Honda

Dating a Honda FR-V

Cars are like relationships. Here’s your choice:

Fast and furious: Thrills that run the risk of breaking down pretty quickly, parts strewn along the road and perhaps a long spell in the garage afterwards. Or dull, dependable partners that don’t provide those heights of excitement but who’ll always get you there in the end. And they’ll keep on doing it year after year. Great.

But then there’s the clever bloke that nobody really appreciates when you first meet him at the party.

Quiet, understated and perhaps not the best-looking guy in the room – all too easy to ignore at first glance. But you get chatting and he turns out to be really quite funny, and that cleverness is very useful. You might leave the party with the handsome tyrant, but when you find out later (thoroughly exhausted) from a friend that your clever, interesting acquaintance has left the country for a job abroad you feel more than a pang of heartache. You wish you’d made more of your time together and make a resolution not to squander missed opportunities…

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CBT Motorcycle Training with Honda

I was momentarily crestfallen when it was clear my sister-in-law thought I’d finally gone into therapy after I’d proudly told her I’d completed and passed my CBT course!

Maybe therapy is what I need, however, as there is nothing more satisfying than doing something new and challenging when sometimes you feel that life is passing you by. So perhaps passing the CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) served the same purpose.

Having been looking forward to my day away from the kids and housework with something completely new (and potentially life-threatening) to occupy my mind, by the time the day actually arrived and we headed off to Evolution Training in Harlow thanks to Honda who had arranged the course for us, excitement and anticipatory nerves had been replaced by confusion and terror. Why? Because those who think they know best had filled my head with useful tips to help make the day go as well as possible. Confusion reigned! What was it the left hand controlled? Clutch? Brake? – HELP!

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Learning to Ride a Motorbike

Apart from a close brush with a scooter years ago on a holiday with a girlfriend, I haven’t been near a motorbike.

However, I now feel totally immersed in the biking culture and have come away fluent! Actually that’s rather an exaggeration, but I do feel as if my understanding and knowledge has taken a leap on the learning curve.

I spent a long but amazing day at Bedford Autodrome where we were treated to a day of motorbikes. Mostly men, and mostly decked out in their biking gear.

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Honda CR-V Cruise Control

I’m just not a cruising type of girl.

To me it smacks of being out of control and has the potential to be highly dangerous. I still have in the back of my mind my father telling me the tale of someone’s cruise control getting stuck with disastrous consequences. Where he’d heard such nonsense I’ve no idea, but it still spooked me to the point where I’ve gone for 30 years of driving never having operated this button.

Very recently, I stepped out of my comfort zone and pressed it. I actually felt I had very little choice in the matter. I’d been given strict instructions and a practical demonstration – while the car was stationary, so not that practical – by tech man Paul. I was preparing for my journey north with three kids and two cats in tow – alone again as John, true to form, was playing the absent father.

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Honda Civic Type S

Our Review First Published March 2008

Honda’s latest Civic flavour – the Type S – is pitched as a sporty three-door hatch just below the ultra-quick Type R. It’s billed as a more comfortable, less expensive and less, well, extreme alternative to the Type R, I was keen to see how it coped with the demands of family life with the usual kids, shopping and mess that entails. Could it do all that and knock a few years off as well? Let’s have a look… More >