Honda HR-V (2024 - ) review

We are pleasantly surprised by the price of this HR-V to the point we guessed it cost another £5,000 more than the actual the base price. So, not only is this a reasonably-priced Honda, but its fuel efficiency is top notch. The quoted figure is 52mpg and we comfortably got 47mpg, which is very decent for a family SUV. That’s thanks to Honda’s hybrid system which doesn’t come with a plug or any meaningful electric range, but does boost the 1.5-litre petrol engine to keep things frugal.

It’s a Honda. Enough said. The warranty covers you for five years or 90,000 miles, which is 30,000 miles and two years more than the industry standard.

You don’t get the most useful safety feature - blind spot warning - as standard which is a shame, and cross-traffic alert also only arrives when you step up a trim level. But everything else is there, like automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning and so on. However, we’re docking points for the very old-fashioned and busy displays, which mean you spend a lot of time glancing at stuff.

There’s an impressive amount of legroom in the rear and despite the more sloping roofline than many SUVs, headroom is good, too. The boot size feels average. Comfort is impeded, however, by the raucous petrol engine, which whirrs away noisily in its usual function as a generator for the electric motor. We'd rather have a battery and the silent propulsion this brings, on reflection

Honda is lagging at least five years behind other brands’ technology and in-car features, and if it carries on like this, it will lose its remaining customers to the Chinese brands such as BYD, Chery, Geely, Leapmotor and Jaecoo, which have prioritised in-car technology over all else, having correctly surmised this is the way consumer desires are headed. Even Renault clocked early that drivers want big, bold, colourful, accessible designs for functions like DAB, sat-nav, temperature control and so on, on large touchscreens. Honda’s screen is small, its display too fiddly. It won’t cut in for customers in their 40s or younger. You do get wireless phone connection, which is a plus.

Excuse us getting technical for a second but Japanese brands like Honda have always loved what in the jargon are called Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs) that have the engine revs rising and falling seemingly independently of how fast you're actually going. Which can get as noisy as it is confusing when you demand full power, given there can be lots of revving but not much acceleration. We no like. The e:HEV hybrid system in the Honda isn't actually a CVT but it behaves like one, the combustion engine quick to cut in and making a right racket when it does so. And leaving you with very little truly emissions-free driving. Why would you have one of these, and not a plug-in hybrid, which would offer you between 20 and 90 miles of electric driving, depending on the model? While the public charging system is not yet perfect for pure battery vehicles it’s adequate enough for shorter, less frequent plug-in hybrid charging while those lucky enough to have home charging are quids in. Meanwhile, the HR-V is also front-wheel drive only, with a maximum output of 130 horsepower, which isn’t enough when the car is fully laden.