Written by Luke Wilkinson Updated: 24 July 2023

The Honda ZR-V promises a lot on paper – it’s a family friendly SUV that is based on the same underpinnings as the fantastic and award-winning Civic hatchback. Tom Webster is spending several months with one in order to see if it offers the same blend of practicality, family-centric tricks and value as its smaller sibling.

Update 1: Welcome

Update 2: Slowly solving the irritations

Update 3: Basic boot good for boots

Update 4: Farewell to the not quite SUV, not quite coupe

Update 1: Welcome

I’ll confess, I was a bit baffled by the Honda ZR-V when it first appeared in the Parkers car park. Viewed from a distance, it was hard to place it in the Honda range size wise, and the name was no help whatsoever.

It sits, as you may well know, between the smaller HR-V and the larger CR-V. Because of course – why would you engineer your car range to have a logical alphabetical progression when you can shove a random Z in there?

Anyway, that was a while ago, and I’ve now been living with a ZR-V full time for a few weeks. My hopes were high when I learned it was to join the Webster household – it’s based on the same underpinnings as the Civic hatchback, which is a good thing. Not only is the Civic the 2023 Parkers Car of the Year, but the Webster family has owned an older version of said hatch for several years now.

Which version of the Honda ZR-V are we living with?

There is little choice in terms of the ZR-V’s engine options, as there is just the one available. This means our ZR-V comes with a self-charging hybrid engine that combines a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and not one but two electric motors. More on that later.

We’re in the mid-level Sport trim, which sits above Elegance and below Advance. The basic trim comes with plenty of decent kit – the navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay, rear-view camera and all-round parking sensors have all proved immediately useful. I suspect the heated seats will show their worth in the months to come.

Sport’s notable additions include a powered tail gate, which is nice to have when you are wrestling a small family, and privacy glass, which negates the need for those stick-on sun blinds that always seem to fall off anyway.

I’ve also got a wireless charger for my phone, and electric seat adjustment. I wish the latter had a memory function, though, as my wife is much shorter than I am so I spend an annoying amount of time at the start of each trip waiting for the seat to slowly whirr its way back far enough so I can fold myself into an acceptable driving position.

Sporty accoutrements

The final thing that the Sport gets is a selection of exterior visual upgrades. To be honest, this is a family SUV so I really could take or leave these. They’re nice enough, I guess, but I can’t say they would tempt me to this trim over either of the others on their own.

There isn’t much else that is sporty about the ZR-V, though – there is no specific suspension tuning and no boost to the performance over the other models. I don’t see this as a bad thing necessarily – I spend more time driving about with small passengers in the back that wouldn’t thank me for ‘sporty’ driving.

Work and pleasure early on

I’ll be spending the coming months getting to know the ZR-V, but I have already had cause to put a few long journeys onto it. The first saw me heading down to visit family in Dorset and then we piled the whole family in to depart to Norfolk for a week’s holiday. This is on top of the usual trips to the office where it is just me on board.

The first impression of the ZR-V was tainted, sadly, although there is hope on the horizon. While many cars produce a series of bongs and beeps these days, the Honda has proved particularly insistent. I’m all for a lane departure warning, and am not even anti the car interjecting to gently guide you back onto the correct path from time to time.

What I don’t appreciate is being bonged at when it isn’t even clear what the car is trying to tell you. The ZR-V fires a wide range of warning symbols at you, and then makes a range of noises. If you look like you might be driving out of your lane it tells you the lane departure system is activated, then it flashes an orange warning light at you if you do venture too far to the side. At least, that’s what I think it’s doing.

This can get a little annoying on the motorway, but it is at least fairly simple to stay in your lane there. Where I resent it is down the sort of country lanes that you encounter around where my family live and where we went on holiday. It says in the manual that it will warn you if it suspects you are in danger of driving into the grass verges. I’m not sure those who calibrated the ZR-V’s system have ever been to rural Britain, because the Honda thinks I’m going to drive into the verge ALL THE TIME.

Thankfully I’ve solved this issue by turning off the lane-keep assist. I know this is something my colleagues are sometimes keen to do whenever they get into a car, but I would really rather not. The Honda has forced my hand though.

Practical family ride

Other impressions have been positive though. The ZR-V’s ride has gone down well with the rear passengers and those in the front, and I love the way that it feels more EV than hybrid a lot of the time, so quiet is the powertrain at lower speeds.

The rear seats are well shaped for car seats, too, with our two differently shaped setups both fitting in well with the belt buckles easily reached.

There are a few things that have proved welcome and some that I feel are lacking from a family perspective, though, and I’ll come to those in future reports.

Update 2: Slowly solving the irritations

As I alluded to in the first update on life with the Honda ZR-V, there have been a couple of minor elements that have been more noticeable than I would like.

Thankfully, thanks to colleague Tom’s ability to read a manual, I am slowly finding a way around solving them. The first issue was the near-continual beeping when driving down a country road, due to the Honda’s belief that I was going to suddenly launch myself into the grass verge.

The second is one that I was less keen to fess up on, but here goes. The ZR-V is very keen that you stick to the speed limit, and has a warning system that beeps at you when you creep even one mile over what you should be doing. There is one simple answer to this – don’t speed. However, I live on a road with a 20mph limit, and occasionally I might struggle with my accuracy and creep up to 21mph. Maybe 22mph.

I don’t make a habit of it, but I definitely don’t need to have the car beep at me seconds after I’ve crept up an mph or two. Thankfully, I have discovered that I need to go into the vehicle settings and prevent it from reading the road signs, but this has to be done every time you start the car, can only be done while the car is in Park and requires 8-10 prods of the screen, depending on where you want to head on the screen next.

As a result I tend to do it more often than not, but sometimes I just suffer the occasional beep.

Standard seats

My next observation is also a slight grumble, but this is in no way a reflection of my overall attitude to the Honda ZR-V – I really do like it.

However, I own a 2008 Honda Civic – the first of the slightly funky shaped ones. One of the best things about said Civic is its Magic Seats in the rear. You can fold the base up and secure it so you are able to carry taller items in the back. It also creates a handy sheltered spot to pop a potty-training toddler, like a miniature portaloo in a way. I prefer that to positioning said child in the boot, as it keeps them a bit more hemmed in.

Unfortunately, the ZR-V doesn’t have Magic Seats, so this isn’t an option. It’s a shame, given the family nature of this car.

Otherwise, things are going well with the Honda. I love the near-silent nature of its low-speed drive, and it is just so easy to get into and get going, with lots of handy little storage spots in the front of the cabin. Plenty of storage for rice cakes and mobile phones alike.

Update 3: Basic boot good for boots

One feature of the boot in the Honda ZR-V has become a lot more appreciated as time progresses – the standard-fit liner that means you can keep all the filth and detritus off the carpet. Granted it does mean the storage area looks a little more utilitarian, but it’s exactly what I need with family members that are fond of a muddy puddle or two.

Sure, you can get an aftermarket liner, or just shove a sheet down, but it feels so much nicer having something that is designed to fit from the start. If you are in the, possibly fairly rare, position that you are an SUV buyer that doesn’t have dogs, kids or a weekend-dump-trip addiction then you can easily remove it like an unwanted parcel shelf. I reckon you won’t though.

I’m also really impressed with how easily operated the hands-free opening system is for the boot door. I recall versions on cars in the past where you would have to waft your foot around to such an extent that you’d probably end up putting down whatever is in your arms just to catch yourself from falling. The ZR-V’s has never let me down.

Unwanted wheelspin

I’ve been playing with the Sport, Normal and Eco modes on the Honda of late, too. There is a slight difference between them, but not enough that I can really see the point in their existence. That says as much about the people I’m ferrying around though – I never really find myself able to floor it and make the most of a spirited driving ability in a family-centric SUV.

There is one annoyance, though, which I thought was unique to the Sport mode, but it turned out it cropped up in all three. There is one junction near me where you have to be a little swift on the draw to get out when turning right. Almost every time the Honda has produced a little chirrup of wheelspin. And once I had noticed it, I realised it happens at more junctions than just this one.

It never really feels as though it is out of control, but those little momentary losses of traction will all add up to the wear on the tyres. It also makes you look like you are either a hooligan or just can’t drive, neither of which is befitting a greying dad.

Update 4 and farewell: Not quite SUV, not quite coupe

I had hoped, almost expected, to go on a bit of a journey over my time with the Honda ZR-V. Not in the literal sense – I did plenty of those, as the 3,000-miles it covered while I had it would suggest – but in the sense that I hoped to learn more about what sort of a car it really is.

As I suggested in my first update, I couldn’t really place it in terms of where it sits in the Honda range, or indeed in terms of its rivals. Even by the time it left, I remain a little unsure. The best description would be a sort of coupe-esque SUV. Two body styles that are not easy bedfellows.

Sadly, in some senses, it seems to have taken some of the worse elements of both. As a result, it isn’t quite as practical as an SUV, but it certainly isn’t as swoopy and attractive as a coupe.

As we point out in the main review, it’s almost better to see the ZR-V as an alternative to the Civic hatchback. The Civic is a fantastic car – it’s a former Parkers Car of the Year after all – but it is very low slung if you are used to the height of an SUV. Those that have mobility issues will definitely prefer the ZR-V’s higher seating position at the very least.

Family failings

The problem I had with it is not so much a slight against the ZR-V – it is a very capable simple SUV. It’s just that family cars offer so much these days in terms of clever little touches, and there aren’t really any of these in the ZR-V.

Other SUVs such as the Skoda Karoq have seats that tumble forward and slide backwards and forwards. Other Hondas, such as the aforementioned Civic, have Magic Seats that flip the bases upwards to give you a tall loading space in the rear footwell. The ZR-V has, well, nothing like this.

The seats don’t do much other than fold flat, and they are a little narrow so I found myself reaching underneath my eldest daughter’s car seat to get her belt plugged in. And the Isofix points felt a little buried too – why anyone does anything other than give you a plastic surround with a little removable cover I don’t know.

Further back, the boot isn’t that big. It’s just a good even shape, although it isn’t a huge space. It’s just, you know, fine. And fine isn’t that great when others do better.

While I’m complaining, I was also annoyed by the incessant beeping, although that was solved, as covered in my earlier reports. I also got frustrated by how easy it was to spin the front wheels, but that’s manageable too.

One final, very minor thing. There is a load of standard kit in the ZR-V (more on that in a second) but an electronically adjustable driver’s seat with no memory function can be frustrating when you are in a household with two differently sized drivers. I have spent a lot of time at the start of journeys waiting for the seat to slowly move backwards from my wife’s seating position so I can get my legs in behind the wheel.

And now for the good stuff

Right, that’s the main grumbles out of the way. Now for the good bits, of which there are plenty. The Honda’s cabin is fantastic, the engine is brilliant and economical, it’s swift and rides well and it comes fantastically well equipped.

First up, the general feel of the ZR-V’s interior is great, with the buttons for the heating systems something I particularly appreciated. It also took less time than I anticipated to get used to the idea of pushing a button to change between reverse and drive. A more conventional gear shifter seems unnecessarily large by comparison.

It meant that the Honda’s central console feels bespoke, whereas many look fairly identikit these days.

Quiet and swift

I was also struck by how quick and enjoyable to drive the ZR-V is. The hybrid powertrain is one of the more seamless ones I’ve experienced over a longer-term basis, and it genuinely felt like it spent more time in electric-only mode than was actually possible.

And while it isn’t as quick as the smaller Civic that uses the same engine, I also appreciated the occasional turn of pace and the ride. The latter managed to tread the fine line between firm enough to remain stable around bends, while being soft enough to keep the complaints from the back seats to a minimum.

But the engine also managed to appeal to my dad-like tendencies. It didn’t quite match the official fuel figures, but the final average of 46.8mpg is close enough to the claimed 48.7-49.6mpg that I’m willing to forgive it. Especially as I wasn’t really trying particularly hard when it came to economical driving.

In essence, that sums up how the Honda was to drive. It never felt like much of an effort – it just seamlessly slotted into daily life. I just wish it didn’t beep as much in the process.