2022 Honda HR-V vs 2024 Mazda CX-3

What's the difference?

Honda Australia has gone through a bit of a transformation in recent years, shedding its top-10 sales ambitions for a new approach that focuses on slimming down the range with high-spec grades.

The first new-gen model to launch with that approach was last year’s Civic, but it’s the latest launch, the HR-V, which might make or break Honda’s new strategy.

And that’s because the HR-V is a small SUV – playing a space dominated by Toyota, Mazda and Kia – that also offers up a so-hot-right-now hybrid powertrain for the first time in Australia.

No doubt, the HR-V will prove more popular than the Civic in sales as the market shifts preferences, but is it any good?

This is all you need to know about the 2022 Honda HR-V.

Hard to believe Mazda’s diminutive CX-3 has been with us for close to a decade (it arrived in early 2015). But with successive upgrades, including a major model refresh in 2019, it remains a popular choice with ‘light’ SUV buyers, dominating the segment so far in 2023.

So, how does this evergreen campaigner manage to keep quality competitors like the Kia Stonic, Toyota Yaris Cross and VW T-Cross firmly in its rearview mirror?

We spent a week with the recently updated (yes, again) mid-spec G20 Evolve to see how it shapes up in the urban environment of 2023.