In a crowded SUV market, this might be one to put on your test drive list.

Mental Arithmetic and Car Naming Confusion

When I was at school I was always lightning quick at mental arithmetic but as the years progressed and algebra was introduced, I found myself getting more and more confused. It was all the letters instead of numbers.

It’s also why I get confused with the Honda range of cars. Thank goodness they’ve got the Jazz and Civic, but if you said to most people that you’ve got a CR-V, HR-V or an e:Ny1, I suspect a lot of folk would be confused. Lexus is even worse as they all have no names at all.

Introducing the Honda ZR-V

Which brings me to the Honda ZR-V. It’s easy to assume that the ZR-V would come at the top of the range above the CR-V and HR-V. Surely alphabetical order comes into play.

Nope.

The ZR-V sits between them and gives buyers an option: a little bit bigger than the HR-V but smaller than the CR-V. But the key thing is that the ZR-V shares the same mechanical set-up as the excellent Honda Civic. As a starting point, it doesn’t get much better.

Driving Experience

When you drive off in the ZR-V (and Civic), the first impression is that you’re in an electric car. To a large extent, you are. The 2.0 litre petrol hybrid engine largely works as a generator with an electric motor powering the wheels via a small battery. Needless to say that it’s quick off the mark giving you a 0-60mph time of 7.9 seconds. The economy is good with Honda reckoning on 48.7mpg. At town speeds, you’ll rarely use the engine at all. On the motorway or when you need some oomph, the engine does have the ability to join the party and power the wheels. It’s a complicated system but it works well. It’s also the only one available in the Honda ZR-V.

This car is not a PHEV, so you can’t charge the battery by plugging it into a power supply, however, the fact that this is a self-charging hybrid means the battery is topped up either by the engine or whenever you slow down thanks to the regenerative braking.

And because you spend a lot of time with the electric motor doing the work, the ZR-V is quiet to ride around in, although you do hear a fair amount of tyre noise. Even when the engine does join in it never sounds harsh.  

Handling is safe and utterly predictable. You’d never call this Honda fun to punt around, but that probably wasn’t in the engineer’s brief. It’s comfy too and the car only gets flustered at town speeds when potholes can jostle the cabin slightly, but once you get a move on, everything is really well controlled.  

Design and Interior

When it comes to design, the ZR-V is a real mix. It’s distinctive on the outside but you’d never call it a good looking car. The interior however is completely different. Once you’re sat inside the ZR-V you’ll find yourself in a smart, well thought out, stylish cabin. It looks good, the materials feel good and all of the switchgear has a nice action. The build standards are top class and I suspect a lot of buyers will go for the ZR-V purely on what it’s like to ride around in. It’s also surprisingly roomy. There’s a load of legroom in the back but that means boot space has been slightly sacrificed.

Pricing and Trim Levels

At £39,505, the Honda ZR-V is edging towards the top end of the price scale for this size of SUV, but if you’re looking at other cars like the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, VW Tiguan etc, you need to compare trim levels because the ZR-V gets a decent standard of kit even in the entry level Elegance trim. You get heated front seats, LED lighting, adaptive cruise control, sat nav, rear-view camera, front and rear parking sensors, smartphone connectivity and a stack of safety equipment.

At first glance, the 9-inch touchscreen looks quite small, but it just goes to show that if you have a screen that’s simple and intuitive to operate, it can be much better than a large, complex system. It works surprisingly well. It even has some physical buttons. You also get knobs and buttons for the heating controls. Hurrah.

If you like a powered tailgate and some privacy glass, move up to Sport trim (adds around £1,500) and if you fancy a panoramic glass sunroof and a wonderful Bose audio system, head for Advance trim, although that bumps up the price by a further £1,800.

Conclusion

The Honda ZR-V is in a congested area of the UK car market. There are some very tasty SUVs out there of a similar size. Reliability should be good, build quality is excellent, standard kit is good and it’s good to drive. Honda has a high level of buyer retention so once people have had one, they keep going back for more.

Put it this way, if you’re in the market for this sort of car, make sure that the Honda ZR-V is on your list of test drives. It all adds up.

words: Graham Courtney
pictures: Honda