• Sensible dashboard layout
• Cheap feeling plastics in places
• Outdated sat-nav and infotainment

How is the quality and layout?

You sit quite high looking through a short windscreen and at a well-organised dashboard. The infotainment system (more below) sits high up in your eye line and the part-analogue, part-digital instruments are easy to read if a little plain.

The top half of the dashboard feels quite high quality, with soft padded materials and a thick-rimmed steering wheel. That material quality lowers the further down you look. The centre console particularly is trimmed with very scratchy plastics.

Infotainment and tech

The infotainment system is displayed via a chunky 9.0-inch touchscreen that has a sharp resolution and appears to be very user-friendly. Our long-term tester Percy Lawman commented on the HR-V during his six-month run: ‘We found the touchscreen (which is also shared with the Honda Jazz) was nicely laid out and functional but also extremely responsive with virtually no lag.’

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The software side has been well thought out and looks very logical. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, and when you snick the automatic transmission’s selector into reverse the screen doubles up to enable the user to view the rear-view camera which is a good resolution unit and displays sharp images. Percy added: ‘I personally found it one of the better systems to use.’

Comfort

• High driving position
• Comfortable seats
• Lots of noise

The HR-V’s standard fit fabric seats (which can be upgraded to synthetic or real leather) are comfortable, adjustable and won’t give you a numb bum on long journeys.

Soundproofing is a bit of an issue. Sure, when it’s crawling along in silent EV mode it’s fine. But when the car’s noisy, whiny engine cuts in it really penetrates the cabin. Road noise is also pretty high, especially on poor surfaces.

Percy Lawman said during his six-month run: ‘Inside the cabin the HR-V is comfortable with fabric seats which incorporate black synthetic leather outer trim edges which never gave any issues of the infamous numb bum even after an extended long run.’

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