REVIEW: Honda has stretched the Civic to make the ZR-V, a new hybrid-powered family crossover to rival the Nissan Qashqai - does it offer anything more?
. It’s practical enough, with a flat floor and a panel that can flip up to form a divider, but it ought to do better.Fans of Honda’s Magic Seats will be disappointed too. As with the Civic, Honda prioritised ride and handling and so used a multi-link rear axle instead of a more compact twist-beam one. That meant the fuel tank had to go in the usual spot under the rear bench, making the Magic Seats impossible.
That said, the ZR-V does ride and handle more keenly than some comparable cars, with weighty, responsive steering and a limited amount of body roll. The suspension is fairly firm but quite nicely damped, giving it a calm consistency. Perhaps the dusty Spanish roads were to blame, but grip was only just adequate, whether on the Michelin or Dunlop tyres that we tried it on.
Given that the powertrain is lifted from the Civic, you might expect this bit to be a case of “see Civic review”, but that’s not the case, because two changes mean it’s not quite as impressive as in that car. First, it has about 100kg more to deal with. Second, the ZR-V lacks some of the Civic’s digital noise reduction.
By making its family crossover so similar to its family hatchback, Honda has set it up for some cruel comparisons. The ZR-V is much like the excellent new Civic but very slightly worse in every way. That’s par for the course, but other manufacturers have disguised that fact by differentiating their crossovers and hatchbacks more clearly – or indeed by axing the latter altogether.
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