Having a long-term car in the CarAdvice garage is like starting a new relationship.
For a while its new and exciting, then you may wonder if you’re getting a little bored, then you’re falling in love again, then little things start to get annoying, then you realise you’re being picky and the good outweighs the bad.
That pretty much sums up my journey with the Honda HR-V over the past few months.
Since its launch, the HR-V has consistently ranked among the top three – alongside the Hyundai ix35, Mazda CX-3 and Mitsubishi ASX.
This is the VTi-L, pretty much top of the line and priced at $32,990 before on-road costs.
It’s got LED headlights and daytime running lights – rain sensing wipers, blind spot monitoring, 17-inch alloys and silver roof rails.
Honda’s use of space is impressive. The boot has a low loading lip and a wide opening. It has Honda’s magic seats system, which allows for multiple cargo area configurations.
Loaded to the roof there’s 1462-litres of space, or with the rear seats in play that figure is 437-litres.
The leather seats up front are comfortable and wrap around nicely.
There aren’t a lot of buttons on the dash, almost everything is controlled through the touchscreen that’s easy enough to learn your way around.
It has a 2.8-litre engine with 105kW and 172Nm, teamed with a CVT with seven artificially stepped ratios.
There’s not much to complain about around town, it accelerates well when you need, though you do get a bit of that inevitable CVT whine.
Claimed fuel consumption is 6.9-litres per 100 km. In the past few months we’ve seen up to around 10-litres at times, and it’s settled around the 9-litre mark.
