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I finally got a chance to test drive an HRV this evening! Honda of Seattle only had 3 listed on their site in colors I wasn't interested in and lo and behold they had a Deep Ocean Pearl EXL in their expansive new garage. Of course. I wasn't planning on buying yet. The salesman was super no pressure. I told him I had been reading about this car for 2 years and wanted to finally see it. We went out front and hopped in a silver EX. Here's some of my thoughts vs my current 2008 Fit Sport
I wasn't as off put by the lighter gray interior what so ever. The floors are black and the cup holder areas are also black. Since I'm interested in leather coffee spills would be wipe able and the floors shouldn't show muddy parking lot water/snow melt since they're black.
Push button start blows my mind. Lesson one in drivers Ed was to put the keys in the ignition as soon as you sit in the car, you'll never lose them. I kept fumbling for the missing key. So strange!
I can see the whole hood! I'm 5'5" I haven't been able to see the front of the hood since the 1990s on my dads Bravada. I'm pretty sure the seat was cranked to max height, my head was suspiciously close to the roof.
Magic seat is magic. As always. But the rear floor does have a center hump for the AWD but not too bad. A dog would still be perfectly fine. Cargo that spans the rear floor might need something to prop the sides if it's fragile.
The rear cargo was tons longer than my Fit and also just as deep. It's not shallow like the Subaru Crosstrek.
I never realized the bumper is black plastic. Way back when I had a Saturn that usually meant you had the weaker cheaper engine. Now it means when a-hole parallel parkers bounce park they don't scratch my paint!
I definitely would need to use a step stool to reach gear in a roof rack, especially upright bikes.
I don't like the stock wheels that much. I like the upgrade wheels in pictures online so I may consider that upgrade.
Visibility is good, the lane watch is neat, it was helpful when I was going to slink around a line of cars to make a right turn and I immediately saw a focus zooming up the right side to do the same thing.
Test drove up a fairly steep bride up to Beacon Hill in Seattle. 3 people in the car, myself, the Bf and then sales guy. Plenty of power and no perception of sluggishness or struggle to find the right gear (more on that later). I also went down the same path and downshifted with the paddle shifters and they responded nicely braking me down the hill. I later took my Fit up the same hill with just the BF and really had to hit the gas and it downshifted and was revving high to power up that stupid hill. And I said "see this thing needed to downshift to even make it!" To which the Bf replied but remember the HRV has a CVT. omg. Your right! I've never driven a CVT. It kept the car going 40 up the hill with no struggle and no noise, in fact as I kept pressing on the gas in anticipation of the struggle my Fit usually has when downshifting I found myself pushing 50 in a 30 up hill. Ha. Whoops! Sales guy was in the back seat lol!
It's not a ton longer than my Fit, and shorter than BF's Crosstrek which still fits in my garage and can open the hatch with the garage door closed so that's great news.
They did a quick appraisal of my Fit so I'd have a good idea of trade in. They tend to add $1-2k to KBB in the Seattle area since Fits are really hard to get. I have some door dings and paint chips on the bumpers that they reduced for but can expect ballpark $7-8k.
So we headed to dinner. I can't even pay attention. I keep thinking, would I really go back tomorrow and buy the blue EX-L? Just like that?
My next stop is my credit union website for pre approval. I think. I dunno. Just seems so fast for such a big purchase. I waited months way back when the Fit was brand new and sold before they got to the lot. This dealer sold 4 of 5 they got in one day and expect them to move fast here in Seattle. It's super popular already.
I wasn't as off put by the lighter gray interior what so ever. The floors are black and the cup holder areas are also black. Since I'm interested in leather coffee spills would be wipe able and the floors shouldn't show muddy parking lot water/snow melt since they're black.
Push button start blows my mind. Lesson one in drivers Ed was to put the keys in the ignition as soon as you sit in the car, you'll never lose them. I kept fumbling for the missing key. So strange!
I can see the whole hood! I'm 5'5" I haven't been able to see the front of the hood since the 1990s on my dads Bravada. I'm pretty sure the seat was cranked to max height, my head was suspiciously close to the roof.
Magic seat is magic. As always. But the rear floor does have a center hump for the AWD but not too bad. A dog would still be perfectly fine. Cargo that spans the rear floor might need something to prop the sides if it's fragile.
The rear cargo was tons longer than my Fit and also just as deep. It's not shallow like the Subaru Crosstrek.
I never realized the bumper is black plastic. Way back when I had a Saturn that usually meant you had the weaker cheaper engine. Now it means when a-hole parallel parkers bounce park they don't scratch my paint!
I definitely would need to use a step stool to reach gear in a roof rack, especially upright bikes.
I don't like the stock wheels that much. I like the upgrade wheels in pictures online so I may consider that upgrade.
Visibility is good, the lane watch is neat, it was helpful when I was going to slink around a line of cars to make a right turn and I immediately saw a focus zooming up the right side to do the same thing.
Test drove up a fairly steep bride up to Beacon Hill in Seattle. 3 people in the car, myself, the Bf and then sales guy. Plenty of power and no perception of sluggishness or struggle to find the right gear (more on that later). I also went down the same path and downshifted with the paddle shifters and they responded nicely braking me down the hill. I later took my Fit up the same hill with just the BF and really had to hit the gas and it downshifted and was revving high to power up that stupid hill. And I said "see this thing needed to downshift to even make it!" To which the Bf replied but remember the HRV has a CVT. omg. Your right! I've never driven a CVT. It kept the car going 40 up the hill with no struggle and no noise, in fact as I kept pressing on the gas in anticipation of the struggle my Fit usually has when downshifting I found myself pushing 50 in a 30 up hill. Ha. Whoops! Sales guy was in the back seat lol!
It's not a ton longer than my Fit, and shorter than BF's Crosstrek which still fits in my garage and can open the hatch with the garage door closed so that's great news.
They did a quick appraisal of my Fit so I'd have a good idea of trade in. They tend to add $1-2k to KBB in the Seattle area since Fits are really hard to get. I have some door dings and paint chips on the bumpers that they reduced for but can expect ballpark $7-8k.
So we headed to dinner. I can't even pay attention. I keep thinking, would I really go back tomorrow and buy the blue EX-L? Just like that?
My next stop is my credit union website for pre approval. I think. I dunno. Just seems so fast for such a big purchase. I waited months way back when the Fit was brand new and sold before they got to the lot. This dealer sold 4 of 5 they got in one day and expect them to move fast here in Seattle. It's super popular already.