[-xplora-]

I have never been a big fan of the Honda India cars, love the Linea MJD E which I own since several years. Am in the market for SUV / pseudo SUV / Crossover since a year and lot of launches have taken place. My first requirement is petrol AT. If Abarth / Fiat launched a good automatic I would not look at anything else.Budget 10 to 18L. Had booked Ecosport due to its PowerShift and 6 airbags, ride quality and great price cut. But back seat is too claustophobic and with 4 and a kid it is a crowded house. Creta AT at that time was only diesel and I wanted petrol, now with the Creata AT petrol was almost final.

Comes along BR-V. Much bigger, not that its 7 seats are the most useful feature. The fact that if you are on a holiday for more than a few days with 4-5 people, most of the 5 seaters are a cramp. You need really good boot space. so 691 ltr with the option of having half the seat up to make it a comfortable 5 seater still have 450 odd ltrs boot. nothing to say about the iVTEC engine as its the most successful petrol engine. Like the front styling quite a bit.

You have to give Honda great marks for the "psychi" play on the naming especially for a regular buyer. Say if this vehicle was called "Mobilio Active" or similar would it sell the same ? Suddenly "BR-V" becomes the less powerful smaller sibling of "CR-V" which is 32 lacs OTR ! and less than half the price OTR it looks "interesting".

Paddle-shifters for CVT is a must, and its great to have that in other-wise boring linear feel. Projector headlamps, Honda reliability, iVtec, rear AC, 7 seater, All seats folding, one-touch tumble, better mileage in AT, SUVish look and feel, all for a premium of 3 - 3.5 lacs over Ecosport AT or Creta AT with same pricing and more space makes it a competitive buy. What was Honda thinking while omitting Touchscreen AVN especially in AT / VX versions ? Retro-fitting has warranty issues. This could be a deal-breaker for many.

In any case, have pre-booked the BR-V, am on the way to the dealer now to check the vehicle out and TD the AT, will book it if the ride quality is good and body-roll is less. Would have loved the green color though.

[DriveOnceMore]

Pricing is slightnly on higher side than what I have expected but still a competitve price.
I have to see the car in person before commenting, but I can't understand why every blogger out there is quoting BR-V as a facelift of Mobilio.
In pictures, the stance of both cars looks totally different and I can easily pick BR-V just for the way it looks.

BR-V is not going to shake the market but surely set the cash registers ringing for Honda.

[autorahul]

I think BR-V to Creta will be what Jazz was to i20. It will sell decently well, around 3000 units a month, which is not a failure at any scale, but not close enough to torment Creta. What it has done is now Hyundai will have to watch out price increases in Creta, as it has got a capable challenger in its midst. This is the car for people looking out for high GC car and can't afford to go for XUV500, or those put off by boot space in Creta, and don't like Duster.

I also fully expect BR-V E-MT to have a presence in taxi segment, in the space vacated by Innova, with the price of Crysta.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by autorahul

I think BR-V to Creta will be what Jazz was to i20.

Not a fair comparison IMHO. I think the BR-V will do better, mainly for 1 reason: 7 seats. I think it'll eat up some bookings from the Creta.

But for people who strictly want a 5 seater, I think Creta is still a fantastic (but overpriced) package.

[drive2eternity]

The pricing isn't groundbreaking, but it is definitely competitive.
The BR-V is quite a niche car and it comes with the Honda badge. These two factors should be enough to give it the initial sales push. How it progresses depends on Honda and their ability to hold prices.

As mentioned here already, I too think it will settle down in a comfortable 3-4k per month sales, not bothering the Creta much.

[pravint]

S variant has almost all necessary features and is also priced very well.
This will be most sold variant IMO .

[wrongturn]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Comparison with Creta and Duster

Attachment 1503895

# BR-V is the longest in segment and offers 7 seats

Duster - for ride and handling
Creta - for interior fit and finesse and the CRDi
BR-V - for 7 seats

Here is a picture that would give an idea about the dimensions of Creta & Mobilio. i20 & Verna also present.
I was looking forward to the BR-V pricing and though it is priced better than Creta, they could have still priced it about 50K less to start with specially after the Mobilio debacle.
Sorry for the bad picture quality.

[Doge]

Originally Posted by BUXX

Lotsa safety features missing from the international versions: ISOFIX, Side Impact Beams, Stability Control, Hill Launch etc..
Pricing is along expected lines.

Comparing the BRV CVT to the City CVT .. this will be similarly priced.. about 13.35L OTR in Delhi !!! Buying !!!!

Are you sure it doesn't have side impact beams? Or meant side airbags? Emitting side impact beams is a grave omission. I know from experience that Honda makes some cheap tin cans but this is frankly very greedy of them to cut costs like this ,if true.

[Karthik Chandra]

Screenshot from brochure. I'm unable to attach the brochure since the file size is > 5MB





The V trim is pretty loaded and misses out on the leather package, LED position lamps, Heat absorbing windshield and Auto up function on driver side window over the VX. Nothing much that one can't live without.

Pls find the brochure in the attached link

https://www.hondacarindia.com/BRV/Ho...V-Brochure.pdf

[BUXX]

Originally Posted by Doge

Are you sure it doesn't have side impact beams? Or meant side airbags? Emitting side impact beams is a grave omission. I know from experience that Honda makes some cheap tin cans but this is frankly very greedy of them to cut costs like this ,if true.

I am going by the Indonesian brochure and the Product videos, which clearly mention these specific safety features in the BR-V being sold there. Its missing from the description on Honda India's BR-V page.

Not the first time that a manufacturer would have offered a safety-cut version locally.

[TSIched'Out]

At these prices, BR-V will Rest in Peace after couple of months of hoopla. The target market for BRV or similar cheap 7/8 seater is:

1. Someone who is looking for a compromised last row space
2. Someone who would need last row for short drives within City
3. Someone who would need couple of long drives for 7/8 in a year

For the above set, Ertiga is a much better and cheaper choice as its variants are priced Rs 2.5 Lac plus (OTR) cheaper than BR-V (both offer compromised space in the third row by the way). For the ones who need proper 7/8 seaters, XUV and Innova are the options to go to and their lowest variants are within the price range of BR-V.

And with this, gone are the chances of Honda to sell 3 Lacs vehicle in a year in India.

[deemash]

Eagerly waiting for the team-bhp test drive report of the BRV.

[Hvt77]

Originally Posted by deemash

Eagerly waiting for the team-bhp test drive report of the BRV.

The billion dollar (or Rs 8-12 Lakhs!!) question: When is the TBHP review coming up? Was hoping it would have come by the weekend after the media drive....

But then, neither has it come out for the Crysta launched 3 days back!

Mods, we are eagerly awaiting that super-detailed review plz!

[-xplora-]

First Brief TD of the BR-V:

Dealership Experience: Top-notch. I called and the rep with whom I had pre-booked was there to welcome me outside. There was a Tuffate White VX in the showroom. checked it out, they helped for tumbling seats, opening and closing doors etc. and TD was arranged in 10 minutes.

Ford should definitely learn from them, my experience with both ford dealers in Ahmedabad was really bad, especially the one I was planning to buy from.

Exteriors:

I was super relieved that everyone mentioned its "mobilio" "mini-van" from side profile, it is not. Yes it has the lines of mobilio / amaze but it does not look as bad as everyone is talking about. BR-V looks much much better in person then in pictures. Front is very good as expected. Not a big fan of the back but cannot complain either. The rear overhang is there but then that is there with any 7 seater including several SUVs.

Headlamps are nicely setup, chunky grill makes it definitely SUVish. Love love love the diamond cut wheels, I would have got these after-market if they were available anyway.

Paint-job, looked good, BR-V looks excellent in white. I was not planning for white now I am in two minds .

Interiors:

First welcome thing is that Ingress and Egress are very comfortable and smooth. My father loves the Wagon-R just for that one reason, and I can clearly say it is not too low neither too high like XUV 500. Just perfect.

Doors:
Doors are typical tinny Honda, don't expect Fiat or Ford kind of solid thuds. Lots of spaces for putting water bottles, phone etc. even in the last row. Door handles were chrome but had a weird chrome back plate on it that looked just horrible and out of place. I wanted to ask the dealer if that can be removed, thank God its an "additional accessory" . Speaker positioning is good, twitter positioning on the A piller is a little odd, should have found a better place.

Dashboard:
Very good clean lines, fit and finish is nice, plastics are good. But the center console is just 1990s. Even if they missed the AVN they audio system and BT system look like two things patched together to make it work somehow and it does not. ACC console is very neat and functional. Driver side controls / dash / dials / MID etc. are nice nothing to take home about. I would have liked steering mounted controls on both sides rather than just the audio / BT controls. But there is no AVN / CanBus stuff / Reverse sensors / camera etc. so no need to navigate much I guess.

Seats:
I sat in both "V" version and "VX" version, I preferred the fabric of the V, but its personal, the leather seat stitching is top-notch also. Driver seat is comfortable position is good. Middle row seats have good leg-room, arm-rest is a little flimsy but then again its functional. Reclines are good positions for more comfort. One-touch tumble works just fine. Third row seats are comfortable but no under-thigh support whatsoever. The 60-40 and 50-50 split is a great combination and has oodles of space.

Boot:
Even with the third row up, one can easily fit 2 28 inch bags and a couple of back packs. I was surprised by that. obviously with the third-row down there is enough space for a 2 month holiday packing.

Enough of that, now to the TD:

TD vehicle was again white VX diesel manual which was a bummer as I wanted to TD the AT. The first thing I noticed was how "airy" the cabin is compared to other similar vehicles. It was a huge plus for me. Even in the back everything seemed spaced out just because of clever glass and design lines.

the iDtec engine is noisy and I could feel it roaring as I revved it up in neutral. Gears are short-throw but not by much. One thing I noticed was that slotting was not super accurate. Have never driven an iDtec so do not know much about this power-train. 1st and 2nd gear had enough torque to lug this thing forward, did not feel any abrupt thrust or lag. I presume the turbo is same FGT. 3rd / 4th were decent had no need to put the pedal down, but at the same time, it showed that the engine is not agile either for this size of the vehicle. Will be TDing petrol manual and AT will have different feel though. Could not try the 6th gear as did not get open roads.

Braking is good and adequate. Did try on a bit of stretch to check the body-roll, did not feel it. Asked my friend sitting in the middle row, and he felt the same. Cornering and turning was easy, did not feel like its a long car.

Steering is better than other Honda / Hyundai-esque light steerings. But is no match for Linea / Fiesta feedback. It is a good balance, light-enough for the city, and I presume decent on highways, cannot comment as my TD was short and in the city.

All in all I am a happy camper. Honda has done a commendable job with this unit. Its not a master of anything but definitely a jack of most of the things. Considering I moved from Ecosport / Creta to BR-V, as not only did I find much more value I was pleasantly surprised with the overall package. Will post a detailed TD report once I do the petrol and CVT.

[Dr.Naren]

Pricing is little higher than expected. But it is no way overpriced like how Maruti did for 1.6 S cross at launch. I find BRV a very practical family car. Fold those 3rd row seats and you have 691 litres of boot space.

Honda mentions Front axle clearance as 210 mm and not GC.