Honda FR-V 2.2 i-CTDi DIESEL
Hondas FR-V IS At Its Best When Fitted With A 2.2-Litre i-CTDi Diesel Engine. Andy Enright Explains Why
Lets talk about torque. This is a concept not wholly understood by many who profess to know a great deal about cars. Put simply, torque is a force that tends to rotate or turn things. You generate torque any time you apply a force using a spanner.
Tightening your wheel nuts is a good example. In a car, the engine converts the horsepower it generates into torque by turning the crank shaft. There are actually a number of reasons why diesel engines make so much torque, but the big reasons are stroke length, turbocharger boost, and average effective cylinder pressure. The end result is that if you choose a diesel
Honda FR-V over its petrol counterparts, youll end up with a car that feels stronger and more effortless to drive.
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This engine has already proved enormously popular in the Accord line up and its not difficult to see why. To date there has been no smoother diesel engine developed for this class of car; all the more surprising when you pause to consider that this one develops a hefty 139bhp. The man in charge of the turbo diesel engine project that produced this impressive unit was Hondas Senior Chief Engineer Kenichi Nagahiro. Hes the same man who created the VTEC concept that ultimately led the company up a slight dead end in this corner of the market, so
Honda are putting a lot of faith in his engineering genius to pull them through.
This engine has already proved itself in the Accords compact executive saloon market sector by delivering both more torque and better fuel economy than both the
Audi A4 TDi130 and BMWs 320td. More soundproofing and thicker window glass help to isolate the diesel grumble and its genuinely tricky to aurally differentiate it from a petrol engine at normal cruising speeds. Youll know its a diesel when you put your foot down. The 340Nm of torque mean that its the most torquey Honda engine currently available, putting even the NSX sportster in the shade.
Mid range acceleration is very crisp and typical motorway speeds see the engine revolving at a very restrained gait. The sprint to 60mph will detain you for just 9.9 seconds. Emissions are another area where the Honda excels, already complying with the tough Euro IV regulations that will slice another three per cent from company users tax demands.
The figure of 167g/km is excellent given that the FR-V is such a well built vehicle.
"The FR-Vs diesel is the best in this class"
Honda also offer a package called the Easy Car Option (ECO) with the FR-V and its a very good one aimed at the sort of private buyers who will form the bulk of the cars clientele. ECO consists of two parts. The first is a five-year servicing deal thats covered by a one-off £330 payment. In this regard, its not unlike the revolutionary deal offered by
MINI.
The clever part of this is that Honda realise that many owners will keep the car for three years and can then sell the car on with two years servicing thrown in, nicely plumping up the residual value of the car. The second aspect to ECO is a very attractively priced comprehensive insurance arrangement that offers three years cover for £1,300. Obviously there are a few conditions in order to get the insurance but its a very reasonably priced deal, especially when one considers that no matter how many times you make a claim in the intervening three years, the one-off payment keeps you covered. Quite how you go about getting insurance thereafter is quite a different matter! Together, the servicing and insurance deal will save the average owner around £1,000.
Eventually this deal may well be rolled out across the whole Honda range, but for the time being its an exclusive reserved solely for FR-V customers. With three seats abreast, youre always mindful of the fact that this is a wide car when threading it down city streets but break out the tape measure and a different story emerges. Despite its seating layout, the FR-V is in fact a tad narrower than cars like the
Ford Focus C-MAX and is exactly the same width of as a
Renault Scenic, itself hardly a bloater. Honda make great play of the fact that with a short overall length, the car is easy to park and indeed it is, the wheel at each corner design giving it a beautifully tight turning circle.
Handling doesnt feel quite as composed as some of the better cars in this class, the stiff chassis and short wheelbase having a tough time resolving high-frequency bumps and jolts from the road surface. The brakes and gearchange are up to the usual Honda standard. Unfortunately so is the steering, which feels overly artificial in the way it weights up as speed increases. As far as accommodation goes, the FR-V is a tight squeeze if you attempt to fit six blokes in it but it can cope at a pinch, so as to speak.
The three rear seats all fold individually and also fold flat into the floor with one swift action per
seat which makes the FR-V a boon for those that want to pursue a few kid-free lifestyle activities at the weekends. If you do want four plus baggage, youll need to sit three abreast at the front. To do this youll need to slide the middle seat back a little to clear shoulder room and to ensure the centre passengers knees dont foul the gear lever. With the centre front seat slid back, its impossible to fold the centre rear seat flat, so this becomes the seat that has to be used.
Unfortunately this also means that if the car is full of baggage, youll have to either remove bags to access/exit the car or clamber over them. Hardly the most elegant design solution. Although the FR-V isnt perfect in its packaging, it is nevertheless the best car of its ilk. Whats more, the diesel engine fitted is undoubtedly the most satisfying powerplant in the FR-V stable.
It may not be the obvious choice, but Hondas FR-V 2.2 i-CTDi might just be the most intelligent. Â FACTS AT A GLANCE CAR: Honda FR-V 2.2 i-CTDi PRICES: £17,230-£17,930 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 10-11 CO2 EMISSIONS: 167g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 10.1s / Max Speed 118mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 35.3mpg / (extra urban) 53.3mpg / (combined) 44.8mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags / ABS with EBD / ISOFIX child seat fixings WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4285/1810/1610mm WHO TO SEE: June 13th 2005
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