The Honda HR-V has made its American debut at the 2014 LA Auto Show. It was unveiled in late 2013 as the Vezel in Japan and is a crossover based on the Jazz hatchback. It will go on sale early next year in the USA and is basically the Japanese automaker’s entry into the rapidly expanding compact crossover segment.
The Honda HR-V while sharing a platform with the Jazz/Fit takes much of its looks from its older sibling the CR-V with a majority of this being the external appearance. The cabin on the other hand has been picked up from the Jazz/Fit. To us, in India, it will look very familiar as the current Honda City has many of the cabin elements found in this car.
The American-spec car gets the 1.8-litre i-VTEC mill that produces 138bhp and 172Nm of torque. Power is sent to the front wheels via a six-speed manual or a CVT gearbox with the latter also being offered with AWD. We are surprised that Honda did not bring its hybrid spec engine and gearbox to the American market but believe that they will offer it sometime next year.
The HR-V is being offered with a multitude of features both on the convenience front as well as the safety front. The former includes a touchscreen infotainment system, lane departure warning, button start, paddle shifters, powered sunroof and leather trim options. On the safety front, the car across all variants comes equipped with ABS, hill-start, stability assist, multi-angle rear-view camera, traction control, TPMS and obviously a multitude of airbags. In America the car will be offered in three variants - LX, EX and EX-L
The HR-V is step forward in terms of what crossovers will be like in the future and it is sad that India has not embraced such a vehicle design. But if we are to compare our car market to the more developed and older ones existing today, then it seems certain that the HR-V will come to India at some point in the next five years.
