both a relaxing and fun-filled drive, depending on your mood.
What is it?
Being 2WD, the HR-V has never been on my radar in recent times, but parking next to one a few weeks ago, its sporty styling tweaks and 180bhp 1.5ltr VTEC engine caught my attention.
On the road
Being quite enamoured by the looks of the HR-V Sport, did its good looks translate to on-road performance? I think so, yes.
The steering is worthy of a mention too as it feels precise and nicely weighted. (I’m dangerously close to sounding like a proper road-tester here!) The dampers that I mentioned earlier also keep the HR-V Sport in check around corners which in turn gives you quite a lot of confidence. With a 0-60mph time of 7.8 seconds and a top speed of 134mph, it’s certainly no slouch, and the engine pulls strongly from around 2,500rpm to 5,500rpm. You can have quite a lot of fun in the HR-V Sport.
Around town it feels perfectly docile, its new performance dampers doing a fine job at ironing out the holes. Find an empty B road and the HR-V Sport will bring a grin to your face.
On a 200-ish mile trip to the Lakes driving at normal motorway speeds it was all quite civilised with decent road noise levels. Put your food down and the engine gives a rorty response, though not too loud to be hooligan, but just right I found.
The first thing you’ll notice is the super-slick manual 6-speed gearbox and how smooth it is to use, it makes for
Drinking wise, after the aforementioned trip it achieved 45.6mpg, which I thought was rather good.
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
