Honda CRZ

After sampling other Honda hybrids the Insight and Civic some years ago I was eager to try the latest from the Japanese maker the Honda CRZ... after all it was Wheels magazine's Car of the Year.

However I came away somewhat disappointed with a couple of aspects of the car.

The CRZ has the well proven powertrain of previous Hybrids and externally it's quite a good looking car.

With prices starting at 37 k to over 40k you'd expect some driver conveniences such as auto locking, and keyless entry and start, now common on many budget priced vehicles.. 

Nope... just a standard flip key to get in and get things underway.

Once seated the car is very cocooning.. probably far too much for some drivers. 

A fixed glass moon roof helps placate the claustrophobic.

 

The windscreen is miles away from the drivers view, with a large swathe of dashboard stretching out in front.

It's a vastly different story looking rearward. It's atrocious.  There is virtually no rear three quarter vision thanks to large C pillars and a minuscule vertical rear pane of glass joined by a beam to the almost horizontal upper rear window.

.Having a wiper blade on this surface is useless as all you can see through it is a half dozen centimetres of sky.

The dividing beam is however useful for blocking the headlights of following vehicles very effectively.

There is a reversing camera and it's a vital part of safe reversing from any supermarket car park.

Without it you could simply take forever to extricate your CRZ. But it only covers directly behind the car. Enormous C pillars obscure cars coming from either side as you begin to reverse, and I found myself avoiding 90 degree parking spots, fearing someone would collide with me as I backed out. 

 

Other niggles include no three blink lane changer on the indicator wand.. (a common Honda omission.) 

Almost every other car on sale here has this feature. 

There's reach and rake tilt adjustment on the steering column.

The instruments are quite comprehensive, and laid out in an electric blue and green with a large and easy to read digital speedo.

On the top spec cars there's a sat nav and a reasonable sound system. 

The CRZ is incredibly quite comfortable, the seats are particularly good. but the rear two are for either very small children or just parcels.. There are no head restraints back there. 

The 1.5 litre engine features a fuel saving stop start mode when stopped with a foot on the brake.. release it and the engine starts seamlessly. Like other hybrids elsewhere, it's said to deliver reasonable fuel economies. Hondas makes great engines and this one is no exception. The 6 speed manual gearbox in the test car is a beauty to use, smooth as butter. Honda's traditionally competent handling is ever present and the CRZ is good fun on the twisty bits through the hills..Steering feel is excellent.

The CRZ is not only eco friendly, it's a storming performance car as well.On the open road with Sport mode selected, the central dial on the speedo turns red and the thing slingshots down the road. You'll see 102 kilometres an hour in second gear at the redline of 6,800 rpm, and there are four more gears to go! City fuel consumption from the one point litre engine and electric motor combo is around 7 litres per hundred kilometres.

Realistically a small turbo diesel gives similar figures and the bonus of a huge wave of torque under acceleration. 

Most hybrids including the CRZ simply can't compete in this area.

Luggage space is minimal but more than enough for the shopping and short holidays.

The car will appeal to the eco conscious among us, but the C pillar blind spots are just too hard to live with in daily driving.
Peter Sellen