Considering that I have rented a vehicle manufactured by the Honda Motor Company only twice during my years of travel all over the world — an Accord in the United States on a fluke; and a CR-V in New Zealand — motor vehicles which are manufactured by Honda are typically not available at rental car facilities because Honda does not sell fleets of vehicles for a variety of reasons, as I first explained in this article here at The Gate on Sunday, June 12, 2022…
Well…I Rented a Honda. The Verdict Is…
…so imagine my surprise when I spotted two vehicles which were manufactured by Honda in a small parking lot outside of a Hertz local edition facility in Georgia while I was returning a car which I used for a week…
…and I have recently rented another vehicle manufactured by the Honda Motor Company: a black 2022 Honda HR-V, which is a subcompact crossover sport utility vehicle. The model name HR-V supposedly means Hi-rider Revolutionary Vehicle. The odometer clocked in at 17,117 miles when I picked up the vehicle.
The vehicle was fully equipped with real-time all-wheel drive, which I never had the opportunity to use; a road departure mitigation system; a collision mitigation braking system; a rear-view camera; adaptive cruise control; a moonroof; heated front seats; climate control; Apple Car Play and the equivalent for Android; two Universal Serial Bus ports in the front and one in the rear; and many other features.
Despite the manual controls to adjust the seat in different ways, I found the seat to be slightly uncomfortable; and the leg room for the driver was surprisingly stingy. I could only move or rest my legs in so many ways, which is not conducive for a long drive of several hours.
While not the worst leg room I have ever seen in the rear seats of a rental vehicle, the rear seats of the Honda HR-V did not exactly offer generous leg room either.
Space in the hatchback was quite ample; and it can be expanded in several ways, thanks to the split rear seats which fold down.
The ride was rather noisy at highway speeds; and the highest gasoline mileage I could eke out of this vehicle was 29.5 miles per gallon — which could be worse but was certainly not impressive. No difference in gasoline mileage was noticed when the green Economy button was activated.
Using the adaptive cruise control actually further reduced the miles per gallon; but I believe that was because of the adaptive part of the cruise control. Even though it had three adjustable modes in terms of distance from the vehicle in front, the adaptive part caused the vehicle to suddenly slow down and speed up. It was deactivated for better gasoline mileage. The cruise control eventually failed altogether when it started to constantly deactivate on its own.
Final Boarding Call
My experience with the 2022 Honda HR-V was somewhat of a disappointment overall — but the Honda Motor Company has completely redesigned the HR-V for 2023.
Honda has been my favorite brand of car for years, as I mentioned in this article pertaining to the most loved and hated brands of cars in each country around the world — and although I am still partial to the brand, I found that by renting cars, other brands have been catching up with improved quality and increased functionality.
I have rented hundreds of different vehicles over the years from manufacturers such as Ford, Fiat, Kia, Chevrolet, Nissan, Citroën, Seat, Lincoln, Cadillac, Toyota, and Chrysler as only eleven of many examples — but I have only rented a vehicle manufactured by Honda twice…
…until now.
That I would rent a Honda not long after writing this article pertaining to why Hondas are not available as rental vehicles is just my luck.
I was initially excited about renting a Honda — but the rental itself was not without problems, which I covered in this article…
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
