay wireless charging heated seats and adaptive cruise control with lane keep assist Ours also includes the premium speaker system
To my delight upon arrival at the festival we had averaged a respectable mpg This was most definitely helped by the amount of variable speed limit zones we encountered along the way Still it’s good to know that the HRV is capable of decent economy on congested British motorways This also meant that when all the fun was had and the party was over we still had well over half a tank left to drive home in one swoop Just as well given Glastonbury’s parting gift to me was a bout of COVID