Road Test: Honda FR-V

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: Honda FR-V 2.0
Price: from £15,700
Engine: 1,998cc, four cylinders, 16 valves, 150bhp at 6,500rpm, 142lb ft at 4,000rpm
Transmission: six-speed gearbox, front-wheel drive
Performance: 115mph, 0-60 in 10.3sec, 33.6mpg official average
CO2: 199g/km

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: Honda FR-V 2.0
Price: from £15,700
Engine: 1,998cc, four cylinders, 16 valves, 150bhp at 6,500rpm, 142lb ft at 4,000rpm
Transmission: six-speed gearbox, front-wheel drive
Performance: 115mph, 0-60 in 10.3sec, 33.6mpg official average
CO2: 199g/km

There is something unsettling about a first encounter with Honda's new FR-V. It seems to be wearing a disguise, a suit of normal clothes stretched over something else's body. There is a little distortion here, a stretch there, few of them noticeable in isolation but cumulatively disconcerting. This is one distended car.

Look at the sides. The windows are almost vertical, and pushed out almost level with the main part of the doors below. The cross-section is a near rectangle. Why?

Because the FR-V - it stands for Flexible Recreation Vehicle, after the style of notionally lifestyle-related abbreviations used with the CR-V and HR-V - is a six-seater MPV. Normally, an MPV seats five, two in the front and three in the back, or seven, with an extra row of two seats in the tail (usually occupied under sufferance except by the not-yet-grown). Here, though, we have two rows of three.

And why not? If three can sit in the back, why not in the front? The usual reason is that one front-seat occupant, the driver, needs more space than most because he or she needs a gear lever, a handbrake and a steering wheel to make the car work, and doesn't want to be squashed to the edge of the seat row. So a car with three seats across the front is bound to be wider than average, as any Ford Transit demonstrates. Or, indeed, any Fiat Multipla, for this is the compact MPV that pioneered this seating plan. It, too, is sheer-sided, and newcomers to it find the width daunting, especially when a width-restrictor pops up. The feeling soon passes, though, and a driver of an FR-V will feel it less in the first place because the Honda is very slightly narrower.

How so? Partly because the handbrake is not down by the side of the driver's seat but under the dashboard, just below the gear lever. This sounds dangerous for knees, but it has a rubber handle and can be pushed in against a spring. The down side is that the mechanism precludes you from holding down the ratchet button when pulling the brake on, which will displease those with mechanical sympathy, and it is awkward to use. An electric parking brake would be better, but Honda is yet to be convinced of the system's reliability.

The handbrake is a detail relative to the FR-V's bigger picture. That picture involves a double-V shape, the plan view of the seat positions when deployed to maximum effect. In each row, the centre seat can be set back, with all kinds of positive, "joyful" (so says Honda) results. These include no rubbing of shoulders, easy communication between seat rows and the fact that a child in the centre front seat will be well away from the airbag (an enormous item once inflated, designed to cushion both front passengers). All six seats have three-point belts, incidentally.

A guard on the centre tunnel stops the centre passenger's feet from tangling with the driver's, and the pop-out front cup holder has spaces for three cups or cans: everyone is catered for. The centre front seat's back rest can flip forward to create a table, and you can open the cushion part to reveal storage space. Other space for oddments is disappointingly meagre, though, especially for an MPV.

A clever crank mechanism causes the rear seats to fold flat into a relatively low floor if needed. Behind them is the holder for pull-out roller-blinds, one heading rearwards, three small ones heading forwards to attach to the rear seats. Thus the luggage is hidden, but there's no solid rear shelf. Rear passenger space is plentiful, though; Honda claims the best leg room in the class, even though there's a decent size boot - an important plus point over seven-seat MPVs with a third row of seats.

This, then, is a well-packaged car. But as a marketable idea, it is confused. For example, the innovation and engineering integrity for which Honda is justly admired is sabotaged by lashings of plastic chrome outside (door handles and a weird, textured rear number-plate cowling) and silvery mock-aluminium inside, especially on the dashboard. The dashboard itself is a mish-mash of shapes and clutter, made messier in the top Sport version by a swath of fake wood. Yet the SE version gets shiny black with a slight sparkle, which is much more attractive. This is odd; shouldn't the trim treatments be the other way round?

Outside, the design details are more distinctive. The side indicator repeaters are built into the door mirrors, and the rear window's upper portion slopes quite racily. That means there is a sharp curve in the glass's cross-section, almost a ridge, and the rear wiper is curved to suit. Unusually broad masking at the edge of the glass, to hide the internal structure, means that the usable area of the rearmost windows is quite small, which makes reverse parking an act of faith. Parking sensors are optional.

Handbrake apart, the FR-V is a pleasing drive. The suspension is designed to have a high roll axis, the imaginary line about which the body rotates as the FR-V leans into a corner. This means that the high-sitting occupants are not thrown around, and keeps the Honda surprisingly flat, helped by the way the wheels are set so far apart. So the FR-V is able to use soft springs, thus achieving a fine mix of a comfortable ride and agile handling.

The 2.0-litre, 150bhp engine option gives good pace, too, helped by a six-speed gearbox whose close ratios help keep the engine up to speed. It is not an especially relaxed cruiser - the engine spins quite fast, in typical Honda fashion, even in the higher gears - but the liveliness is the payback. The 125bhp, 1.7-litre alternative is less satisfactory, sounding busier while feeling less lively. This one makes do with five gears. No automatic is offered, although Japan has its own version of the FR-V, called Edix.

Next August, these engines will be joined by the 2.2-litre i-CTDi turbodiesel that already powers the Accord to such effect. This is the engine in Honda's current "hate" ad, designed by the engineer who hates noisy diesels so much that he insisted any Honda diesel would have to be smooth, quiet and keen. It is, and I suspect it will make for the best FR-V at a price premium of about £1,300 over the 2.0.

That will make the costliest FR-V a £17,700 car, but a 1.7 SE is £14,750, and compared is impressive value despite Honda's desire to be perceived as a "quality" brand if not quite a premium one. The other thing the cleverly-conceived FR-V might do is attract younger buyers. Honda certainly hopes so, and has concocted a catalogue of accessories to appeal to the mountain-bike owning target buyer. But the HR-V "soft roader" was meant to have youth appeal, too. And look who drives those.

THE RIVALS

FIAT MULTIPLA 1.9 JTD from £14,495

The Multipla has been calmed down with a total face-change rather than a mere facelift. The roomy, avant-garde three-by-three cabin remains, and the JTD turbodiesel is still the engine of choice. Great value.

VAUXHALL ZAFIRA 2.2 from £17,245

It looks dull but the rearmost (of seven) seats do a very neat disappearing trick as they fold into the floor. Based on the previous Astra and likely to be replaced soon, the Zafira is expensive for what it offers.

VW TOURAN 2.0 FSI from £17,855

This price buys you just five seats in the boxy, Golf-related Touran; the seven-seat versions cost more. Lacks the intrigue of the FR-V, but good to drive and the direct-injection FSI engine is lively and economical.