Honda ZR-V Review (2023-present)

What is the Honda ZR-V?

The ZR-V is yet another midsize SUV, and as such it goes up against super-popular cars such as the Nissan Qashqai, Seat Ateca and Skoda Karoq. And that’s at the smaller end of the mid-size SUV/crossover scale: this sector of the automotive market is quite diverse on that score, and at the larger end, rivals include the Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson and Mazda CX-5.

This is a car designed to neatly plug the gap in the Japanese firm’s SUV line-up between the smaller Honda HR-V and the larger Honda CR-V, and unsurprisingly given its similarity in size, it shares much with its hatchback sibling, the latest eleventh-generation Honda Civic. That’s a pretty good start in life, because the Civic is one of the best cars of its type. So, can the ZR-V replicate the Civic’s brilliance?

How practical is it?

Compared with the Civic on which it’s based, the ZR-V is is ever so slightly longer, but with a fractionally shorter wheelbase (that’s the distance between the front wheels and the rears). However, while the 380 litres of boot space you get in the ZR-V is a match for what you get in a Volkswagen Golf hatch, it’s actually less than the 410 litres provided in the Civic. Choose the range-topping Advance model, and your boot actually loses a further 10 litres of capacity due to the stereo subwoofer. Having said all that, the 60/40 split rear seats do at least fold down to leave an impressively flat loadbay.

Despite its shorter wheelbase, the ZR-V’s back seats feel even roomier than the Civic’s. Rear legroom feels just as generous – in other words, very – but while taller passengers can feel a fraction hemmed in in the Civic, headroom in the ZR-V feels more plentiful. Thankfully, there’s no attempt at a sloping coupe-like roofline here. The middle seat of the three is rather narrow and hard, though, so this is a car that’s way better suited to carrying four adults than five, which is a shame considering there’s no transmission tunnel running down the centre of the car to eat up your foot space.

In terms of interior design, you’ll recognise lots of commonality with the Civic, and that is a very good thing. You get a similar dashboard design, with the same metallic honeycomb strip that houses the air vents, and elsewhere there are physical buttons and dials for controlling the air-con.

The other thing you’ll recognise from the Civic is the quality on show. The vast majority of the materials look and feel impressively classy, and the build quality feels very tight indeed, all of which conspires to give a generally classy and sophisticated feel.

What’s it like to drive?

The ZR-V has the same HEV hybrid powertrain as the Civic (not the high-performance Civic Type R hot hatch, obviously), which means it combines a 2.0-litre non-turbo, direct-injection, Atkinson-Cycle petrol engine with two electric motors. This delivers a combined output of around 180 horsepower. It’s what you might call a self-charging hybrid, so you don’t plug it in; instead, it recharges itself using energy recycled through braking and deceleration.

The hybrid power system has various modes, and it switches between them automatically, without input from the driver. During low-speed urban driving, the car runs in EV mode whenever there’s enough juice in the battery, but when the battery runs low or stronger acceleration is needed, it switches to hybrid drive, where the wheels are propelled by the electric motor, and the necessary electric power is generated by the petrol engine. When driving at constant high speeds, like on the motorway, the system switches to Engine Drive mode, where the wheels are powered by the engine directly.

As far as performance goes, the ZR-V's 0-62mph figure stands 7.8 seconds, while the pickup is nice and eager from just about anywhere on the rev range, so getting up to speed feels like a relaxed undertaking.

The petrol engine does sound a bit raucous when it’s required to work hard, but that doesn’t often happen. The switches between the various hybrid modes are perceptible, but they’re always smooth and unobtrusive.

As well as the hybrid modes, you can also toggle between four driving modes; Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow. However, these only vary the throttle response, and the effect is very marginal, so you’ll barely notice the difference.

Elsewhere, the ZR-V’s driving dynamics have a similarly relaxed attitude to the powertrain. That’s not exactly surprising when the front end of the platform is picked straight from the similarly-relaxed Civic, while the rear is taken from the forthcoming CR-V. The ZR-V changes direction reasonably sharply, with strong grip and decent suppression of body roll, with steering that’s both quick and responsive, without feeling twitchy. You might actually be surprised by how weighty the steering feels, but that serves to inspire more confidence in corners. That said, the ZR-V doesn’t have the agility of the Civic, probably because it weighs 150- 200kg more than its sister car. That weight gain would probably also account for why fuel economy is nowhere near as good (see the ‘running costs’ section for more on that).

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The ZR-V is offered in three trim levels. Elegance is the first of them, and that comes with a very solid amount of standard luxury equipment, including dual-zone climate control, automatic lights and wipers, cruise control, electric folding door mirrors, four electric windows, LED headlights and taillights, heated front seats, front and rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera.

Then comes Sport trim, which adds a slightly sportier look, as well as powered operation for the front seat adjusters and tailgate, plus part-leatherette upholstery, ambient lighting and wireless phone charging.

Advance trim represents the top of the range, and these examples come with full leather upholstery, head-up display, heated steering wheel and a BOSE sound system with four extra stereo speakers, on top of the eight you get in the other versions.

Other than the speakers, the infotainment system is the same across all specs of ZR-V, and it’s the same touchscreen found in the latest Civic. That’s a good thing, because it’s much better than the hopeless system used in older Hondas. The graphics are better, the responses are quicker, and the whole system is much more logical and intuitive. It also supports all the functionality you expect, including Bluetooth, DAB, navigation, Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay.

Honda ZR-V running costs

The ZR-V is far from the cheapest model in its class. In fact, the entry-level version starts at just under £40,000, which is considerably more than it’ll cost to get into something like a Nissan Qashqai or Skoda Karoq. Some of this is on account of its hybrid powertrain, although in fairness the Renault Austral uses hybrid power and can be bought for thousands less than the Honda.

Fuel economy is also disappointing. Despite sharing many of the Civic’s oily bits, the (borderline inexplicable) extra weight it’s carrying means it has far more of a thirst than its hatchback sibling, managing only 48mpg in official tests, versus the Civic’s 56mpg.

Honda ZR-V reliability

There was a time when Honda’s reliability record was the envy of the motor industry, but not so much any more. For instance, the 2022 What Car Reliability Survey placed Honda in a very average 12th place of the 32 brands considered, and 14th the year before, which was disappointing when it had finished an impressive fifth the year before that. ZR-V buyers might be especially alarmed that much of this was down to the performance of the Civic, given the similarity between the two cars, but it’s important to note that this was the previous Civic, not the current one.

Having said that, the warranty package you get isn’t bad. Three years or 60,0000 miles is about the industry standard (or rather, the bare minimum you should expect on a new car), but Honda covers you for three years or 90,000 miles, whichever happens first. The hybrid system, meanwhile, is covered for five years or 90,000 miles.