Crossover utility vehicles are rapidly taking over the American automobile market. Even as the market as a whole grows, sales of cars are actually in decline. Meanwhile trucks including pickups, SUVs and CUVs are growing. The biggest growth is coming at smallest end of the market with subcompact crossovers going from nonexistent just a few years ago to more than 110,000 in 2014 and 107,000 in the first six months of this year. Several new and very promising small crossovers have just arrived at dealers in the last month or two and are expected to push the numbers way up by the end of the year. Among the new entries are the Jeep Renegade, Fiat 500x, Mazda CX-3 and Honda’s entry into the segment, the HR-V which I just spent a week with.
When Honda decided to expand its CUV lineup downward, it did the smartest thing it possibly could in using the subcompact Fit as a starting point. The Fit is without doubt, the best small car available in America today with exceptional packaging, outstanding handling and great fuel economy.
One of the keys to the Fit’s enormous interior volume relative to its footprint on the road, is the installation of the fuel tank in the center of the vehicle under the front seats. Most cars locate the tank under the rear seat and ahead of the rear axle. Moving the tank forward leaves an empty space under the rear seat cushions with the leading edge of the cushions supported on metal brackets. With rear passengers in place, this volume can be used for extra hidden storage for smaller objects like purses or cameras.
When you fold the seats down to get cargo space in excess of the 16.6 cubic feet in the back of the Fit, the seat cushions slide forward and down into the footwells with the support bracket folding underneath. This provides a flat load floor with more vertical space that expands the cargo volume to 52.7 cubic feet. When you need even more height, the seat cushions can fold up against the seatbacks leaving the space from floor to ceiling available. The HR-V replicates the same layout and functionality with the base 24.3 cubic feet growing to 58.8 cubic feet in the front-wheel-drive model. All-wheel-drive variants have slightly less space available. That’s significantly more than the 48.4 cubic feet available in the Chevrolet Trax, 50.8 in the Jeep Renegade or paltry 35.9 in the Nissan Juke. The HR-V also easily exceeds the passenger volume of any of its competition.
Click here for a spec comparison of the HR-V and its competition.
Despite its mechanical relationship with the Fit, the HR-V has distinct styling that makes it much more than just a Fit on stilts. The side glass sweeps back to a point that gives the HR-V more of a coupe-like profile than the tall-hatch Fit and echoes the look of its big brother the CR-V. Adding to the sporting character is sculpted character line that sweeps down from the rear edge of the glass down toward the trailing edge of the front wheel arch. Overall it’s a unique effect that stands out from the increasingly crowded space without looking as polarizing as the Juke or as conventional as the Renegade.
Despite sharing its architecture with the Fit, the HR-V is nine-inches longer with an extra three-inches of wheelbase. As a result the front-wheel-drive HR-V is 360-pounds heftier than the Fit with AWD adding a further 160-pounds to the scales. To compensate, Honda has swapped out the Fit’s 1.5-liter engine in favor of the larger 1.8-liter unit from the Civic. Front-drive HR-Vs can be outfitted with a six-speed stick or a CVT but the AWD versions only get the CVT.
Like all Honda four-pot engines, the 1.8-liter is smooth running unit that easily revs to 6,000 rpm. On the downside, even with VTEC variable valve-timing, it’s not the torquiest of mills, generating a mere 127 lb.-ft. at 4,300 rpm, only 13 more than the Fit. In the loaded AWD EX-L I drove, it seemed to struggle and didn’t have the liveliness that’s characteristic of the Fit or even a Civic which is 180-pounds lighter in its portliest form. As a result of its limited output, the CVT was programmed in the classic way of revving the engine to its torque peak and holding it there as the vehicle accelerates, a technique most drivers are not fond of. Paddles on the back of the steering wheel enable the driver to step through pre-programmed ratios, but frankly it just didn’t seem to be worth the effort. An all-new Civic is arriving this fall with a turbocharged 1.5-liter expected to be among the offerings. Hopefully, this powerplant which will almost surely have a much fatter torque curve will eventually find its way into the HR-V as well.
Aside from the weak feeling powertrain, there wasn’t much else to complain about in the HR-V except for the radio which is carried over from the Fit. It features capacitive touch controls to the left of the touch screen for volume and navigation through menus. Fortunately, HR-Vs like most modern vehicles have redundant audio controls on the steering wheel. Like all Hondas the seats are comfortable and supportive and overall ergonomics are very good (touch controls excepted). The only quibble I had with the front seats is that like the Fit, the lower cushion is on the short side relative to my long-thigh proportions, but most drivers probably won’t have an issue. The EX and EX-L trims get heated front seats with the top EX-L getting leather upholstery as well. Rear seat passengers will appreciate the ample space that leaves even my six-foot-one-inch with plenty of room to move around as well as climate control ducts at the back of the center console.
On the road, the taller, heavier HR-V leans a bit more than the Fit when pushed into corners and ultimate understeers a bit sooner, but it’s still very well behaved overall. I didn’t get a chance to try anything off-road, but I suspect when the going gets rough a Jeep Renegade would have a much easier time of things. However, since few drivers ever venture onto anything worse than a gravel road or Michigan pavement at the end of winter, that probably won’t be an issue.
If you like the packaging of the Fit with plenty of room for four adults but want something a bit higher riding for that extra visibility, Honda has you covered with the HR-V. The EPA estimates the AWD HR-V at 27 mpg city, 32 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined with my test average being 28.5 mpg. Pricing starts at $19,995 for a manual transmission LX while the top-end EX-L with navigation that I drove came in at $26,270 including delivery. My guess is that Honda will have no trouble moving the 70,000 HR-Vs that they expect to sell annually as this segment continues to grow.
Click here for full specifications of the 2016 Honda HR-V
