The old Honda HR-V was a bit boring and bland. BUT, the 2022 Honda HR-V has finally landed in Australia and Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the Honda HR-V e:HEV L - basically the top specification version of the hybrid. See what he thinks in the video!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Honda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda
More Honda HR-V content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda/hr-v
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:51
Interior 3:27
Infotainment 5:01
Safety Tech 6:43
Practicality 7:55
On the road 13:24
0-100km/h 17:22
Verdict 18:38
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#honda #hrv #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Honda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda
More Honda HR-V content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda/hr-v
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:51
Interior 3:27
Infotainment 5:01
Safety Tech 6:43
Practicality 7:55
On the road 13:24
0-100km/h 17:22
Verdict 18:38
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#honda #hrv #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. It's been a long time between drinks for Honda with the HR-V, but the new
00:04 HR-V has finally arrived in Australia, and it brings with it a hybrid drivetrain, which I'm pretty excited about.
00:10 The HR-V competes with things like the Mazda CX-3, the Hyundai Kona, the Subaru XV,
00:16 amongst others in this segment. Today we're checking this one out here. This is the top specification. It's called the
00:23 e-H-E-V-L. It's priced at
00:26 $45,000 drive away, but if that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at a little over
00:32 $35,000 drive away. Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car,
00:36 so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if
00:40 you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below, and if you haven't done so already,
00:45 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we review a hybrid.
00:51 Let's talk exterior. So you've got five colors to pick from, and they're all free of charge, which is good news.
00:57 What about the design? So Honda has gone, I guess, upmarket with the design.
01:01 They've kind of tried to appeal to a younger audience,
01:04 and I think they've really struck that goal, because it actually looks pretty cool,
01:09 and I didn't think I'd ever be saying that about the HR-V. So up the front here,
01:12 you've got a body-colored grille. You don't really see this often on cars. Normally this whole section is black,
01:18 but I do like the way they've kept that body color. It really works well with
01:21 the design, and it kind of doesn't look out of place. Down the bottom here,
01:25 you've got some piano black, and then a brushed aluminum
01:27 garnish there as well. Big Honda logo with some blue insignia there for hybrid.
01:32 A little bit more chrome along the top there, and then over at the headlights,
01:36 you've got a set of full LED headlights. This top spec also gets active cornering lamps,
01:41 and then an LED daytime running light. Pretty sleek and nice looking headlight.
01:44 Gives you a lot of projection at nighttime. Then an LED fog light down the bottom. Whip around to the side.
01:50 Down here, you've got a set of 18-inch alloy wheels.
01:54 Now this wheel has like a reflective element on the outside, and then a piano black finish on the inside there. Up the top here,
02:00 you'll find some wheel arch cladding. Black on red.
02:03 It kind of looks good,
02:04 but don't get any off-road vibes, because you won't be going anywhere with this in terms of off-road driving. It is front-wheel drive only.
02:10 Now in terms of the dimensions of this, it has actually shrunk a tiny bit compared to the last one,
02:15 but what hasn't shrunk though is the ground clearance. It now has almost 200 millimeters of ground clearance,
02:20 so it really is sort of getting up there in terms of that off-road appearance,
02:24 and I think it actually looks all the better for it. It sits a little higher.
02:27 It's easier to get in and out of. You're gonna find that whole sort of maneuverability far better. Up the top here,
02:33 you've got an indicator built into that wing mirror with a black section down the bottom, and then body color at the top there.
02:39 A little bit more of that brushed aluminum garnish down the bottom of the car.
02:43 Privacy glass, and have a look at this. The door handle integrated into that top section.
02:47 I really like that it keeps all of this nice and clean down the bottom. Come around to the back.
02:52 You've got a shark fin aerial brake light integrated into there, and then this full crossover section of LED taillight. Love this.
02:59 It stands out beautifully at nighttime, and it is a very classy rear-end design. There's that badge,
03:05 so E-HEV, which signifies this is indeed the hybrid version, and then HR-V along the back there. A little bit more of that sort of
03:12 brushed aluminum look down the bottom with some piano black there as well. So let me know what you think about the design.
03:17 I actually think this looks fantastic and a big step forward over the old HR-V,
03:21 but I am keen for your thoughts. Are you a younger person? Does this now appeal to you?
03:25 Let me know what you reckon in the comment section below. So we are inside the HR-V. We'll start off with the key.
03:31 Here it is. So you've got lock, unlock, boot, and then on the back you have the Honda logo.
03:37 This is a proximity sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket. Once you're inside,
03:41 you've got a starter button over here that pulses for you.
03:44 Okay, let's talk about the design of the interior. Look,
03:49 this is a huge step forward over the previous generation of the HR-V.
03:54 Everything actually feels really nice and premium here,
03:57 and you can't actually say that for a lot of the competitors in this segment. Some of them
04:01 are really sort of just loaded with plastic, like the Kona for example.
04:05 It really is just a plastic infused interior, whereas this actually looks pretty decent. You've got the black
04:11 components broken up with a bit of that brushed aluminum. You've got these soft touch points, so it is a nicely presented interior.
04:18 I also love with things like the air vents how you've got these little switches to open and close them.
04:23 Everything just feels like they've put a little bit more effort in than usual,
04:27 especially for an SUV in this small SUV segment. What about your touch points though?
04:31 So, that is really nice and soft, and it's soft on the door too. How soft are they?
04:37 Well, we've got our durometer.
04:38 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
04:43 have a look at the link in the description below. Now, what about your build quality?
04:47 It's a little bit wonky in the center there.
04:50 That's a little bit loose up the top there as well, but the rest of this feels okay.
04:56 Finally, the door test.
04:58 That feels really nice and solid. Let's chat about
05:02 infotainment. So, this is a 9-inch infotainment screen. It's a color touchscreen.
05:08 You've got some shortcut buttons on the side, including a volume knob. Thank goodness. I kind of hate it when there's just buttons there for volume.
05:15 This is just much easier to just turn it up, turn it down as required.
05:19 So, the infotainment system comes with satellite navigation built in, and that includes over-the-air updates.
05:24 And that means that if there are new maps to be downloaded, it can do that all over the air.
05:29 You don't need to go back to a dealership to put a new memory card in or a CD like they used to have in the olden days.
05:36 So, that is good news. In terms of smartphone mirroring, you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Apple CarPlay is
05:42 wireless, which is good to see. Android Auto is wired. I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like. Look at that.
05:48 That is a full-screen integration.
05:51 Tiny, tiny bit laggy as you flick through the screens there, but for the most part, that actually looks really good. Nice and sharp as well.
05:57 It's a very high-resolution screen. And this is what Android Auto looks like.
06:01 So again, full-screen integration.
06:03 Nice and quick there for Android Auto.
06:06 Pretty impressive stuff. Now, on the audio front, you have AM/FM/DAB plus
06:13 digital radio, six-speaker sound system here for the top specification model as well. Really impressed by this infotainment system.
06:20 It is just simple, easy to use and comes with all the features you need. So, tick, tick, tick.
06:25 Over ahead of the driver, you have a
06:27 display over to the left-hand side. So, the right-hand side is just an analog speedometer,
06:32 but on the left-hand side, you have a digital display. Pretty cool.
06:35 It just gives you all of the car's information and then you can flick through a couple of those different displays there as required as well.
06:42 Moving on to safety.
06:45 So, autonomous emergency braking and the interesting thing is that Honda has moved away from
06:50 radar-based systems for this safety technology. Instead, they're just using a camera now.
06:55 So, that allows them to do things like lane departure and detection of items ahead of the driver using AI.
07:01 So, pretty advanced system, especially for a car in this segment.
07:05 In addition to that, you have blind spot monitoring built into that wing mirror, rear cross-traffic alert,
07:11 radar cruise control, a self-steering lane guidance system. Works okay.
07:15 It has issues with things like roadwork zones where it tends to get a little bit confused.
07:20 I guess that's the same with a lot of cars that we test and unfortunately until there's uniformity in
07:25 line markings, they're all going to be a little bit confused when you suddenly have just lines randomly going into
07:31 different places while you're driving. In addition to that, on the parking front,
07:35 you have both front and rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera.
07:39 I'll show you what the camera looks like.
07:41 Here it is there. So, look, the quality is okay. It is a little bit soft around the edges there,
07:47 but you can see we've got our suitcase there. Sorry about the beeping. And then you can clearly read the text there as well.
07:52 So, for the most part, that isn't too bad. Let's talk about your practicality. We'll start off with connectivity.
07:58 So, no wireless phone charging around here, but you do have two USB ports up the front here.
08:03 They're both USB-A. You also have a 12-volt outlet down the bottom. In terms of storing your phone,
08:09 you've got a few little knick-knacky spots where you can pop your phone. Plenty of room there without any dramas at all.
08:15 Now, what about your coffee cup?
08:16 So, it easily lives in there with plenty of room to get it out as well, which is great news.
08:21 Bottle storage, same story. You pop your bottle in there and there's teeth there to retain it in position.
08:26 You also have bottle storage inside the door. Curious to see if it'll fit a big bottle. Not in the center there.
08:33 Not in the door either, but that's okay.
08:36 You do have a little storage slot here next to the driver's knee for odds and ends.
08:40 Center console, reasonably sized, not huge, but does the job. And then you have a glove box as well. That's not too bad.
08:46 You've got plenty of room in there to store your things, even with the car's manual. Let's chat about your comfort.
08:51 So, you have dual-zone automatic climate control. Heated seats here for your first row.
08:57 You have a heated steering wheel. And one thing I'll mention as well with the heated seats here on cloth is that it's a little
09:02 more breathable, so you don't feel sort of
09:04 insanely hot and sticky all the time. It's actually just far more comforting.
09:08 It feels like someone's hugging you from behind. In terms of the seats, I actually really like this design.
09:13 Yes, they are cloth, but I think it is a really cool design. It's sort of, I don't know, looks trendy.
09:19 With these sort of inserts on the side here, nice bolsters there that hold you in nice and tightly.
09:25 But manual adjustment for both the driver and front passenger. I would have thought at 45 grand you'd at least have
09:32 electric seat adjustment, so a little disappointing there.
09:35 But the seats are pretty comfy to sit in. In terms of your steering wheel, it offers both tilt and reach
09:40 adjustment. And then on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
09:46 Now, before I jump into the back, I want to show you what Honda calls
09:49 "magic seats", and that's because they actually are pretty magic.
09:53 So, what you can do, you can drop your seats just like you would in any other car, and it creates a flat load floor.
09:59 I'll show you what that looks like when we do have a look at the boot.
10:01 But what you can also do is load sideways.
10:04 So you can whack this up here, and then when you push this down it locks that into position.
10:09 Then you can also do the same for this seat.
10:11 Lift that up and then lock that into position.
10:15 And then it means you get like this sideways load space where you can put things in.
10:20 Unfortunately, you have this driveline hump down the center there, but for the most part,
10:24 this is a whole lot more room than you're gonna get in pretty much any other car on the market.
10:28 So, pretty impressive setup, and you can do one or both or whatever configuration you want there. So that's pretty cool.
10:34 Okay, let me hop in.
10:36 What is our room like? So, move that up.
10:40 Looks actually not too bad. So I've got my driver's seat pretty far back. Knee room is good.
10:45 Toe room is great. Headroom not so great.
10:48 My head is sort of touching the roof there.
10:49 But it's actually quite an impressive space when you consider the size of this vehicle.
10:54 A lot of the other cars in this segment don't actually have anywhere near as much room in the back here as this does right now.
11:00 In terms of your other creature comforts, you've got map pockets in the back here. I like this. It's a phone holder.
11:05 So if you do have your phone charging in the two USB-A ports, you can just load it into there.
11:10 You've also got air vents as well to keep you nice and cool.
11:14 In terms of bottle storage, you have a center armrest with two cup holders.
11:17 No teeth though, so your bottle will move around a little bit.
11:20 And then you have bottle storage inside the door as well.
11:24 Now, have you noticed something weird in the back here?
11:26 There's only two seat belts. And that is because this is a four-seater.
11:30 I know, it's a little bit ridiculous. A small SUV that only seats four people.
11:35 And that is because there is no top tether point behind this center seat.
11:40 And with the Australian design rules,
11:42 you need to have a top tether point for every seat in the second row with a seat belt.
11:46 And as a result of that,
11:48 Honda wasn't allowed to sell this in Australia as a five-seater, and it is just a four-seater.
11:52 So I don't know why they couldn't just add a top tether point.
11:55 I think that would be pretty straightforward. Everyone else seems to do it just fine.
11:59 So yeah, that is a curious omission.
12:01 But you do get two ISOFIX points in your outboard seats and then two top tether points,
12:06 one for each of those outboard seats.
12:08 And finally, our window test.
12:10 Almost goes all the way down, but it is important to note it has auto up and down on the window switch.
12:18 Let's talk cargo space.
12:19 So you've got a power tailgate.
12:21 Whip this open.
12:23 And there it is.
12:26 So you have just over 300 litres of cargo space available here in its standard form.
12:31 Now, keep in mind with the hybrid, when you do pop this open,
12:33 you only have this storage space here to work with because under here is the lithium-ion battery
12:39 for that hybrid drivetrain.
12:41 But you do have a little bit of storage off to the sides if you do need it.
12:44 And then behind here, you have your tyre repair kit and also a compressor.
12:51 Now, how does all this work?
12:52 So you can pop your bag in here, it goes in there.
12:56 And then this will try and make that go in long ways.
12:59 It's not going to fit long ways, but it does fit sideways.
13:03 So it gives you an idea of how much space you have there.
13:05 And then what you can do if you do want a little bit more space, you can drop your second row.
13:12 I showed you before how the magic seats work, but if you do want just that flat floor to
13:16 load all of your luggage and other bits and bobs in, you have just under 1,300 litres
13:22 of space available there, which is pretty good, I reckon.
13:24 So I've just hit the road in the HR-V.
13:31 You may not believe this, but this is one of the most advanced hybrid systems on the road.
13:37 And it's a little bit complicated, but I'll try and explain it as best as I can without
13:41 confusing the hell out of everything.
13:43 So firstly, this uses an internal combustion engine.
13:46 It's a 1.5 litre naturally aspirated petrol engine.
13:49 It's then mated to a hybrid drivetrain that has a lithium ion battery that sits in the
13:53 boot there, and it produces a combined output of 96 kilowatts of power and just over 250
13:59 newton metres of torque.
14:01 In addition to that, you have a twin motor setup.
14:04 So one of those is a generator, one is a traction motor.
14:07 The internal combustion engine is acting as effectively a power source for the generator,
14:12 and then it charges that small battery, and that small battery is then used to take off
14:16 from a standing start.
14:17 It's also then used to give you a hybrid boost when you punch the throttle.
14:21 Then there are also times where the internal combustion engine can actually directly drive
14:26 the wheels as well, and then any excess power is then used to charge the battery for later
14:30 use.
14:31 So it is a really clever setup, and it works incredibly well.
14:34 While you're driving along, you can punch the throttle, it gives you a nice push in
14:38 the back, and it gets up and moves.
14:40 The internal combustion engine makes a bit of noise when it does that, but because it's
14:44 not always directly driving the wheels, when you punch the throttle there's no correlation
14:49 between the noise that you're hearing and what it's doing, because sometimes it might
14:52 just be spinning up power to then run that electric motor, and then other times it's
14:57 spinning up power to directly drive the wheels.
15:00 So it's a pretty cool setup, and in my opinion it works incredibly well.
15:03 I love the fact as well you've got paddle shifters here on the steering wheel that you
15:06 can use to adjust regen, so you can go all the way from soft regen all the way to hard
15:11 regen, and then you can go straight to hard regen by putting it into B mode, so when you
15:15 roll out of the throttle you can see it goes straight into that charging state to then
15:19 pump energy back into that battery.
15:21 With these different views as well you can see the power flow and exactly what it's doing.
15:24 So right now the battery is basically running everything, and if I put the throttle on we're
15:30 using battery and internal combustion engine.
15:33 So it's a pretty cool setup and I think that Honda has absolutely nailed the integration,
15:37 it works really nicely, and especially from a standing start when you take off in dead
15:41 silence it is just a good integration of a hybrid drivetrain.
15:44 Now in terms of your drive modes, you've got a couple to pick from, so using this little
15:50 switch here you can go between Sport, Normal and Economy.
15:54 Economy just basically reduces air conditioning, dulls throttle response to try and give you
15:59 that extra economy.
16:00 Normal is just your standard drive mode, and Sport really just engages you and gets everything
16:05 up and running, makes the throttle sharper, it's all about putting a big old smile on
16:09 your face.
16:12 And in addition to those drive modes you also have a hill descent control.
16:16 No idea why, you're not going to be doing any off-road driving, but you've got a bit,
16:19 just in case you need it.
16:20 Now in terms of fuel economy, Honda claims a combined average of 4.3 litres per 100km,
16:26 we are currently sitting on 5.1.
16:29 That's not too bad, I think even just hitting 5 with the driving that we've been doing,
16:33 been sort of having a bit of fun with it, I think it's pretty cool.
16:36 So it's good to see that Honda's been able to get that figure right down, kind of matches
16:40 what Toyota can do with their hybrid systems as well.
16:44 Now let's pop this into Sport mode, we'll see what it feels like, give it a little punch.
16:51 Look it makes a fair bit of noise when you get up it, but the good news is because it's
16:57 so light, 250Nm is actually more than enough for what you need to do.
17:03 And the noise kind of just tells you that you're actually doing stuff.
17:06 And look, steering feels great, it's nice and nimble and it has more than enough poke
17:11 when you jump onto the throttle.
17:12 The fact that you can leave it in that B mode and get some regen while you're driving as
17:16 well means that you really do feel quite engaged while you're behind the wheel.
17:20 So it is pretty surprising in terms of how it feels.
17:22 Now Honda doesn't have an official 0-100 time, but this is how it went up against our
17:26 stopwatch.
17:45 Let's talk visibility, so it's actually not too bad because you're sitting a little higher,
17:49 you can clearly see down the front there, the wing mirrors are massive, you get good
17:52 visibility down the side thanks to the big mirror, but also you get blind spot monitor
17:57 coverage.
17:58 Visibility out the back is excellent too, and then in terms of parking it's pretty straightforward,
18:01 it's very easy to park at low speeds, especially with the steering.
18:05 You get plenty of feedback when you are sort of darting through corners, but at low speeds
18:09 it's quite light and easy to manoeuvre.
18:11 It is also worth pointing out the road noise, so at country road speeds, even at 80km/h
18:17 on this coarse chip surface, it is pretty boomy inside the cabin, there's a lot of tyre
18:22 noise coming into here.
18:23 As speed picks up to 100km/h you're going to get a lot of that, so I just wish they
18:28 made this chassis a little quieter, especially given how much effort they went to with the
18:32 hybrid system, it would have just been nice to have a bit more serenity inside the cabin.
18:42 So the Honda HR-V, yes it is expensive, $45,000, it's pretty much significantly more expensive
18:50 than the rest of the competitors in the segment, but I just want to caveat that by saying this
18:55 is a really impressive hybrid drivetrain.
18:58 It is genuinely the best way to do it, and a lot of manufacturers will skimp on their
19:02 hybrid drivetrains and just do it the easiest way they know how.
19:05 This on the other hand is a really good implementation, it drives beautifully and it's a bit fun to
19:10 drive as well, which is what you want from a small SUV like this.
19:14 It is let down by the fact it has manually adjustable seats, I think they should at least
19:17 be electric for $45,000, but if you do put those things to one side, great technology,
19:22 plenty of room inside and pretty innovative there in terms of the space and how it's used.
19:27 So I don't know, I'm a bit in two minds, if you do want to treat yourself, yes it is worth
19:31 the money because it is genuinely a decent car, but it is just more expensive than its
19:36 competitors.
19:37 So let me know in the comments section, what do you think of the new HR-V, have you bought
19:40 one, what's it like, are you enjoying it?
19:42 Keen for your feedback, if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and share
19:46 it with your mates and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel.
19:50 But until next time, take it easy.