Honda HR-V 2019 review: VTi-S

It drives pretty well, and feels nice and smooth. There’s no heaviness to the steering wheel but it’s not too light either, and it handled well for me this week.

All HR-Vs have a 1.8-litre engine which is enough to get up hills easily. It’s not a particularly fast car, you won’t win any races.

In fact - my mum owns an HR-V and the way it drives suits her perfectly. It’s not too fast, it’s solid and drives well, but it’s not a spectacular experience. Just the way my mum likes it. It was great to get me around suburbia this week doing the school run and various spots for work.

Parking was easy given the size of the car.

If you’re often travelling along dirt or gravel roads, or you like going to the snow, the HR-V doesn’t come with all-wheel drive (AWD). The 2WD option is fine for around town but it won’t have that off-road traction, and if that’s on your list there are other small SUVs which do have AWD.

Parking was easy given the size of the car and the small turning circle, there’s a multi-view reverse parking camera and also a side parking camera when the left blinker goes on. This was great while parking but a bit distracting when it comes on while driving.

We had a rather comfortable week in the HR-V because it feels more spacious than some of its competitors. I’ve been testing small SUVs for a few weeks and some are roomier than others - the HR-V falls into the roomy category. In the front I didn’t feel cramped at all and even my 185cm husband had enough leg and headroom.

My two children, aged five and seven, were easily able to fit in the back, even with my husband’s seat position in front they weren’t complaining about their leg space (something they’ve become quite vocal about!).

At 161cm I also fit in the rear seats with a bunch of room to spare and most adults and tall teenagers should be fine in the back.

The star of the show in the HR-V is the boot. At 437 litres it’s one of the biggest in the category, beating the CX-3, the Kona and the Toyota C-HR. It’s about on par with Nissan Qashqai. I could fit a pram in there with room for extra bags around it, which is rare for a small SUV.

You’ll also get Honda’s 'Magic Seats' in the rear, which can fold up in an instant if you have a tall plant or a bike to transport around, so the boot space really is good for a car this size.

My children were easily able to climb in and out of the car themselves, which is a big bonus, and while the HR-V isn’t super high, it’s still a decent enough height to do up kids’ seatbelts. You’ll find two cupholders in the front which can be adjusted to go either deep or shallow, which is great, but no cupholders in the back for rear passengers. You will get a bottle holder in each door though. There’s a hidden spot below the gearshift to stash a phone and keys, and a small-ish centre storage bin.

In the front, you’ll find two cupholders which can be adjusted to go either deep or shallow, which is great.

As is standard across the small SUV category, you won’t find air vents in the rear seats but I drove this car on a few hot days and there was enough air blowing from front to back to keep the children cool. The front passenger seat will get blasted with air however due to the long, horizontal air vent on the dash.

The rear seats fold either up or down very easily to create more usable boot space, contributing to the HR-V’s practicality on a daily basis.

You’ll get airbags that cover driver and front passenger and side curtain airbags that extend to the back row. This 2019 model also comes with auto emergency braking (AEB) which works at low speeds, but it’s missing other new technology like blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert.

There is the addition of a 'Lane Watch' camera which shows what is happening on the left side of the car when you put the blinker on, plus you’ll get rear collision warning.

There are two ISOFIX points and three top tether points for children’s car seats. The HR-V gets a maximum five ANCAP stars based on a 2015 test.

The Honda HR-V VTi-S comes in at $27,990 before on road costs. Fuel consumption is a claimed 6.9L/100km and it runs on 91 RON unleaded petrol. It also has an ‘econ mode’ if you want to keep fuel consumption down as much as possible.

It’s covered by Honda’s five year/unlimited km warranty which is great for this category and requires servicing every 12 months or 10,000km.