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Ok, as someone who has been waiting for the HR-V for almost a year, today was a big day. I went by my local dealership after being told there was a manual transmission one that I could drive. Well, turns out that it hasn't arrived just yet, but will be here sometime soon....arrrg. Well anyway, decided to test drive a LX CVT anyway (in white) and then drive a Subaru XV Crosstrek (also a CVT, they didn't have any manuals) back-to-back. So here are my general thoughts after driving them each for about 20 minutes on the same route. Not alot of turns, but one road that was full of pot holes and speed bumps and some highway time.
- HR-V looks good in person and really all the cargo space I was expecting. HR-V wins big here, as expected.
- The seats in the HR-V were more comfortable for me than the XV. At the end of my test drive with the XV my back actually was hurting, too much lumbar for me.
-While the seat was more comfortable, it doesn't have a ton of back and forth travel. I'm 5' 10" and I was only 1 click up from the maximum furthest back position. I can why some of the taller people are saying it's too small. Also, I'm on the larger side (I'm like the same size as the TFLCar.com's Nathan Adlen if that gives you some idea) and I found the seat a bit narrow. I was wearing cargo shorts with my IPod, sunglasses, etc. in them and I was bumping up against the center console. So XV wins on width, but fails on back comfort. Also, the seat in the HR-V clicked twice during the drive, like it wasn't locked in to position for the back part. The seat didn't move though, this could be a defect of some sort. Also, I noticed that the HR-V seat has a slight forward tilt even in it's lowest position, not ideal for me as I would prefer the front of the bottom of the seat to be tilted up slightly.
- Speaking of the center console, the car I drove had the grey interior and I noticed on the center arm rest and the console area numerous scuff and scratches. They rubbed out, but this could be a concern of grey interior owners. Personally I think the XV console area is much better.
- Both the HR-V and XV had good forward visibility. The big C-pillar is annoying, but not a deal breaker. Winner is the XV, it's easier to see out of. The HR-V was an LX, so no lane watch, but I didn't have any trouble passing cars on the highway. The mirror that has the wide view on the outside took some getting use to as it distorts the image, so at first it seems a bit wonky.
- Ok, on to the drive. The HR-V was very quite and comfortable to drive in for me and so was the XV. The big difference came in for hard acceleration. In the HR-V it happily hums along when cruising nice and quite and comfortable, but put your foot down....juuuust a little bit, and the CVT ramps WAY up and it get very loud like the car is saying "ok you want power, you sure, ok well here is ALL the power NOW". The XV had a smoother transition of power in my opinion, but it get loud at the top end.
- The XV had a harsher ride, but that's expected with the more "off road" nature of the car.
- ECON mode in the HR-V is annoying. I didn't even have it on and the green ring would illuminate anyway. I'm not sure if there's a way to turn that off, but I found it distracting. The XV had a speedo display right in the center that showed the speed digitally right next to the normal speed gauge. That was annoying as well, but I figured out how to turn that off.
- I really liked the LX radio and climate controls. I also liked the climate controls in the XV and their high end radio seems easier to use and sounded great. The LX radio sounded fine, but I'm not a deep bass thumping guy or anything, so I wouldn't know a bad radio from a good one really. One thing the XV had a greyed out app for MirrorLink, which should show what's on your phone. I was hoping the HR-V would have this for Android to have navigation shown from the phone onto the car's screen. The XV looks like they will be "getting" it in the future. It would be nice though, and the salesman said they were working on it and would update the software when it was available, but I wasn't so sure as it sounded a bit like a sales pitch and they might never follow through with that (like Honda didn't with the Fit and Android).
At the end of the day, the XV is now off my list unless the cloth seats are more comfortable than the leather ones I took out on a test drive. Seat comfort is too important to compromise on.
On the HR-V, my thoughts are still up in the air until I can drive the manual. The CVT had more pep than I thought it would, it was just the all or nothing power wasn't really for me. The car did seem very nicely made and I'm sure Honda will sell a bezillion of these cars. At the end of the day, it might be all of the little things that break the camels back on the HR-V. Center console design, small storage in center arm rest, wide cup holders, no towing, no roof-rails with a manual, only 6.7" of ground clearance (only 1.2" more than my current car), touch screen nonsense, no android support, etc. I think Honda made a good car, but forgot people have to drive it, and I'm not sure if all of the user interface issues I can overlook or not.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm hoping to drive a Kia Soul, VW Golf, and maybe a CX-5 or Forester this weekend, but to be honest, I'm leaning towards not buying anything new right now and just investing in my old car.
EDIT: Oh, and no brochure at my Honda dealership, hopefully I can pick one up at another dealership this weekend.
- HR-V looks good in person and really all the cargo space I was expecting. HR-V wins big here, as expected.
- The seats in the HR-V were more comfortable for me than the XV. At the end of my test drive with the XV my back actually was hurting, too much lumbar for me.
-While the seat was more comfortable, it doesn't have a ton of back and forth travel. I'm 5' 10" and I was only 1 click up from the maximum furthest back position. I can why some of the taller people are saying it's too small. Also, I'm on the larger side (I'm like the same size as the TFLCar.com's Nathan Adlen if that gives you some idea) and I found the seat a bit narrow. I was wearing cargo shorts with my IPod, sunglasses, etc. in them and I was bumping up against the center console. So XV wins on width, but fails on back comfort. Also, the seat in the HR-V clicked twice during the drive, like it wasn't locked in to position for the back part. The seat didn't move though, this could be a defect of some sort. Also, I noticed that the HR-V seat has a slight forward tilt even in it's lowest position, not ideal for me as I would prefer the front of the bottom of the seat to be tilted up slightly.
- Speaking of the center console, the car I drove had the grey interior and I noticed on the center arm rest and the console area numerous scuff and scratches. They rubbed out, but this could be a concern of grey interior owners. Personally I think the XV console area is much better.
- Both the HR-V and XV had good forward visibility. The big C-pillar is annoying, but not a deal breaker. Winner is the XV, it's easier to see out of. The HR-V was an LX, so no lane watch, but I didn't have any trouble passing cars on the highway. The mirror that has the wide view on the outside took some getting use to as it distorts the image, so at first it seems a bit wonky.
- Ok, on to the drive. The HR-V was very quite and comfortable to drive in for me and so was the XV. The big difference came in for hard acceleration. In the HR-V it happily hums along when cruising nice and quite and comfortable, but put your foot down....juuuust a little bit, and the CVT ramps WAY up and it get very loud like the car is saying "ok you want power, you sure, ok well here is ALL the power NOW". The XV had a smoother transition of power in my opinion, but it get loud at the top end.
- The XV had a harsher ride, but that's expected with the more "off road" nature of the car.
- ECON mode in the HR-V is annoying. I didn't even have it on and the green ring would illuminate anyway. I'm not sure if there's a way to turn that off, but I found it distracting. The XV had a speedo display right in the center that showed the speed digitally right next to the normal speed gauge. That was annoying as well, but I figured out how to turn that off.
- I really liked the LX radio and climate controls. I also liked the climate controls in the XV and their high end radio seems easier to use and sounded great. The LX radio sounded fine, but I'm not a deep bass thumping guy or anything, so I wouldn't know a bad radio from a good one really. One thing the XV had a greyed out app for MirrorLink, which should show what's on your phone. I was hoping the HR-V would have this for Android to have navigation shown from the phone onto the car's screen. The XV looks like they will be "getting" it in the future. It would be nice though, and the salesman said they were working on it and would update the software when it was available, but I wasn't so sure as it sounded a bit like a sales pitch and they might never follow through with that (like Honda didn't with the Fit and Android).
At the end of the day, the XV is now off my list unless the cloth seats are more comfortable than the leather ones I took out on a test drive. Seat comfort is too important to compromise on.
On the HR-V, my thoughts are still up in the air until I can drive the manual. The CVT had more pep than I thought it would, it was just the all or nothing power wasn't really for me. The car did seem very nicely made and I'm sure Honda will sell a bezillion of these cars. At the end of the day, it might be all of the little things that break the camels back on the HR-V. Center console design, small storage in center arm rest, wide cup holders, no towing, no roof-rails with a manual, only 6.7" of ground clearance (only 1.2" more than my current car), touch screen nonsense, no android support, etc. I think Honda made a good car, but forgot people have to drive it, and I'm not sure if all of the user interface issues I can overlook or not.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm hoping to drive a Kia Soul, VW Golf, and maybe a CX-5 or Forester this weekend, but to be honest, I'm leaning towards not buying anything new right now and just investing in my old car.
EDIT: Oh, and no brochure at my Honda dealership, hopefully I can pick one up at another dealership this weekend.
