2027 Honda HR-V -- Should You Pick THIS Over the CR-V & Save Thousands?? (Anything New?)

What's going on YouTube? So just last year, the popular Honda HR-V got some updates with a refresh. And today we are with the latest 2027 version of this small Honda SUV. So is Honda's most affordable SUV a great pick over all the competition and the larger Honda CR-V? Well, let's go ahead and find out. First up, we have our spec dump. So under the hood of every HR-V is a two liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine making 158 horsepower. It's paired to a continuously variable transmission and with the available all-wheel drive system, it gets 27 MPG combined. Now the base price of the HR-V this year is $26,600. And if you're looking to buy one or any vehicle, we'd encourage you to check out carconfections.com slash new car quotes to get the best price. Now, of course, we need to talk about the exterior as well as the interior, but first let's go ahead and shut up the hood before we take it out for a spin. Now, like we mentioned at the introduction, the HR-V was refreshed last year. And with that, it did get some design tweaks, although nothing too dramatic overall. You'll continue with that same kind of look up here in the front where we have kind of a soft looking grill. You're going to have a few different designs that you can get. The EXL, which is the top model we have today, is going to have the gloss black finish, giving it a little bit more of a premium look. And that's going to continue down here to the lower fascia as well. Now, if you go over here to our headlights, all of the HR-Vs though will come with these. These are reflector full LED headlights, and they have a premium look because you also have an LED turn signal indicator and daytime running light. Now, as you walk around to the back, the HR-V continues to have a very distinct look compared to the CR-V. Yeah. And let's break down some of those individual design touches that makes it an HR-V. We have the spoiler up here at the top. We have the rear window wiper. All-wheel drive is actually in the glass itself. And one of my favorite things about this product is that you get full LED taillights standard across the board. I love these taillights. They're very premium for the segment, and that even includes things like your amber turn signal indicator. Now, down here at the bottom area, this is going to be a piano black as well as a little bit of gray trim. No exposed exhaust outlets here on the EXL. Now, there's only three trims of the HR-V, but two out of three of them will come with 18-inch alloys. So, the EXL last year got this brand new 18-inch alloy. It's one inch larger than what it was previously. And as you can see, it's got a contrast design. I do like the look of this. And again, you'll see the gloss black continue around the wheel arches and the lower part of the body. Now, as we come up here to our mirrors, the two main features you're probably looking for will be included on the sport trim and above. That's blind spot monitoring and heating. Now, at the side of the HR-V, overall vehicle length is around 179 inches, which does mean it's a bit smaller than something like a CR-V. And in terms of design, we have blacked out window surrounds, but we don't have roof rails or anything like that. There's also no new color additions for 2027. Now, when it comes to active safety, I'm happy to tell you that every single one of those systems are standard equipment on the HR-V. That will include things like adaptive cruise control with a traffic jam assist. But guys, there's a lot to talk about on the inside. But first, if you're new here, we're brothers and we've been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We started young, and since then, we have reviewed over 2,000 vehicles at every price point. No matter what you're looking for, from humble to high end, we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let's learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars. Now it's time to tour the inside. First, here's our key fob. It's the typical Honda key fob. You have a smart entry system as well as remote start for the sport trim and the EXL. That means you can just reach behind the door handle and unlock the door. Now, let's check out the interior as always. I'm going to start by talking about the seats. If you want leatherette, which is what you're looking at right now, you will need to get this EXL trim level. Otherwise, you will get a cloth seat for your base model and the sport trim level. As you can see, we have a nice stitching detail. It feels pretty premium. You have black or gray color choices. The same is also going to go for the power adjustment. As you can see, we've got eight ways of power adjustment. Do note the lack of lumbar support, though. That's not something offered on the HR-V. Also, memory seats are not offered even on the top spec. Let's climb inside. Now, as I close up the door, get a little animation on the gauge cluster, and we can look at the rest of the cabin materials. Now, this is one of the strongest areas of the HR-V. We've long said that it has very nice materials for this segment of vehicle. You've got leatherette through here with a stitching detail on the armrest. You have a hard-touch plastic in the center section and a soft-touch plastic through there. As we move to the upper dash, it's all a soft-touch plastic. We have leatherette all around this vent detail, which has additional silver accenting here on the EXL trim level. And then down here on the lower panels, we actually have a leatherette covering all through here with a stitch detail around the shifter. This is really nice and premium and actually is a little bit elevated even over its big brother, the CR-V. Now, we'll fire it up with the push button. Now that she's all fired up, let's jump into some individual details. There's no interior equipment changes, so you'll continue to see, for 2027, a partially digital gauge cluster. We have the about 8-inch display over here where you can change the design just a little bit, and you have the tachometer, then you have your traditional speedometer. Of course, as we pull back to the steering wheel, sport and EXL trims will get the leather wrapping with a stitch detail. It's always going to be manual tilt and telescoping, and the heating is not something offered on the HR-V. Now, taking a look at interior storage, this vehicle is, of course, still pretty practical. It is a Honda, after all, and that's something they always focus on. And inside the center console, you'll see some donuts inside for our signature donut test. We have 13 donuts inside, a baker's dozen, which passes the test and is really good for this segment where a lot of the rivals can fail. Of course, it's not as big as the CR-V, though, so keep that in mind. You have a pass-through storage area right here. You have a couple USB connections. You have your two cupholders. You have some more USB connections and a standard wireless phone charging pad, even on the base model. You know, you have all that storage despite keeping a traditional shifter. Pull back for drive. You can go into sport and low, like so. And then we head the opposite way into reverse. Here is our standard backup camera. We have active trajectory on board. You've got three different views that you can select between, but if you want parking sensors, you do need to choose this loaded EXL. You've got your drive mode control right through there. We have a hill descent control if you're going off-roading in your HR-V, and then you've got your parking brake and electronic brake hold. Now, as we move to the center section, here are our climate controls. You've seen these on really almost the entire Honda lineup. It's a very high quality physical climate adjustment. It actually glows red and blue as you turn the knobs if you get the dual zone automatic just on the EXL trim level. You get heated seats, though, on the sport trim level and the EXL trim level. Continuing the trend of having nice physical controls, we have a physical volume knob. Now, you're either going to have a four-speaker sound system, a six-speaker sound system, or an eight- speaker sound system if you choose the EXL. That, of course, is what we've got. Let's give it a sample. All right, so even though this is an unbranded sound system, it does have a pretty crisp sound, and it seems to fill up the cabin nicely and have plenty of bass as well. All right, let's zero in now on the infotainment system. So, this was one of the most prominent changes for the refresh last year, and that was the fact that they upgraded to a standard 9-ish display for every single HR-V, including, of course, the base trim level. Now, as far as this software experience, it's going to be very simple. Actually, what you see on the screen right now is it. There's nothing else you can go to. It's just the home screen with these different functions that you can click on. You don't really get a software UI experience. You don't get Google built-in either, so that's an important difference between some of the other Honda products. Now, the thing that you will be using is Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Both of those are standard equipment. Up top here, we've got an auto dimming mirror. That's an EXL exclusive. And then, lastly, here we've got another EXL exclusive, which is our standard size sunroof. But what about the rear seat area? Now, when it comes to this segment, sometimes these can be really small options for the segment and not very good. However, I have to say the HR-V is one of the largest subcompact SUVs for sale, and that definitely shows up here in the second row. So what we're looking at is about 37.7 inches of legroom and 38 inches of headroom. That is going to best things like the Toyota Corolla Cross as well as the Mazda CX-30 for sure. So it's going to be a very spacious option, like I mentioned, not quite as big as a Honda CR-V though. Now, of course, I brought along the official car confections ruler. The reason I do that is so I can get a realistic knee room figure. This seat is adjusted to Drew, who's 5 foot 8. I'm 5 foot 9, and we are looking at 8 inches of knee space. My feet can slide up underneath of the seats. And speaking of the seats back here, I like the overall design. I will say they are a little bit on the firm side, and I wish they were a little bit higher off the ground. I find that my, you know, thighs are a little bit raised off of the seat itself. Now, when it comes to features, no center armrest on any version, even this fully loaded EXL. You're also not going to find vents on any version or USB ports. So it is going to be a pretty basic rear seat. It's just the seats back here, no real features. And over here on the door trim, you have a hard touch upper part, hard touch middle part. However, they have nicely padded the actual armrest portion, and then there's a tiny bit of door storage down in the bottom. Walking up to the HR-V's cargo area, we have a manual tailgate, standard on all versions. And what about the cargo space? Well, we're sitting at 24 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind the second row of seats. If we fold those seats down, which by the way, they do fold 60-40 split, we're going to be looking at 55 cubic feet of cargo capacity as your maximum. Those are going to be pretty good figures for the segment. It is, of course, going to be less than a Honda CR-V, if that's what you're cross-shopping with. But honestly, for this segment, 55 cubic feet is pretty good. Also, to have the 60-40 split is a pretty nice feature. Now, speaking of all the options you could be cross-shopping this with, we'd encourage you to check out carconfections.com. We've gone through and looked at extensively all the subcompact options. There are tons of rivals and ranked them in things like cargo capacity, interior luxury, technology, powertrain choices, and very importantly, value. So you can make an informed buying decision based on the category that matters most to you and see the best options in each of those individual categories. So definitely check that out. Now, here in the cargo area, let's get our cargo length, width, and height figures. As far as cargo length, that's pretty good. 70 inches behind Drew's 5'8 seat position. From behind the second row of seats, you can expect about 34 inches of length. The opening, 43 inches wide. The height, about 29 inches tall. And the load-in height, 28 inches. Now, underneath of the floor, you'll find a little bit of extra space, and then there is a spare tire that's integrated underneath of there. Well, guys, here we are behind the wheel of the 2027 Honda HR-V. In this test drive, we're going to be discussing quite a lot, as you can see on the screen right now. But first and foremost, we do need to go ahead and start with a hard acceleration. All right, that is 60 miles an hour. We were kind of going uphill with this HR-V. So, of course, like we were talking about the spec dump, there's really just one way that you can get the HR-V. It's a two-liter, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder engine. So, nice and simple powertrain. You have 158 horsepower, 138 pound-feet of torque. Now, as far as the acceleration performance, as you can tell, it's going to be on the slower side. This is fairly heavy for this segment, and the power is just all right, especially the torque is a little low, you know, 138 pound-feet of torque. And you can feel that. You do have to kind of work with it, you know, put your foot down and get that acceleration. Yeah, the thing about this is we've driven, you know, all the numerous rivals. There are a lot of rivals that do have a better, you know, 0 to 60 time, that's for sure, than this HR-V. However, I will say that, you know, under normal acceleration, just around town and things like that, you're not going to be doing a 0 to 60. It feels fine. It's just when you really floor it, that's when it kind of shows that it is lacking in power. As far as the actual rated 0 to 60 time, it's around 9.4 seconds and just a little shy of 10 seconds to 60, which definitely makes it on the slower side for this segment. Yeah, I think, honestly, when it comes to this powertrain, what people appreciate with the HR-V is the simplicity of it. You know, a lot of the competition, like Mason was saying, does have, you know, faster performance, but they might be using a three-cylinder or turbocharged or hybridized or something like that. This is very simple, so you could probably expect, I would say, this to be an extremely reliable motor and a vehicle you could drive for a long, long time. On that note, it is worth noting that you don't have a hybrid. I know that's something that a lot of people, including us, would like to see, is to give you that additional option of having a hybrid so that you could, you know, of course, give more power, but also elevate the fuel economy, which is something we'll talk about in just a moment. As we get back up to 60 miles an hour, I'll point out we've got a continuously variable transmission. With this CVT, it doesn't really do, like, shift simulation or anything like that, even when you're accelerating pretty hard. That was not a full throttle acceleration, but that was, you know, pretty hard to get up to 60 miles an hour. Overall, it's pretty responsive. Yeah, and as far as how power is routed to the ground, you have front-wheel drive or optional all-wheel drive across all the trim levels, and I do want to mention the fuel economy that Drew was talking about. So, if you choose front-wheel drive, you're rated at 28 miles per gallon combined. If you choose all-wheel drive, that comes in at 27 mpg, which I think, honestly, is kind of showing that this is a little underpowered for how much this vehicle weighs because that fuel economy is not great. Honestly, you know, traditional gas options in the segment above will get over 30 miles per gallon combined, so this is going to be on the side when it comes to fuel economy, not even considering hybridized options. But we are on our designated strip of road to get our sound level reading, so let's go ahead and see how quiet it is at 55 miles per hour. 60.6 decibels is what we have settled in at as our sound level reading here in the HR-V. Now, we don't sit here and guess how it compares to the competition. We can find that on our website, carconfections.com, slash sound level readings. Now, looking at those rivals, that is definitely going to place it on the louder end. Anything sitting in the 60 decibel range is going to be pretty loud, and I will say that, you know, we're even in a fully loaded example of the HR-V, so some of the lower trim levels kind of get even louder than this. So, when you're talking about cabin quietness, that's something that Honda could certainly improve on. And as we hit that bump in the road, I want to take a second to talk about ride quality. That's an important part for any subcompact. The HR-V does a pretty good job in this respect. When you hit a bump in the road, it does a good job of soaking things up, especially for this segment of vehicle. I find these seats to also be pretty comfortable. Now, I can't speak to the cloth ones. We may have reviewed a couple of the other trim levels if you want to check those out on our channel of previous model years, but these EXL seats do really feel pretty nice overall. I will say it doesn't ride quite as good as something like a CR-V, though. I can't say the handling of this vehicle, though, is something we have noted in the past. Because this is, you know, basically on a Civic platform, it does have nice handling, a good balance between, of course, you know, being mostly comfort-focused. But I remember distinctly how we drove it for the very first time in Washington. Yeah. And going down this really curvy road in Washington, I was like, okay. Yeah. It was really fun, especially going downhill where All right. And that leads us into today's air ball, which is going to be the powertrain experience. This engine is underpowered for this vehicle. It's one of the slowest options in the entire segment. And we really just want Honda to add the hybrid system from the Civic to this HR-V. That would be absolutely killer. Why are you not doing that, Honda? I don't necessarily know why they are not, but the Civic hybrid system is so good. It would get much better fuel economy and also have way more power. So hopefully Honda will listen and add that in the future. Right. And that really is like maybe the key thing that you should consider if you're shopping between that this and the CR-V is if you want that hybrid system. Now, one thing that you really don't have to consider is interior quality. So that really is our slam dunk is because the quality of this cabin is really good for the segment and it's just as good as the CR-V. But pricing is very important for this segment. And as I said at the very beginning, we start at $26,600. I do want to point out for 2027, that does mean the prices have risen a little bit. It's between $800 and $1,200 on all of the trim levels this year, despite the no changes. So keep that in mind. Now, this particular model is a 27 HR-V all wheel drive EXL. So this is a fully loaded example. $31,950 is what we're sitting at there. $1,450 destination. We're sitting at $33,400 all in. If you're curious as to where it's manufactured, it is in Mexico. And if you're looking to buy one or any vehicle, we'd encourage you to check out carconfections.com slash new car quotes. The reason you should do that is because we have a tool on our website that will connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price. It's also going to give you access to invoice pricing information, which is a great tool to use if you plan on doing dealership negotiation. If you'd like to take advantage of all of that, as well as things like our monthly payment calculator, you can once more find that on our website, carconfections.com. But what about Honda's resale, reliability, and warranty? First up, let's talk about resale value. Honda as a brand has an estimated retained value after five years and 60,000 miles of 64.8%. And after 10 years and 120,000 miles, 34.34%. Now it's worth noting those are actually industry leading figures and the five-year metric and no other brand is better in terms of resale value. Now you can also say the same when it comes to reliability. With our combined reliability index and the latest data, Honda is rated as one of the highest rated, most reliable automakers in the entire auto industry. Now, if you'd like to learn more about reliability and resale value, you can find that at carconfections.com. Now, when it comes to your warranty, you have a three-year 36,000 mile basic warranty, a five-year 60,000 mile powertrain. You do also get one year and 12,000 miles of complimentary maintenance. And guys, that wraps up our in-depth review of the 2027 Honda HR-V. If you enjoyed hearing about all of the changes for this model, including the pricing differences, we'd encourage you to subscribe down below and become a part of our Car Confections family. We have a lot of fun on this channel and we try and provide you all the latest and greatest car reviews. So definitely subscribe down below. If you're already a part of our family, thank you so much for your continued support. You make this all possible and we'll catch you next time as we sample more of the latest on motor delicacies.