Honda ZR-V
REPORT 2
£42,895 OTR/£43,545 as tested/£439 pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Three months with a ZR-V: can we figure out what it’s actually for?
DRIVER
Greg Potts
WE MUST KICK OFF THIS MONTH’S UPDATE WITH A SMALL ROUND OF applause for the Honda ZR V You see it has slipped into daily life with consummate ease here at TG It’s simply an extremely easy car to live with The powertrain may sound complex with its twin electric motors petrol powered motor generator and Honda’s ‘Linear Shift Control’ but from the driver’s seat there isn’t any real sense of the engineering that’s going on underneath And that’s a compliment honest The ZR V is quiet reasonably refined and actually much more comfortable than I gave it credit for when I first drove this car on the launch in Spain
It’s also averaging just under mpg despite frequent short trips in London Not bad but for context our old long term Civic averaged over mpg during its time with us The ZR V is around kg heavier than the Civic too and outside the M I have felt that it could do with a little more power as a result Plus it’s not that interesting to drive
The interior is exactly the same It’s well laid out and straightforward to use the infotainment screen loads without delay and now that my phone is paired Apple CarPlay pops up wirelessly seconds after the ZR V has been switched on Sounds simple but it’s something that so many manufacturers seem to struggle with as cars get ever more complex
The separate climate control buttons are welcome too and the quality of the knobs and switches is all very impressive But the graphics on the two screens are extremely plain and Honda has ruined the sleek look of the horizontal dash by adding in a weirdly wavy centre console
When it unveiled the ZR V Honda said that it was for “young image conscious buyers” but surely young people want something interesting in their cars even if most of them couldn’t care less how it drives?