FIRST DRIVE | New 2022 Honda BR-V offers fresh styling and improved refinement

President of Honda SA Yuishi Fukuda tells us his choice of wheels back home in Japan was the seven-seat Honda BR-V, and he raves about its family practicality.

Now that there’s a new version which has also been launched in SA, he’s tempted to purchase. But since his children have grown he said perhaps he should rather get the recently launched Civic sedan instead.

Agreed, but he’ll need firm resistance to the pull of the new BR-V, which looks fabulous. The dumpy sheen of a mom’s taxi has been replaced by suave design front and rear. This is characterised by a boxier snout with fancier LED headlamps with DRLs, a chrome strip above the wider grille and aggressive styling for the lower air dam.

Fukuda said it’s more SUV than MPV now, and being 13mm higher off the ground than the previous model supports this outlook. Even when it is compact like this Honda you need space in an MPV, and that’s exactly what you get in the new BR-V.

Being 35mm longer with a wheelbase that gains 13mm means there’s loads of room in the front and middle row seats, and even the two rear ones can suffice for smaller-bodied adults. The boot is tiny though and will require the folding of the second row to create enough luggage space for five.

The concept remains largely unchanged, with Honda mentioning more stiffening of the body for refinement and crashworthiness. However, the bulk of improvements are found as features. Comparatively the new BR-V is a more sophisticated and luxurious Honda than its predecessor, and a far cry from its Honda Mobilio ancestor.

The company has prioritised convenience and safety tech in the four model line-up, and on this front expect an interior finished with good materials, with the fascia showcasing Honda’s latest décor style using piano black surfacing. Fabric seats are on all except the Elegance model, which gets synthetic leather upholstery including on armrests, door panels and dashboard.

There are power outlets in all three rows in the range-topper, air-conditioning for rear seat passengers in all, a new 4.2-inch TFT display, 7-inch main screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while the Comfort and Elegance models also get a reverse parking camera.

All BR-V models get vehicle stability assist, hill start assist and emergency stop signal, anti‑lock braking system, ISOFIX child seat anchors, and dual front and side airbags.

The Comfort and Elegance models gain curtain airbags while the Elegance model gets the full suite of Honda Sensing functions. These include collision mitigation braking system, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation, auto high-beam, lane watch camera and forward collision warning.

A four-cylinder 1.5l engine with 89kW and 145Nm powers the entire range. The entry level Trend model pairs the motor with a six-speed manual transmission exclusively and the middle-spec Comfort can be had with both manual or a CVT. The top tier model is fitted exclusively with the self-changing transmission which also gets manual override through flappy pedals behind the multifunction steering wheel.

The fuel tank capacity is 42l and Honda said models with manual transmission consume 6.8l/100km on average and the CVTs a lower 6.3l/100km.

The drive experience has been enhanced for refinement on the roads and it is evident. The engine isn’t earth-shaking but it felt adequately powerful for its intended applications of carting people around.

We drove the CVT model only and it wasn’t annoyingly droning, with linear power delivery in all conditions, and the BR-V also showed confident poise on corners encountered.

It’s a cooler looking small MPV now with roof rails and 16 or 17-inch alloys depending on specification. Once more the Opal White also found in the Honda HR-V was my favourite and there are also Modern Steel, Lunar Silver and Crystal Black options.

All new BR-V models are available with a five-year 200,000km warranty and a four-year 60,000km service plan as standard. Also included is a three-year AA roadside assistance.

Pricing:

1.5 Trend MT: R379,900

1.5L Comfort MT: R409,900

1.5L Comfort CVT: R434,900

1.5L Elegance CVT: R459,900