Review first published by us in 2008

The Look

It doesn’t immediately make you want to go ‘wow’, but it quickly grows on you. At first glance it just looks like any boring old saloon – or as Deb’s son commented ‘it’s an old man’s car’. At first I thought the big round brake lights were rather dated until someone suggested that actually they were quite retro – so I’ve changed my mind. It was unfortunate that we had a maroon one – always reminds me of a school uniform I’d rather forget. It would definitely look better in any of the other metallic colours on offer. I’d recommend the Royal Blue Pearl.

It is sleek, no doubt about it, and apparently the aerodynamics of the car have been greatly improved upon. I wondered whether the wheels looked too small, but they have been designed to reduce drag which increases efficiency.

The Interior

The old man feel continues with seats that look like armchairs, but like armchairs they are extremely comfortable. It’s very spacious inside and ideal for the taller ones among us – with more head and leg room. My husband normally gets out of a car with half his hair flattened down and a cricked neck. We drove a hybrid with leather seats but this does add £300 to the price which I think is worth it.

The dashboard is very clear and has an upmarket feel. Its positioning is good with all the driver needs to see right in front of them, so sensible and obvious once it’s been done. The digital speedometer is highly visible as are the gauges showing the clever things the engine/battery is up to.

The front seats can be heated which is a great advantage if your passenger likes it cold – at least your butt will be warm. I liked the easy to use controls especially for the climate control. The steering wheel is stylish with controls at your fingertips and the central storage compartment doubles up as an armrest.

The Drive

This car is so easy to drive, yet still satisfying once you’ve got used to the engine noise, or rather lack of it. Despite being a good sized car, I felt it nipped around town with plenty of power and responsive steering. I really enjoyed the ride. My first experience of city driving was following a friend from the salubrious delights of Kilburn to the depths of Hackney. Rather than waiting for me to catch up at junctions and lights, he seemed somewhat keen to lose me. Hence the need to whiz round double deckers, large vans and other cars who kept coming between us. Not only was I driving it for the first time and getting used to its quietness, I had to be constantly on the look out for his car as it sped away round unknown corners. However, I survived and enjoyed the trip despite being told to lock my doors – didn’t look any worse than Kilburn!

My next experience was very different as I followed a fellow scouting parent up the A41. What a lovely considerate driver – just a shame he didn’t put his foot down so I could fully appreciate the cars power. He must have wanted to go faster than 63m/hr in his merc.

When I did finally give it a blast on the M1  I found that it glided along and accelerated easily. Comments have been made about the level of the road noise but I didn’t notice as I was child free and making the most of blasting my eardrums with the CD player. There was some buffeting by passing lorries, but I couldn’t decide whether this just due to bad gusts of wind. But looking at the spec of the car, it has been designed to be as light as possible to help reduce fuel consumption further, so maybe this is the price you have to pay.

Storage

Taking two boys to scout camp, I realized that the capacity of the boot is not huge. They did have rather a lot of gear despite only being away for two nights. The spare wheel is under the floor of the boot, so there is no extra space there and the boot lacks depth due to the location of the battery – I suppose it does have to go somewhere especially as it’s such an important component of the car. Also, these days we are used to hatchbacks which allows the pile up affect. This is your traditional boot. Storage around the rest of the car is great with compartments for a mobile phone, drink holders and all the normal bits you would expect.

Safety

The car has a solid feel yet is agile to drive. The brakes are very effective and took a while to get used to and occasionally were quite shockingly quick to respond. Honda rate it as one of the safest cars in its class. It automatically assists in cornering, acceleration and with sudden manoeuvres by applying the brakes to the right or left side as necessary. Very clever.

Plenty of thought has been given to pedestrian safety. In the event of a collision involving an adult or child’s head, the bonnet and wings are designed to deform – sounds hideous. There are six airbags for passenger safety and ISOFix child seat restraint mechanisms.

Green Issues

This car is meant to feel like an everyday car, and apart from the lack of engine noise I suppose it does. But because of the engine, you get more miles out of one tank of fuel with incredibly low CO2 emissions. The technology is all based around providing power from recycled energy which comes from the battery pack. Going downhill, the wheels act like dynamos to charge the battery pack. The spooky part is when you come to a stop at a junction and the engine stops.

Cost

For all the amazing technology that is involved in this car – most of which I’m still trying to get my head around, I think that it’s quite reasonably priced at £16,300. For an extra £300 you can have leather seats. However, the running costs are lower that your average car due to reduced fuel costs, insurance being 10% lower and no congestion charge.