Honda’s latest hybrid, the 2011 CR-Z, attempts to be both sporty and a hybrid, and it has middling success at each.
When it goes on sale Aug. 24, the CR-Z will be the first hybrid in six model years to offer a manual transmission; it will also be available with a continuously variable automatic transmission. As the spiritual successor to the wedge-shaped CRX, produced from 1984 to ’91, the two-door, two-seat CR-Z joins the five-seat Insight and Civic hybrids in Honda’s semi-electric lineup. Final pricing hasn’t been released, but Honda says the base CR-Z will cost less than $20,000 including the destination charge. The 2010 Insight is $20,550 with destination, and the Civic Hybrid starts at $24,550.
The CR-Z’s higher trim level, the EX, adds features like Bluetooth, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, aluminum shift knob (manual), aluminum pedals, additional interior accents and a more powerful stereo with a subwoofer. The all-important analog and USB MP3-player inputs are standard in all trim levels.
A navigation system effectively creates another trim level, called EX Navi, which will top out at less than $24,000 including the optional CVT but with no further options. Options will include mostly exterior and interior cosmetic “accessories,” but you can also get 17-inch summer tires in place of the standard 16-inch all-seasons.
I drove EX Navi versions, both manual and automatic.
Unexpected comfort
My first and most lasting impression was how comfortable the CR-Z’s ride is. Take a small car with sporty intentions, and you have the formula for a stiff ride. The CR-Z goes way in the other direction. The short wheelbase does result in some fore-aft rocking, but overall I found it more comfortable than some larger Hondas.
On the downside, this ostensibly sporty model exhibits a lot of body roll, a common tradeoff of a compliant ride. This was unexpected, in part because the CR-Z’s hybrid battery pack — mounted low toward the rear — lowers the car’s center of gravity. The front/rear weight distribution is 59/41 with the manual transmission and 60/40 with the CVT, which is the norm for a front-wheel-drive car.
The CR-Z goes into a corner with understeer, as expected, though the standard tires have some bite, and the electric motor provides respectable torque at low revs to pull you out of the turn. A high point is the CR-Z’s precise, well-weighted steering from what Honda notes is the company’s smallest steering wheel. The handling is definitely sporty, but the CR-Z didn’t beg to be driven hard.
A manual hybrid
Of the two transmissions, the standard six-speed manual is the more responsive and certainly the more fun. The six-speed stick has a decent feel, with reasonably short throws. The gear ratios are well chosen to give the car a respectable launch, and the clutch and all other aspects feel like any other manual, which is nice when compared with all other hybrids, whose continuously variable characteristics vary in refinement and all feel a bit foreign in the best of circumstances.
It doesn’t hurt that the engine-motor combination has 5 pounds-feet more torque at a lower rpm when teamed with the stick: 128 pounds-feet at 1,750 rpm versus 123 at 2,000 rpm. The horsepower rating is constant at 122. The hybrid system is Honda’s relatively simple Integrated Motor Assist, in which an electric motor is effectively mounted to the crankshaft — an oversimplification, but the point is it turns only when the engine does. The gas engine automatically turns off when the car comes to a stop, and the electric motor restarts it when you lift your foot off the brake.
The motor also assists in acceleration, contributing 13 horsepower at 1,500 rpm and 58 pounds-feet of torque at 1,000 rpm to the overall rating. When coasting or braking, it serves as a generator, regenerating electricity and charging the high-voltage battery pack.
Where the Insight uses a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, the CR-Z has a 1.5-liter. This higher displacement and sportier, higher-rolling-resistance tires play a part in the car’s decreased mileage, as does a higher coefficient of drag: 0.3 versus the Insight’s 0.2.
The brake pedal feel is also quite good for a hybrid. Regenerative braking tends to make the pedal mushy and nonlinear. Between its stick shift and decent brake pedal feel, the manual CR-Z is the least hybridlike hybrid we’ve driven.
In regular cars, manuals often are more efficient, but it all depends on how you drive them. This goes double for hybrids, because the alternative, a computer-controlled CVT, does a better job of maximizing regenerative braking. However, Honda says a driver who follows the manual CR-Z’s shift-up and shift-down indicator arrows can come close to the CVT’s rating.
Anyone who wants the manual experience with the CVT can have it, thanks to shift paddles on the steering wheel, which select among seven fixed gear ratios that emulate a conventional transmission. It shifts up and down relatively quickly. You can trigger a manual selection at any time, but in Normal mode, it will promptly revert to automatic operation. When in Sport, it stays in the selected gear and manual mode unless you hold the shift-up paddle for a few seconds or change mode altogether.
It appears that the EPA estimates are conservative, as is the case with the Insight. I exceeded the automatic’s highway rating with 39.4 mpg, according to the trip computer. That’s not bad for a car with only 1,000 miles on it, hardly broken in. Of course, this was on flat terrain on a warm day. Other conditions might change the results.
Interior
The driver’s seat has more legroom than I needed at 6 feet tall, and it has comfortable, supportive cushions with just enough side bolstering. The passenger seat, however, had too much lumbar support, and neither seat lets you adjust it. A driver’s seat height adjustment is standard, and I had a little headroom to spare even with the seat raised fully. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes, which is another plus. The one omission is a center armrest, which is optional.
Visibility to the front and sides is good, but the rear pillar is high and wide, and the rear windows — bisected by a horizontal beam as they are in the Insight — are rather narrow. On the positive side, the crossbeam seems higher than it is in the Insight and Prius, so it didn’t obscure cars behind me in the rearview mirror.
The CR-Z EX’s interior impressed me. There’s low-gloss material on the dashboard and the tops of the doors, and the door handles and some dashboard trim feature a high-luminosity metal-film composite that Honda describes as a thin layer of vaporized tin under clearcoat. Pretty effective stuff.
The seats are upholstered in silver-gray mesh fabric. It looks pretty good on the doors, too, but it’s a bit too coarse to be serving as armrests. The gauges are brilliant, three-dimensional luminescent affairs, including a digital speedometer at the center of an analog tachometer dial. Like the Insight, the driving mode buttons, ventilation controls and other switches rest on pods canted toward the driver. Unlike the Insight, there’s no separate high-mounted gauge at the base of the windshield, which some people don’t like.
Sometimes efficient cars are noisy. The CR-Z isn’t bad. Engine noise is the most intrusive, but it’s mainly under heavy throttle. Other sounds are relatively balanced: There’s some road noise and occasional wisps of wind around the A-pillars, but nothing is overbearing, though a motorcycle or noisy car alongside the CR-Z intrudes through relatively thin (lightweight) side windows. One sound I couldn’t help noticing was a slight hiss coming from the cargo area that I thought was static from a radio trapped between stations. Ultimately I found it was a cooling fan for the battery pack, which speeds up and slows down along with the vehicle, so it’s always just barely audible. Raising the cargo partition and putting the retractable cargo cover in place seemed to quiet it down some.
Cargo
At 25.1 cubic feet, the cargo area is more than twice the volume of a typical compact car’s trunk. It’s not particularly tall, but it’s a vast improvement over the first-generation Insight, a two-seater whose cargo floor was nearly at head restraint height. Two storage bins sit right behind the seat where a back seat would be and are separated from the rest of the cargo area by a vertical partition that can be folded forward 90 degrees to form a continuous, longer cargo floor.
The partition folds down in a single step. My test cars also had retractable cargo covers, which can span the entire cargo area or can be mounted on the floor about a foot in front of the rear bumper. This configuration creates a small compartment, but the whole space looks empty when viewed from the outside.
Safety
As a brand-new model, the CR-Z hasn’t been crash-tested yet. Standard safety features include frontal, side-impact and curtain airbags and active head restraints. Also standard are antilock brakes with discs at all four corners and an electronic stability system with traction control.
2011 Honda CR-Z snapshot
Starting MSRP $19,200
EPA Fuel Economy:
Manual Transmission –
City: 31
Highway: 37
Automatic Transmission –
City: 35
Highway: 39
Available Engines:
122-hp, 1.5-liter, Gas/Electric Three Mode Hybrid
Available Transmissions:
CVT
6-Speed Manual
* All-new hybrid model
* Two-seat hatchback
* Manual or automatic
* Selectable drivetrain modes
* Six airbags
* 16-inch alloy wheels standard
* Only stick-shift hybrid
* Sporty look
* Stability system standard
* Roomy seats
* Standard USB audio
* Xenon headlights available
* Mileage lower than other Honda hybrids
* Split rear window like Insight and Prius
* No backup camera option
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