New Car Test - Honda HR-V

The A$23,150 5-door Honda HR-V - a niche vehicle extraordinaire. But which niche are we talking about, anyway? OK, let's play niche spotting.

The off-road niche: How does the HR-V's de facto front-wheel drive (four-wheel drive occurs only when the fronts slip), absence of low-range gearbox, and rotten bottom-end torque stack up against, say, a Mitsubishi Pajero io? If you're going off-road, chalk up a win to the little Pajero.

The cross-over urban niche: What about the HR-V's horribly random understeer, poor ride, and terrible short-leg-long-arm driving position versus, say, the utterly relaxed competence of a Subaru Forester? Use a fistful of chalk to show the superiority of the Soob!

The trendy city car niche: Hmm, what about the HR-V's uniquely chic looks, supposed interior space, claimed safety and presumed practicality versus, say, a Mercedes A-class? H-e-l-l-o Mr Mercedes, welcome to my garage - even if you are gonna cost a third more, you're a helluva lot more than 30 per cent better...

Maybe that's the problem - all of these comparo cars are a bit more expensive (in the case of the A-class, quite a bit more). But if the trade-offs in refinement, handling, packaging, driveline and performance need to be so great for the HR-V to create its own pricing niche, why bother?

But perhaps we're making the wrong comparisons - setting up apples to be compared with oranges. So what does Honda believe the car to be good at? Let's consult www.honda.com.au and be enlightened....

Think 'versatile small car' and you'd never think 4WD. Well, not until you'd seen Honda's latest offering from the HR-V range.

Hmmm - 'versatile'. To us a versatile car is one where seats are easily removable, or where they fold up against each other, creating cavernous room. Where the interior can be reconfigured to cope with everything from a stepladder and paintbrushes - to a family driving interstate with their luggage. And that's not the HR-V, which has just a 50/50 split rear fold seat and accommodation for only four. Or maybe they mean that it's versatile enough to cope with different environments? That must be it...

The new five-door model can see you sipping lattes on Brunswick Street one minute and taking off with your friends for a weekend at the snow the next.

Well - possibly. But if we assume the snow to be further than a block away, we're talking country driving. And with a raucous 77kW to haul around the 1200kg, harsh bump-thump from the poorly damped five-link De Dion rear axle, kick-back from the power steering and the vagueness that comes from the 70-series Bridgestone B390 tyres being worn on skinny 15 x 5.5 steel rims, a long drive is sure as hell no fun. Throw in flat seats that compress too easily at their edges, the on-demand characteristics of the four wheel drive system that at times gives quite bad cornering understeer and at other times neat and tidy handling, short gearing (in fifth, about 33 km/h per 1000 rpm) and well, I wouldn't be picking it as a long distance snowmobile, that's for sure.

Honda have taken the small city car image and blended it successfully with the outback 4WD idea. The result is a fantastic and versatile car ideal for a young person leading a diverse lifestyle. Whether the car is for weekend adventure lovers or inner-city social butterflies, the underlying factor is that the HR-V is FUN to drive.

But it simply isn't fun to drive. The gear lever is long; the gearbox throws resultingly wide. The engine revs like a top to its 7000-rpm redline - but at anything over 4500 conversation becomes impossible because its shriek fills the cabin. On each high-rpm gear change a hollow roar of induction noise booms out. The turning circle isn't particularly small, the A-pillars so massively thick that you can easily lose two complete lanes of traffic behind just one, and the basic AM/FM tape player requires the cranking up to max of the bass and treble to achieve audio better than would be heard in an empty oil drum. None of our drivers found the driving position comfortable - and, interestingly enough, each complained about a different aspect of it. Fun? Don't think so....

Supplied in a range of funky colours, it is spacious, comfortable and complete with gadgets sure to entertain your friends while cruising the hotspots.

Hey, let me show you the two airbags going off...... The only area of the car truly spacious is under the bonnet - the SOHC in-line four looks lost in the engine bay. Inside the cabin, headroom is good, but the narrow width precludes a rear seat middle passenger (there's not even three seatbelts across the back), the centre part of the dash bulges into the passenger space with knee-contacting familiarity, and the load area is simply not very large - even with the rear seat folded forward. Part of the reason for this is that the loading lip is so high - the space between the floor and roof is much smaller than it first appears. A scheduled single trip to move two small cupboards became two trips...

The HR-V (by the way - that's High Ride Revolutionary Vehicle) is a car to get noticed in. Its unusual space-age appearance is guaranteed to turn heads and set tongues wagging out on the road. Infinitely distinctive from other small cars, the HR-V is the car for the new millennium. Fresh, jazzy and innovative both inside and outside, the emphasis is again on fun.

Yes, from some angles the styling is fresh and exciting. Especially from the front three-quarters the car looks good; it is less successful from other angles. And inside? Well, it does have blue-background instruments and knobs... But on any functionality criteria, the HR-V is a car seriously lacking in genuine design innovation - except in one area. The HR-V is a Low Emissions Vehicle, and Honda should be given the credit for selling such a clean car in a market that does not legally require it.

Though most young people are generally expected to be more concerned with appearances, many would be impressed with the HR-V's handling. Honda have not let you down where it counts - performance. Smooth is the defining word for the way this car drives. A smooth ride, smooth acceleration and braking and smooth steering. It is a car that anyone can get used to driving very quickly. For a young driver, it feels both responsive and safe.

Now, Mr Honda, this is simply utter rubbish. Two of our three testers are aged under 25 - both regarded the handling as appalling. More concerned about the erraticness than the amount of plain ol' understeer, they complained that the car's cornering behaviour varied from corner to corner, they complained about torque steer, they complained about steering kickback, they complained about the ride. Me? I agree with them. As for straightline performance, if you rev the long-stroke engine like you hate it, you'll get to 100 km/h in about 11 seconds flat - not too bad.

No-one new to the HR-V range should be alarmed by the fact that it is a 4WD. Think 4WD and you would normally think big and bulky or nightmare parking. But the compact size of the HR-V and the unique 4WD system that it employs take away all the hassles of a bigger car and another gearbox. RealTime 4WD technology is the standard system used in both HR-V and CR-V models and means 4WD on call whenever the driver needs it. On a normal road the HR-V would be front wheel drive, but the Honda system intervenes automatically when the car registers any difference in speed between the wheels, becoming 4WD. So you can concentrate on enjoying the scenery while the HR-V does the work for you.

Maybe. But the enormous advantage of four-wheel drive in urban environments - where we can bet the HR-V with spend 99.99 per cent of its life - is that you always have vastly greater traction. And that's traction when cornering, accelerating and, to a lesser extent, braking. And the better braking performance of constant four-wheel drive is a factor that could certainly benefit the HR-V - no ABS is fitted to the disc/drum layout.

With its on-demand system, the HR-V simply doesn't feel 'four wheel drive', with all the safety, stability and sureness that goes with having all four wheels always torquing. Instead, it steers like a front wheel drive - and one that's tall and on high profile tyres at that. The Honda implication that a four wheel drive car requires another gearbox or some type of driver intervention in order that four wheel drive be engaged is quite misleading - all those Audi and Subaru drivers out there must be terribly confused about never having touched anything...

Honda has continued the fun theme inside the car as well as out. The selection of gadgets featured in the HR-V range would make the late Q of James Bond fame proud. For any light-fingered friends you may have, the most notorious feature of the HR-V is the removable and portable ashtray. There are also power windows and power adjustable wing mirrors. The triple dial temperature control provides the driver and passengers with a choice between toasty warmth up at the snow or optional air conditioning for summer cool. The sporty dashboard controls are accessible and easy on the eye and there are over 20 storage compartments (even two gloveboxes) to play hide and seek with all the personal belongings a car seems to accumulate. Furnished in a refreshing and stylish cobalt-blue interior with plenty of legroom, finishing touches to the HR-V style are added with the basic but powerful sound system and the space age rear spoiler.

Ohmygod. A space age rear spoiler. Yes, there are two good-sized gloveboxes. Yes, the equipment level is fine for a cheapish car. Oh yes, and the 'optional air conditioning for summer cool' adds A$2000 to the price, too. And rear legroom is adequate - but only because rearwards travel of the front seats is quite limited.

Look, drive the HR-V gently and it feels fine. Change at 3000 rpm, have just one or two people on board with a minimum of luggage - then the car feels competent. Push it harder - in cornering, acceleration, braking or interior capacity - and the whole shooting match comes unstuck. The HR-V is simply underdone. It needs suspension development, it needs better seating and much better soundproofing. Quality, also, could do with a lift - the doors shut with loud clangs, the metallic paint on the test car had an unusually large number of scratches gained during its short 10,000km life, the panels flex extraordinarily easily, and the centre console appears to have no rear mounting at all.

Get past the Honda badge. Get past the styling. Get past the electric gizmos.

Assess it as a car.

Look at the paucity of interior room. Look at the lack of interior comfort. Be deafened by the engine. Feel the lack of precision in swerve-and-recover manoeuvres. Assess the worth of a four-wheel drive system that is almost never functioning.

And - especially if you're not the sort of person who's much interested in cars anyway - before you sign on the line, test drive some of the other new cars that you can buy for the same money.

www.honda.com.au

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