Video: 2023 Honda HR-V Review: Stuck in the Middle

This was, again, part of that group of three that are really closely bunched together. Big loss in powertrain, though, so let's get into that right away. Joe, why was this so slow? Well, it's underpowered, and the transmission just doesn't do a great job of getting the engine into its rev range. And honestly, when you're looking at these cars, "Is it fast?" is not something someone will ask, but this is questionably slow. It did 0 to 60 the slowest and 0 to 30 the slowest. So there's not even that off-the-line responsiveness. If you're driving in the city, and you're using Waze, and it's taking you some crazy back way where you have to cross four-lane traffic with no stop sign and you have to jump across Frogger-style, this is not the car that I would pick to do that. It won't do it. You'll step on the gas pedal and you'll wait. You'll wait, and wait, and wait 'cause the CVT takes forever to spool up power. And this was my least favorite powertrain. Mostly because the CVT, it just... It's not very responsive. It doesn't feel very natural and it's loud. This powertrain is very loud. You hear it struggling pretty much constantly. Yeah, it loves to go all the way to the red line and it will let you know that it's doing it. Yes. Which is also a shame because we know Honda has some good small engines they could put in this, but we're still waiting for maybe a turbocharger to get tacked on here. It did do well in some other driving performance categories. Not the best in the test, but handling, it got high marks and also braking. So let's start with handling. I, honestly, once it gets going, which can take a while, found this to be probably the most fun and balanced in twisty-turny driving. But is that really important? I mean, yes, it has an agility there that others don't have, but to your question, I don't know that that's what buyers are shopping for in this class. Yeah, it adds a little personality to the car. It's playful, you can dart around, and it also makes you feel connected to the car, which is also good for just the assurance while driving. But no, this is not a class of sport compact cars. <v Brian>Braking, I would say, is more important. I really like the linear pedal feel. It was just very confident in doing that. Anything stood out for you there? <v Jennifer>Very natural. You knew exactly what was gonna happen and when it was gonna happen, which is as it should be. <v Brian>And now we should move on to the interior, which has some highs and lows. Let's start with the highs. I really like the interior design, the material's quality. We all thought it was very, very nice overall. It's an interesting contrast to the Corolla Cross, which is very bland and boring. Materials aren't great, design is blah. This has that cool honeycomb mesh and everything feels a little higher quality. They did a nice job. Yeah, I really think sitting in this, it feels like a car that's $10,000 more expensive. This is very much a CR-V interior, and it's really, really well done. I enjoyed just how nice everything looks, and how it feels, and how it does feel like a more expensive car than it is. Yeah, and in-cabin storage as well is an area where it excels. There's a nice little cubby behind the gear selector sort of under the console. Not really fitting for my hands necessarily, but it's nice to have that extra storage. The bin is a decent size, there's a good cargo space up front as well. Unlike the Corolla Cross, you have places to put things. Yeah, for such a small vehicle, I think they creatively found ways to add a little bit more storage here and there. Yep. And in fact, we were comfortable, I think. But let's talk a little bit about car seat fitment. Yeah, car seats were kind of a struggle for different reasons than with the Corolla Cross. In room, it did fine. It's in fit. So a couple of things stood out. One is the head restraints, they only came up a little bit. So my forward facing car seat and my booster were not able to fit flush against the seat back because that head restraint was in the way. That's a safety issue. Another two other oddities are the top tether anchor for the middle seat is in the ceiling. So if you connect that, you're blocking the driver's view. Same thing with the buckle. If you install something in the middle, a car seat or a person, the buckle for the middle comes down from the ceiling. Again, that's a visibility issue and just an oddity that the others don't have. Yeah, I also found that while the backseat was roomy, I had good leg room, good head room. There was plenty of width. The backseat was just reclined too much for my liking and it's not adjustable. I just didn't feel comfortable in that laid-back position. It's sort of a lounge seat, almost, but... Now, to get back to visibility for a second, Jennifer, that was the thing you mentioned with the car seats and the middle seatbelt. Without that passenger, without the child seats in the back, this did pretty well. It was second place overall in visibility scores. So let's get into that a little. Joe, what did you think? It's great, it was second only to the Crosstrek, which is a good company, in which to be, and it has really thin A pillars, big mirrors that are mounted on the doors. It adds to that experience of just being comfortable and easy to drive when you're behind the wheel. <v Jennifer>Absolutely, those clear sight lines to the rear were really nice. Yeah, and when you don't have visibility, the HR-V is the only vehicle in this test that has both front and rear parking sensors. And in fact, the only vehicle in this test with any parking sensors, which is wild to me. If you want read more and see how the HR-V did in that comparison test of six small affordable SUVs, you can find it on cars.com. (upbeat music)