[akshar890]

Great review guys.
I have a kind of Love - Hate relationship with this car.
I havent seen it in person , but im not a fan of a vehicle that is supposed to be an SUV but looks a lot like a MUV.

[RavenAvi]

Wonderful review, Rehaan & Aditya. Rated it a completely deserving 5-full-stars!

The BR-V is a competent product, no doubt. It's practical, has good road presence, and is a fitting answer to the Duster/Terrano twins in the compact SUV segment. I am sure the BR-V i-VTEC would be the first choice of many customers who are looking for a value for money option in this particular price range.

What Honda overdid, IMO, was the pricing. In spite of the BR-V being a 7-seater, Honda should have ideally priced it at at least 35,000-45,000 rupees below the City (variant to variant). That way, the City could have retained it's premium image and the BR-V could have come across as the more practical Honda to own. Once the product found takers in the market, Honda could have raised the prices later. The Japanese auto major has clearly over-milked the Brio platform with the BR-V!

As things stand, the top of the line BR-V i-DTEC VX is encroaching XUV500 territory! With that lacklustre dashboard and plenty of glaring omissions features-wise, the BR-V could have been a sellout if it undercut it's rivals even by a small margin when it was introduced. Now, customers have a choice to go the premium route (Creta) or the practical route (Duster). Of course, a segment below they have the likes of the Vitara Brezza & the EcoSport to choose from. The pricing was tricky and crucial, but I have a feeling Honda blew it on this very important aspect.

Like it or not, the BR-V is in for a tough fight in the days to come. Sales figures should be interesting to track 6 months down the line.

[AYP]

Excellent review. Rating it 5 stars.

I like the front and rear of the BR-V over that of the Creta. However, the Creta's design is more proportionate. The major reason behind the MPV look fuss is the 'Mobilio'. The BRV is a redesigned Mobilio and not a completely new car which Honda is marketing as an SUV. People remember the Mobilio as an MPV/MUV. There are a few SUVish elements in the car but as the basic proportions are similar, people are reminded of the Mobilio(which is an MPV) and thus, the criticism about the side profile(MPVish look).

If there was no Mobilio, then I don't think there would have been all this fuss. Yes, a few BHPians may have commented on the slightly narrow width and the longish side profile of the car and that would have been it. We would have accepted it as an SUV. And we still do, as Honda markets it as an SUV and it is indeed a mini-SUV.

That being said, I can see a new sub-segment being created here. Currently, there is no monocoque SUV costing less than 15 lakhs which offers 7/8 seats(not counting the XUV W4). All the other cars like Creta and the Duster can seat only 5 people. The Lodgy can seat 7 people, but it is an MPV and not an SUV.
If this car even finds reasonable success(3-4k units per month), I guess we will be seeing more such 7 seater SUV's in the C segment, perhaps with better proportioned dimensions.

At the end of it, I think that the Creta would still be the segment leader because of these factors-

1. It looks better proportioned.
2. Has a more SUV like look.
3. Option of automatic diesel(and now even petrol).
4. Better interiors.
5. More features.
6. Better diesel engine.

The biggest USP of the BRV are those 7 seats. Let us see how the market responds to this one.

A few questions/comments from my side-
1. What did Honda gain by having two different steering wheel designs? Cost benefits?
2. I think that for the Indian market(or any left hand driving market) the armrest should be integrated with the left side of the rear seat(especially if it is adjustable for length and angle) as that is the place where 'Sethji' will be sitting while being chauffeured around.

[SmartCat]

Automatic for city drives? Check!
3 row comfortable seating? Check!
Large Boot space with all rows up? Check!
High Ground Clearance for bad roads? Check!
Compact Size? Check!
Japanese Reliability? Check!

The BR-V has its set of flaws, but when it comes to PRACTICALITY, it takes on the competition like this guy -



I think Honda should call it the PR-V (Practical Runabout Vehicle)

[dr. sen]

Hello.
Great review, as usual. A deservedly 5 Star rating for the review. Honda has come out with a product,which is technically sound, and has spread its eggs, large and wide; covering, nearly all MUVs and SUVs at one go. from humble Ertiga to XUV500. And there lies the mistake. It has no unique identity nor appeal, except for the Honda Badge, and the technological finesse, peace of mind and status appeal it comes with.

At a quick glance from the front, it looked like a modified tata storme, on steroids (a la dc work). From behind, it looks like, some one wanted to increase the loading bay, so stretched the mobilio, and stuck some funny looking, out of place tail light.

My take, is, it wont give numbers to honda, which it needs badly, after the city. Something strange has happened at honda. Somehow it has managed to make its cars, muvs, and suvs ugly. Pure Ugly and Emotionless.

Look at the City, How it managed to destroy wonderful, 'arrow' front, and come out with the ugly looking next-gen , mid life changeover.

I bet, all Honda lovers like me are at loss, How, honda has 'Lost its' golden touch, with its, brio, city change over, mobilio, brv. The jazz, is 'okayish', neither here neither there.

It has nothing in its stable like the old civic, new crv, or arrow faced city. I am hugely disappointed.

Regards

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Trying to figure out how BRV sits 20mm taller than Creta off the ground, while being 36mm taller overall. Never realized this till a member pointed it out yesterday.

The height difference, if any seems negligible. But the length and the low waist line makes the BRV look much shorter than it really is in specs-

[manishkapadia]

There are a lot of positives going for the BRV and in my opinion it will sell well.

1. 7 Rows of Seats. Big plus point. Even if one uses it occasionally, its good to have and a great selling point.
2. Diesel that is not Over 2000 CC. Lot of Prospective Innova diesel buyers will look here. People do not want to spend a million bucks and have a hanging sword of law that their automobiles will not be usable after a decade. In fact if drivability and fuel economy is good then I wouldn't be surprised to see some Mobilio and BRV in the transport sector as well, specially in NCR and Kerala where large diesels are banned. If similar rule happens in say other parts of country its safer to buy a smaller displacement engine.
3. Petrol iVtec Engine + CVT for those with low running. 1.5 iVtec is still the best petrol engine available in the market around this price range.
4. Overall Fuss Free ownership . Hondas are relatively trouble free. Not talking about niggles here, So 4th Gen Honda City owners please don't take out your swords
5. Part Sharing with Brio, Amaze keeps cost of spares low. I can bet that the consumable spares of BRV would be much lower than the CRV. So this is an SUV that is easier on the pocket.
6. Three to Seven year warranties means Honda has confidence in the product. This car is "Lambi Race ka Ghoda"

[Glessrob]

Very Good to see another car on Indian Roads with 5 Star safety rating. I will not call this an SUV since it cannot be with Front Wheel Drive and no AWD options. However, this will be an excellent MPV choice for people who need more space or seating options.

One question though based on the following information I got:

"Silly move of the month = heat absorbing windshield only on the top variant:"

How many cars/mpvs in India have heat rejection windshield ? I am highly interested in everything heat rejection due to the Sunfilm ban.

[shivs2003]

Fantastic Review.

IMO, the BR-V does not live up to the expectations of a Honda car. Why are they trying to appeal to the 7 seater MPV customer and the crossover customers with one car?

From the side, it looks downright MPV. No doubt about it. The tyres look small and even post a size upgrade, it will look like an elephant on stilts.

I expected a lot more from HCIL in terms of a crossover.

The Creta seems like a far more usable crossover from all aspects. Engine, looks, Interiors, Automatic, all of these go to Creta.

[humyum]

Excellent Review as always covering every aspect of the car. A well deserved 5 star.

What I find strange is, why the limiting of top speed to 140? I mean, 140 kmph is the new 155 mph for Honda, this is a real bummer, I don't advocate overspeeding, but Honda deciding that on my behalf is also a No No.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by manishkapadia

2. Diesel that is not Over 2000 CC. Lot of Prospective Innova diesel buyers will look here. People do not want to spend a million bucks and have a hanging sword of law that their automobiles will not be usable after a decade. In fact if drivability and fuel economy is good then I wouldn't be surprised to see some Mobilio and BRV in the transport sector as well, specially in NCR and Kerala where large diesels are banned. If similar rule happens in say other parts of country its safer to buy a smaller displacement engine.

This is partially correct IMO.

1. Diesel engines more than 2000cc are banned. So private buyers might look at the BRV as an alternative to the Innova Crysta and other bigger people movers. This is an advantage for Honda.

However -
2. Commercial sector is excluded from above ban. So they might still prefer the bigger vehicles.
3. Honda is targetting Mobilio for commercial sector. BRV probably wont be sold to commercial sector for fear of diluting the SUV image.
4. As per the Kerala ruling, all diesels vehicles are at risk after 10 years of ownership - be it more or lesser than 2000cc. So no advantage here as well.

[abhishek46]

Top speed has been electronically limited to 140 kph?
Isnt 140Kmph too low for 15lakh Rupee car, that too with 1.5 litre engines?
I am sure the 1.5 diesel has enough grunt to achieve speeds of 160KMPH+.
And the petrol also has enough power to cross 160-170KMPH.

So, why such a handicap. Is it because they think the brio based chassis cant handle it? (Just thinking)

Even my humble 1.2 MPI Polo & 1.2 I10 can do better (Given some space) in terms of pure top speed.

Also, is the below another side effect of using the streched brio platform?
"The petrol variant has a turning radius of 5.3 meters, while the diesel's is larger at 5.5 meters"

The final fly in the ointment is the seating arrangement.
5 Persons can travel in good comfort (needed during long highway trips) in other cars and SUVs of this price range.
The BR-V can seat 6 people in total, that is okay. But how many of them will be in good comfort? Only 4.

[Sommos]

Thanks to Aditya and Rehaan for a beautiful review of the BRV, was waiting for this for some time. My observations on this car are as follows :

# Creta is the best looking compact SUV at present and has all the bells and whistles, whereas the Duster/ Terrano is best in handling and comfort. The BRV is no competition for any of the above.
# The seven seats is a big plus point for the BRV and we need to wait and see how the market accepts that.
# The excellent driveability of both the diesel and the already renowned petrol engine should be a hit with majority of the people.
# the 5 star rating for the BRV in the ASEAN NCAP crash tests is welcome news.
# I had never heard of these things (say three or four years back) about a Honda car :
- Wide panel gaps around the bonnet & tailgate areas.
- Below par finishing/ ill fitting body parts or lack of attention to details.
- Mediocre quality (hard and scratcy) plastic parts in the interiors.
- Jugaad technology being used for the middle row seat belt mount.

Originally Posted by BUXX

Thanks for a great comprehensive review- just a few Qs:
1. Do the seats have ISOFIX?

Coming to Child Occupant Protection (COP), the car met 72% compliance of the test and achieved a 4-star rating. ISOFIX and top tether are standard across variants of the BR-V.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

As per the Kerala ruling, all diesels vehicles are at risk after 10 years of ownership...

It is the same in NCR as well as Kerala, I think, 10 years for diesel cars and 15 years for petrol cars.

[CGB]

Excellent review. Rated 5 stars. BR-V seems to be much more practical than Mobilio in every angle and it's no doubt that Mobilio was off the stands in showrooms across India. And the sporty steering in my city made a comeback

Honda should equip the city with the new Six-speed manual gearbox as it'll boost the FE and makes the car much more relaxed in highways.

[NikhilReddy]

WOW! amazing review. Super job Aditya. For all those who want a reliable 7 seater under INR 15L price bracket, with good safety features and mileage this is the car to go. Honda could have put the segment on fire had it priced INR 50K to 60K less than the current price, and could have increased the prices later. Remember what FORD EcoSport to the segment when it was launched. Subsequently they increased the price by more than INR 1 Lac. They ruled the segment till the competition launched new products. I strongly feel Honda has missed a great opportunity by pricing it closer to the market leader Creta.