Honda HR-V is stylish, roomy, fun — until you put your foot into it
Powered by a 1.5-liter Honda Fit engine, the F1600 class is one of my favorite open-wheel, so-called “Formula” racing classes. It’s a showcase for relentless wheel-to-wheel driving, some of the country’s best up-and-coming teenage drivers on the Road to Indy — and for Honda’s reliable engine technology.
Honda also makes a stylish small SUV that will get you to the track.
I picked up the HR-V sport utility vehicle at Dulles Airport this summer to take my family to an F1600 race at Summit Point Raceway.
The new HR-V is built on the same bones as the excellent Civic sedan.
That means one of the best interiors in class surrounded me as I jumped into the HR-V’s driver’s seat. A cool honeycomb dash stretched from A-pillar to A-pillar, featuring a high-mounted touchscreen for good driver visibility complemented by meaty climatecontrol dials. The interior fit like a glove. That utility extended throughout the roomy cabin.
I loaded three suitcases, a computer bag and a backpack into the rear hatch with ease, then climbed into the roomy back seat
with leg and headroom to spare.
For this gen, the HR-V has adopted a more anthropomorphic face with bright eyes (headlights) and a cute mouth.
Charging along between corn fields on Route 632 south of Summit, my son, Henry, gripped the fat leather steering wheel and seemed to enjoy the HR-Vs’s nimble Civic chassis. The engine, not so much. He reached for the DRIVE mode selector and got only ECO, SNOW and NORMAL. No SPORT mode. “Pretty boring,” he said. How about the interior? “Compared to the red interior in my Mazda3? Pretty boring.”
Honda keeps up with standard adaptive cruise and auto braking, but load the two vehicles to the teeth and the Mazda wins on price.
Honda’s strengths are in its boxy utility and ergonomic excellence. Typically, Honda has obsessively tested its SUV to make sure everything is easy. For example: Tab on top of the rear seats to help them collapse? Check. Console storage? Check. Sub-rear cargo storage for small items? Check. Wireless Apple CarPlay/ Android Auto? Check (on models like my tester with 9-inch screens).
Still, there are reminders this is an entry-level vehicle. There are no ceiling grab handles or climate controls in the rear.
But on the whole, this is a stylish, roomy vehicle that punches above its price point. Sitting in Summit’s paddock next to the Honda, a friend pointed at the HR-V’s clayblue wardrobe.
“I like that color,” he said. “Very fashionable.”
In the middle of a sea of race cars sporting all kinds of entertaining paint jobs, it’s no small feat for a small SUV to get noticed. Just a few yards away, a trio of red, yellow and blue F1600s flashed by — nose to tail — down the pit straight. If a little more of that sportiness rubs off on the HR-V’s engine bay, the Honda will be complete.