2015 Honda HR-V Full Road Test, Interior Details and Rivals

One of my favourite images in the motoring world is not of a car at all. It is a black and white picture of Soichiro Honda, the late founder of the company which bears his name, strapped to a jetpack. He is widely regarded as having a tireless curiosity for everything, a unique approach to problem solving, and a childlike-fascination for all things transport, traits which helped build one of the biggest motoring companies in the world.

This carries through in just about every detail of every Honda, and the H-RV is no exception. The centre console is immediately odd; a floating transmission tunnel on which the gearlever sits, with all the connection points for your devices found beneath it.

The parcel shelf is not a shelf at all, and as you’ll see in the video, is a bit more…flexible. It makes it very easy to store the shelf within the vehicle if you’re nowhere near your home, and apparently it can be used as a sun visor. I’ve personally never encountered anything like it. It’s very…Honda.

And then of course there are the Magic Seats. They are as simple as they are ingenious, and I can’t imagine why every car maker on earth doesn’t adopt this approach; it makes the rear space incredibly practical. I have heard that Honda have a patent on this hinge system; it is special aspect of the car and we’ve tried to show it off as best as possible.

Honda have followed the Japanese trend of fitting their cars with CVT gearboxes, in fact in the two-model HR-V range, it is the only gearbox you can order. It certainly has some benefits, as well as a downside which we’ve demonstrated in the video.

Of the two models available, the range-topping 1.8 Elegance and the 1.5 Comfort, we received the latter for filming and we found it to be well specced, but I did miss the rear park distance control. As the HR-V is a bit of a “segment-straddler”, we have compared it to the Ford EcoSport and the Nissan Qashqai.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

0:00 Intro
1:02 Honda HR-V Models
1:17 Gearbox
2:05 Fuel Consumption
2:16 Exterior Design
2:57 Pricing
3:15 Front Interior and Features
3:53 Boot Space
4:36 Rear Seating
5:56 Outro

If you are interested in a new HR-V, click here:
http://www.cars.co.za/newcars/Honda/H...

To see a comparison of the 2015 Honda HR-V versus the Ford EcoSport and Nissan Qashqai, click here:

http://www.cars.co.za/compare-cars/Fo...