Honda CR-Z Sport 2012 Review

Price Guide (MRLP): $34,990 Sport (manual); $40,790 Luxury (CVT auto)
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Nil
Crash rating: Five-star ANCAP
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 4.7 manual & CVT
CO2 emissions (g/km): 111
Also consider:  BMW 116i (from $36,900); Mazda MX-5 ($42,460); Toyota 86 ($29,990); Volkswagen Golf GTD ($41,790)

The first hint of what’s to come with Honda’s CR-Z is on the spec sheet that comes with each media test vehicle. Under “performance”, amid all the fuel consumption and emission numbers, the space where an official 0-100 figure should be sits like a black hole swallowing the elephant in the middle of the living room.

This in a car deemed a “sports hybrid”?

Yes. But as it turns out, it’s not a spurious claim. As a sportscar, the CR-Z sits comfortably in such company as Mazda’s MX-5 and Toyobaru’s BRZ-86. It’s striking looking, relatively affordable and not that practical. It’s also not particularly fast.

If the CR-Z has a problem here, it lies not with the car itself, but with the shadow its forebears cast over it -- a shadow in the shape of a giant R.

One look at the CR-Z speaks volumes about its place in its maker’s heart. Visually, it connects several very different hero models from Honda’s recent past. In size and demeanour it evokes memories of the early CR-Xs from the 1980s and 1990s. The front end pays homage to the S2000 roadster of the 2000s, while round the haunches it dips its lid to that armadillo-ish oddity that was the first generation Insight hybrid of the late 1990s.

What better visual expression for their claim to the world’s first “sports hybrid”?

To establish its claim to that mantle, a quick history refresher is a useful thing. Anyone who’s taken the reins of a Honda Type R engine (Civic or Integra, both now defunct) knows what these people can do with four cylinders and a couple of camshafts with a bit of lateral movement.

We speak here of the chocolatey treat stashed away at the bottom of the go-cone. After a decent gallop up through its power curve, at 6850rpm, when your average 2.0-litre four is getting a bit wobbly in the knees and complaining of a stitch, it delivers a weapons-grade surge of power right up to its 8K redline.

It’s as antisocial as it is exhilarating, but go there once and you just want to go back and back, each time narrowing the odds of hitting your licence out of the ground. The S2000, also now gone to the annals, is more of same: even more whack, even higher redline...

No chance of any such mischief in the CR-Z. Indeed, some might call it disingenuous for a maker of such accomplished engines to call this a sportscar at all.

Especially in auto form. Here we have more proof – as if we needed it – of the continuously variable transmission’s (CVT) non-sporting credentials. Yes, you get seven virtual gears (set points on the CVT’s sliding scale), with paddles to navigate your way through them. By CVT standards it’s even reasonably snappy but it simply doesn’t impart the mojo that highlights a sporting drivetrain.

The six-speed manual in the base Sport ($34,990 plus ORCs) fares better. That’s something of a novelty in itself, being the only manual hybrid on the market in Australia. It’s a delight to use – nicely positioned, precise and relatively short in the throw, with a light, uncontroversial clutch action.

Honda’s simple mild hybrid formula is useful in such a setup, getting the car off the mark with a bit of boost from what amounts to an oversized starter motor. It gives the CR-Z’s otherwise rather light-duty 1.5-litre SOHC petrol four enough extra flywheel power to preclude the need for excessive revs on take-off.

Standard gear includes auto headlights and wipers, dual zone climate control and extensive computing facilities. In short, all the niceties one expects of an mid-market littlie.

It also comes with a three-way drive select system, allowing you to shift the ECU mapping between Normal, Sport and Econ(omy) modes. It covers a remarkably broad ambit -- more about that later.

Another $2300 buys a CVT auto box.

The upspec Luxury ($40,790) gets the CVT standard. Past that, its ups the kit list a fair way for a further $3500 – all the above plus full leather, a glass sunroof, seat heating, sat-nav with DVD and a reversing camera. One minor oversight lies in the central-set control screen for the sat-nav and audio. Turn on the map and you lose the clock – more bothersome than it may sound.

On the road, any claim the CR-Z makes to athletic prowess hails from the chassis, not the powertrain. And here’s the good news: down there, it concedes nothing to its high-strung forebears, bearing out that adage that it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.

Getting in, it’s a long way down. The whole thing sits low, which bodes well. Indoors, it feels nice. Snug without being cramped, even for this largish six-footer. In front, anyway. Looking at the leather rear seats in the Luxury, it’s hard not to lament that some poor beast gave its life for something so useless.

The controls have the look of a Las Vegas gaming arcade – the cockpit is nothing if not polarising. Nine year-old boys think it’s the shiz. Elderly Rolls Royce owners might call it vulgar. Editor-in-chief Sinclair suggests it’s going to look dated before the warranty’s out.

But it’s functional enough. The lurid changing hues around the speedo, for example, are there to ‘coach’ drivers, providing visual cues on how to drive more economically – they call it Eco Assist. They’ve been doing this kind of thing for some time now – the Civic Type R’s instruments turned an angry red as you approached redline. And it looks like it’s here to stay. Indeed, it’s heading downmarket into non-hybrid models – Eco Assist and its accompanying Econ drive mode have turned up since in the non-hybrid 2012 Civic hatch.

And on the right road, it is fun to drive, in the same way as an MX-5 and an 86/BRZ – yes, even with FWD. Get it on a decent ribbon of back road, hit the Sport button to the right of the instrument pod and it works.

The CR-Z’s steering puts it at the head of the electrically-assisted FWD pack, imparting a nicely weighted, nuggetty feel that turns a decent corner into a joy. There’s a bit of the predictable FWD understeer, but there’s loads of grip there in a chassis confident enough to keep the stability control on hold for quite a while.

It’s on the second half of the bend that the CR-Z reveals its major shortfall. Was it really not possible to map the ECU to make a bit more use of those electric Newtons in Sport mode?

In the absence of official figures, we found US press testing gave it 0-60mph (97km/h) in 8.3 seconds, so let’s give it an 8.5 for 0-100km/h. That’s the manual, pushed hard in Sport. Switch it to Econ and it goes like a blue-tongue on a cold day.

Granted, it does have an almost immediate effect on fuel consumption – it knocked our instantaneous mid-sevens to low-sixes in a minute or two. But really, the only use I could find for it was to get the thing away in Normal or Sport before flicking it to Econ on highways and freeways for use with the cruise. Even then, hit a hill and it drops way below the set speed, then takes forever to resume it.

The performance ambit into which they’ve fitted the drive select system is out of kilter, enough to render it more gimmick than genuine benefit. With the Econ mode so limited and the Sport mode so benign it renders Normal redundant, it’s hard to see the point.

Try as we might, we didn’t manage to match Honda’s official fuel consumption claims of 5.2L/100km urban, 4.3 highway and 4.7 combined. Most of the time we were in the low-mid 7s. Much of that time we spent in Sport mode, but that’s just where the CR-Z, manual or auto, feels most appropriate for normal driving.

The CR-Z is a product of uncertain times. We tend to assume these corporate titans really know their stuff, have more information than Google available at the click of a drill-down mouse and are therefore obliged to serve up exactly the right thing, on time and under budget. Not so, and here’s the proof that, like everyone else, Honda is feeling its way.

What it's come up with here is a unique formula with loads of aesthetic appeal, a nice feel and enough going for it on the road to warrant its price and market positioning.

It’s part way to the right stuff. Honda just needs to add a capital R.

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