The acronym BR-V stands for Bold Runabout Vehicle. Honda calls it a crossover utility vehicle. When you go check it out at a showroom, the salesperson will call it an SUV. If your neighbour owns either a Hyundai Creta or a Renault Duster, he might end up calling it an MPV, or a beefed-up Mobilio. So, what exactly is this vehicle?
Exterior
Photos don’t do enough justice. While from a few angles it looks like the Mobilio, there are subtle differences. The exterior design reflects some amount of toughness that you could associate with an SUV. There are projector headlamps and the grille design is different from the Mobilio’s. Silver-finish roof rails are available across variants. The rear gets a connected tail-light design, which makes the BR-V look wider than it is. Its 16-inch wheels and a high ground clearance (210mm) give it the much-needed SUV character.
Cabin space
Honda designers work on a philosophy called ‘Man Maximum, Machine Minimum’—they strive to minimise the size of a car’s mechanical components, while making space for occupants as large as possible. The BR-V is 4,456mm long, 1,735mm wide and 1,666mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,662mm, and an efficient use of space has been made. For example, the second-row seat is a 60:40 split with both slide and recline functions. By pressing a single button, second-row seats can be tumbled forward, making entry and exit for the third row convenient.
The third-row seat is a 50:50 spilt (folding type); it can both be reclined and tumbled forward. With third-row seats upright, the boot space is 223 litres; with seats folded, the boot space increases to a huge 691 litres. All three row seats get adjustable headrests.
Comfort
The BR-V, unlike other SUVs, gets a roof-mounted rear AC. The cabin colour theme is all-black, there are silver accents at various places and piano-black gloss finish on the instrument panel. The BR-V shares its dashboard design with the City and the new Amaze; it looks upmarket. The white-lit 3D speedometer with multi-information display is bright and clear. The top-end VX grade gets leather seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel, leather gear knob and leather door armrests. In the manual models, the gear knob, leather or not, is so plain-looking that it doesn’t appear to belong to a premium vehicle such as this. The CVT automatic gear-shift lever, however, looks and feels nice.
Equipment
Depending upon the variant—E, S, V and VX—there are features such as push-button start with smart entry (no need to take the key-fob out of your pocket), integrated Bluetooth audio system with hands-free telephone, steering-mounted controls for audio, automatic AC, and power-foldable ORVMs (outside rear-view mirrors). Dual front airbags are standard offering across variants. A glaring omission is that it doesn’t get park assist—there is no rear-view camera or parking sensors.
Engines
It shares its engines with the City and Mobilio. The petrol mill is the 1.5-litre iVTEC that produces a peak power of 119PS and a torque of 145Nm, while the diesel is the 1.5-litre iDTEC that produces a peak power of 100PS and a torque of 200Nm. The difference is that both engines are mated to a six-speed gearbox. Honda says this has been done to improve driveability and fuel-efficiency. The petrol returns 15.4kpl, while the diesel 21.9kpl. The BR-V also comes with a CVT automatic gearbox, which returns 16kpl.
On the road
Both engines are torquey and, with the new gearbox, make the BR-V an able performer. The initial acceleration may not wow you, but the way it goes from, say, 40kph to 100kph—in the right gear, of course—is exciting. Even though it is a tall vehicle with a high ground clearance, body roll has been contained.
We drove it on the Udaipur-Mount Abu highway, which has some high-speed sweeping curves, and the BR-V felt settled even at speeds close to 100kph. It handles bad roads also in a fairly decent way. Further, it doesn’t ‘crash’ into potholes—as compared to the Mobilio, the front suspension of the BR-V has been revised. The turning radius is a tight 5.3 metres (petrol) and 5.5 metres (diesel), which theoretically makes the vehicle convenient for city driving, but because there is no park assist and because it is a long vehicle, that advantage is immediately lost.
Off the road
The BR-V is a crossover utility vehicle, not a proper SUV, so taking it off the road is not suggested. However, in case you really have to, its 210mm of ground clearance—best in segment—will ensure that it can, with some careful manoeuvring, do some amount of soft-roading, such as crossing a dry riverbed.
Verdict
Available from R8.75 lakh onwards (petrol), R9.99 lakh onwards (diesel) and R11.99 CVT, the BR-V has been smartly priced—neatly slotted between the Creta and the Duster. It has some features of an SUV, drives like a sedan and seats seven people like an MPV … essentially, the BR-V is as good as a crossover car can be. It arrives at a time when ever more buyers are seeking an affordable and good looking crossover. We hope it finds itself a sweet spot.
