Honda ZR-V review: An excellent mix of practicality and pleasure

Honda’s new ZR-V is spacious and has lots of gadgets and safety features
Honda ZR-V review: An excellent mix of practicality and pleasure

Zr V Honda The New

Hona V Zr

Rating

★★★★☆

Price

Tested From €59,995 As €54,995

Engine

A Plex That Very One Like Hybrid Doesn’t Drive

Spec The

Thorough Very Advance In Spec

Verdict

Or Pleasure Practicality And Mix Two Family Small Driving Issues, an Of One Excellent Despite

The world is a funny place, isn’t it? Depressingly so at times, I mean if Donald Trump can persuade the American people and he is a fit and proper person to be their President, then anything is possible.

In the car world, the creation of monsters is in the realm of possibility too and almost certainly the hope and desire of every automotive executive there ever was. Equally so, then, is the live hope among those in charge of any given car company that they can create a monster that will slay any existing monsters.

Predictably then, the unpredictable is always likely to happen. Much like America never expected Donald Trump to succeed on his first go around in 2016 – in fairness, not even Donald Trump expected to succeed on his first go around – much of America and the rest of the world felt it unlikely he could pull the trick off for a second time.

So it has been in the automotive sector; when Nissan launched its family SUV, the Qashqai in 2006, it never expected that it would sell more than three million of them in the near 20 years since. It never even envisioned that it would change the face of motoring as we know it and make the Sports Utility Vehicle the ubiquitous thing it has become.

If Nissan didn’t foresee all of this, then it is safe to say that none of the rest of its opposition did either, so the manner in which the SUV took off truly caught everyone on the hop. In fairness they were not long about rectifying that particular omission and it was, as we now know, quickly sorted.

In short order therefore, everyone who wasn’t making one, was driving one but the Qashqai, as it was the first, remained the one to beat and even its latest guise – the newest one was launched in 2021 and facelifted just recently – remains the one the public has most heartily adopted.

There’s been something in the region of 60,000 of them sold in Ireland since they were first introduced here and few can even approach that sort of performance. Nissan itself might be in a spot of financial bother right now, but the Qashqai is still selling by the shed load.

All of this brings us to this week’s tester, the Honda ZR-V, a car which its makers hope will crack into the Qashqai market and bring some of the Nissan’s success the way of the Minato manufacturer.

Sitting between the HR-V and the newly revamped CR-V (which we will be testing in the not too distant) the ZR-V may not fit in alphabetically, but it is a very necessary car as the evolution of the Honda model line-up ramps up.

Honda has made slow but sure progress in recent times and the ZR-V is further evidence of that. The car is slightly longer than the HR-V and slightly shorter than the CR-V, which has grown up quite a bit in its latest incarnation in order to accommodate this new model.

Across the Honda range, things have been maturing solidly, what with more modern corporate exteriors, improved interiors all round and a new generation of hybrid powerplants which are both clever and very economic.

As far as the corporate look goes, one would have to note – pretty much the second you set eyes on it – that the ZR-V is not the prettiest car you’ll ever see. It’s not pug ugly, for sure, but it’s not the most eye-catching either.

Honda ZR-V stylish interior
Honda ZR-V stylish interior

Once inside, though, you get a very different picture. This is a confident, roomy and comfortable car put together with great care and attention to detail. The dashboard is clean and leaning towards dull, but the materials used are of a high order and the finish is impressively upmarket.

The whole thing, like much of the rest of the car is based on the current Honda Civic, which is no bad thing as they share the same dashboard layout and infotainment set-up. Mazda currently leads the market for excellence in the décor department and that this compares well is a big plus point.

Seating comes with leather upholstery on the top Advance specification we tested and even with a roof that curves slightly over the rear seats, there’s plenty of room. Worth noting too is that the rear seats are mounted higher than the fronts, giving the occupants an excellent view of what’s going on ahead.

One thing which might annoy people is that the large sub-woofer attached to the premium audio system which comes with 12 Bose speakers, takes up a good bit of boot space and hence there’s only 370 litres of space back there, which is considerably smaller than its rivals. This is not an issue in either the Sport or Elegance options.

What will appeal is the fact that this is a drivers’ car and does really well on the road, albeit not as well as the Civic. This is largely because it is carrying more weight and stands on taller suspension. Despite that, it is still one of the best handlers we have encountered in this class and scores top marks for handling and driver engagement.

That it rides on 18” alloys are probably a boost as well because there’s enough rubber there to absorb bad bumps before transmitting it to the suspension.

The new Honda ZR-V
The new Honda ZR-V

One small complaint surrounds the warning systems. While the lane-keeping assist function is not as intrusive as most, the driver alert warning flashed on far too regularly for my liking and it actively seems to want you to have your hands at a set position all the time. If you don’t adhere to a ten-to-two position for your hands, it gets shouty.

While pretty much all of the car impressed us, the real gem is under the hood and Honda’s two-litre e:HEV hybrid system. It differs from almost all its rivals and, for such a complex design, it is actually remarkably driver friendly.

Even driving in EV mode, it feels more petrol-like than most. Honda has come up with a non-gearbox e-CVT transmission and has engineered ‘gearshifts’ into the ECU which make it seem as if it has a regular auto gearbox and, believe me, the absence of a regular screamy CVT system is a real bonus.

It likes the EV mode and you’ll find a lot of the time the car reverts to it as its preferred driving option but if hard acceleration is required, the engine is directly coupled with the driven front wheels via a clutch. It is actually hugely complex, but doesn’t seem like it.

Acceleration is pretty swift – the 0-100 km/h time is just 7.9 seconds and top speed is 174 km/h – and the whole thing is wonderfully seamless, but the really impressive thing is that the claimed consumption of 6.0 litres per 100 km is not too wide of the mark and on one trial run we managed 5.7 (which is 49.1 mpg).

It is a pity that this car is priced a bit higher than its main rivals and that may consign it to being a niche player, but it struck me that if it was even slightly more competitive on price then it might be a real winner for Honda.

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