Honda ZR-V 2026 review | Spacious and comfortable family SUV

What is the Honda ZR-V?

The ZR-V is another entrant into the hugely popular midsize SUV class, competing with cars such as the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson and Mazda CX-5. This is one of the most hotly contested areas of the car market, and buyers are spoiled for choice.

It’s designed to neatly plug the gap in Honda’s SUV line-up between the smaller HR-V and bigger CR-V. Unsurprisingly, given its similar size and positioning, it shares much with its hatchback sibling: the latest, 11th-generation Honda Civic. That’s a strong starting point, because the Civic is one of the best cars of its type. So can the ZR-V replicate the Civic’s brilliance?

How practical is it?

Compared with the Civic on which it’s based, the ZR-V is ever so slightly longer overall but has a fractionally shorter wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear axles). Its boot can swallow 380 litres of luggage, which is broadly comparable with a hatchback such as a Volkswagen Golf, but notably smaller than many SUV rivals like the Nissan Qashqai or Kia Sportage. It’s also less than the 410 litres offered by the Civic. Choose the range-topping Advance model and your boot actually loses a further 10 litres of capacity due to the bulky stereo subwoofer. Having said all that, the 60:40 split rear seats do fold down to leave an impressively flat loadbay.

Despite its shorter wheelbase, the ZR-V’s back seats are even roomier than the Civic’s. Rear legroom feels just as generous – in other words, very – but while taller passengers can feel a fraction hemmed in in the Civic, headroom in the ZR-V is more plentiful. Thankfully, there’s no attempt at a sloping coupe-like roofline here. The middle seat of the three is rather narrow and firm, though, so the ZR-V is better suited to carrying four adults than five, even if the flat floor means there’s no transmission tunnel eating into foot space.

In terms of interior design, you’ll recognise lots of commonality with the Civic, and that’s a very good thing. You get a similar dashboard design, with the same metallic honeycomb strip that houses the air vents. Elsewhere there are physical buttons and dials for controlling the air-con.

The other thing you’ll recognise from the Civic is the quality on show. The vast majority of the materials look and feel impressively classy, and the build tolerances feel very tight indeed. It all conspires to give a generally classy and sophisticated feel.

What’s it like to drive?

The ZR-V has the same ‘HEV’ hybrid powertrain as the Civic (not the high-performance Civic Type R hot hatchback, obviously), which means it combines a 2.0-litre non-turbocharged direct-injection Atkinson-cycle petrol engine with two electric motors. This delivers a combined output of 184bhp. It’s what you might call a self-charging hybrid, so you don’t plug it in. Instead, it recharges itself using energy recycled through braking and deceleration.

The hybrid power system has various modes, and it switches between them automatically, without input from the driver. During low-speed urban driving, the car runs in EV mode whenever there’s enough juice in the battery, but when the battery runs low or stronger acceleration is needed, it switches to hybrid drive, where the wheels are propelled by the electric motor, and the necessary electric power is generated by the petrol engine. When driving at constant high speeds, like on the motorway, the system switches to Engine Drive mode, where the wheels are powered by the engine directly.

As far as performance goes, the ZR-V's 0-62mph figure is between 7.8 and 8.0 seconds, depending on specification, while it picks up eagerly from just about anywhere in the rev range. Getting up to speed feels relaxed and easy.

The petrol engine does sound a bit raucous when it’s required to work hard, but that doesn’t often happen. The switches between the various hybrid modes are perceptible, but they’re always smooth and unobtrusive.

As well as the hybrid modes, you can also toggle between four driving modes: Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow. However, these only vary the throttle response, and the effect is very marginal, so you’ll barely notice the difference.

Elsewhere, the ZR-V’s driving dynamics have a similarly laid-back attitude to the powertrain. That’s not exactly surprising when the front end of the platform is picked straight from the similarly-relaxed Civic. The ZR-V changes direction reasonably sharply, with strong grip and decent suppression of body-roll, with steering that’s both quick and responsive, without feeling twitchy. You might actually be surprised by how weighty the steering feels, but that serves to inspire more confidence in corners.

That said, the ZR-V doesn’t have the agility of the Civic, probably because it weighs 150-200kg more than its sister car. That weight gain would probably also account for why fuel economy is nowhere near as good (see the ‘running costs’ section for more on that).

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The ZR-V is offered in three trim levels. Elegance is the first of them, and that comes with a very solid amount of standard luxury equipment, including dual-zone climate control, automatic lights and wipers, cruise control, electric folding door mirrors, four electric windows, LED headlights and taillights, heated front seats, front and rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera.

Then comes Sport trim, which adds a slightly sportier look, as well as powered operation for the front seat adjusters and tailgate, plus part-leatherette upholstery, ambient lighting and wireless phone charging.

Advance trim represents the top of the range, and these examples come with full leather upholstery, a head-up display, a heated steering wheel and a Bose sound system with four extra stereo speakers, on top of the eight you get in the other versions.

Other than the number of speakers, the infotainment system is the same across all specs of ZR-V, and it’s the same 9.0-inch touchscreen found in the latest Civic. That’s a good thing, because it’s much better than the hopeless system used in older Hondas. The graphics are better, the responses are quicker, and the whole system is much more logical and intuitive. It also supports all the functionality you’d expect, including Bluetooth, DAB, navigation, Android Auto connectivity and wireless Apple CarPlay.

Honda ZR-V running costs

The ZR-V is far from the cheapest model in its class, with prices ranging from around £35,000 to £40,000, making it more expensive than the likes of a Nissan Qashqai or Skoda Karoq. Some of this is on account of its hybrid powertrain, although in fairness the Renault Austral uses hybrid power and can be bought for thousands less than the Honda.

Fuel economy is also slightly disappointing given its hybrid credentials. Despite sharing many of the Civic’s oily bits, the (borderline inexplicable) extra weight the ZR-V carries means it has more of a thirst than its hatchback sibling. It manages just shy of 50mpg in the official tests, versus the Civic’s 56mpg.

Honda ZR-V reliability

After some wobbles in recent years, Honda has returned to the top of the What Car? Reliability Survey in 2025, making it one of the most dependable manufacturers in Britain. A lot of this was down to popular models like the Jazz, Civic and HR-V. However, given the fact that the ZR-V shares a platform with the Civic, this bodes well for the reliability of the SUV.

The warranty package you get isn’t bad: three years or 60,000 miles is about the industry standard (or rather, the bare minimum you should expect on a new car), but Honda will cover you for three years or 90,000 miles – whichever happens first. The hybrid system, meanwhile, is covered for five years or 90,000 miles.