Honda CR-Z Luxury 2012 review

Will this car, Honda's second hybrid coupe, enrich your life or is the car doomed to be labelled a laboratory experiment?

The answer may lie in the now obsolete Honda Insight of 2002 - an aerodynamic shell stretched over a hybrid powertrain with spartan trim and only two seats. It was too much for Australians - still rooted in big, airy cars with thumping engines - and died quietly a few years later.

If we are now mature enough to accept a hybrid coupe "sports car'' then the CR-Z is a winner. If not, then it follows the original Insight into the nation's automotive gutter.

Regardless, the CR-Z is a commendable effort. Honda did it where Toyota would never be so bold. It shows that sports and hybrid can live in the same sentence. For that reason alone, it's a car worthy of attention, perhaps even purchase.

Value

Not really value-for-money but it's difficult to compare apples with oranges, so the CR-Z faces potential rivals on price and - like a 1970s Citroen - quirkiness. As a hybrid it's a bit of a failure because today the colour green has more than three doors.

Buy the sober, family-trained Civic Hybrid instead. As a "sports car'' it should have lots of grunt, especially given this faces off against the similarly-priced Golf GTI. It doesn't. But as a package, it's very well equipped with a host of features.

The $40,790 Luxury tester is an automatic but you can save almost $6000 with the manual-gearbox Sport version that has a bit less kit.

Design

Love the front but as the walk-around progresses, the smile diminishes. Again, it has the flavour of the decade-old Insight coupe but messes up the old car's clean tail and aircraft-look side profile.

Inside it's a scattergun of switches and a disagreeable collaboration of analogue and digital readouts. The dashtop is made of bits of hard plastic. But it's different.

There are two seats in the back which are useless. The boot is smallish but typifies the coupe market. No, not a family car.

Technology

Honda's hybrid drivetrain is unlike the Toyota system because there is no split between the 1.5-litre petrol engine and the electric motor. Both run together at all times. That makes life simple for the owner and ostensibly improves fuel economy because the motor assists a relatively small-bore engine.

Reality is a bit different. Some ancillary services are electrically-drive - the steering assist for example - but that's about the limit of the car's unconventionality. The car's big batteries that power the electric motor are charged automatically by the engine and when the car is coasting or braking.

Safety

Honda are pretty hot on safety and the CR-Z doesn't miss the bus. It's a five-star crash rated car and has - surprisingly - six airbags including head bags for whoever can fit in the back seat.

There's also all the electronic safety aids, four-wheel disc brakes, a reverse camera and heated side mirrors. The spare is a space-saver.

Driving

The driving position is certainly sporty. The leather seats wrap the body, the small-diameter steering wheel is perfectly placed and forward and side vision is adequate. But any desire to accelerate quickly is met by a noisy engine.

Even tyre roar is noticeable. But it's quick-ish and feels firm on the road, so meets the basic sports-car parameters. Even corners show the handling is accurate, even if the electric steering takes some time to adjust.

There are paddle shifters on the steering wheel to "manualise'' the CVT auto. The pre-emptive stop-start system works before you even stop at the red traffic light - weird - but even that didn't improve my average of 6.5 l/100km - a bit high given its technology - against the claimed 4.7 l/100km.

Verdict

Nice drive but two-person cabin, high price and stiff opposition with more conventional cars don't help its case. But a big elephant stamp to Honda for doing it.