Honda FR-V

Road test

The FR-V has passed me by. I always admired that boxy outline and 3x3 seating configuration - a general sense of just being a bit different. But I never got to try one out.

So, to be honest, the revisions for 2007 aren't going to mean much to me. It's been visually primped both inside and out, according to the blurb, and there's a new 1.8 i-VTEC petrol engine under the hood.

Inside it's the usual classless Japanese plastic finish, modern and solid without any particular sense of quality. And having a third seat upfront is weird enough when it's empty... Lord only knows what having a big fat bloke in it would do to the driver's sense of space.

Around town it's superb though. Fitted here with an automatic gearbox, it feels light, lively and relaxed. The ride's hard for a family car like this, but it's liveable.

Out on the motorway, however, the FR-V's urban leaning becomes its undoing. The 138bhp on offer isn't quite enough to cope with the car's comparative bulk, and at those vital moments when you'd be planting your foot or reaching for a lower gear in a manual, the auto gets confused and you start losing momentum, patience, the will to live...

But the FR-V is still a decent proposition. Hugely practical, doubtless pretty much bombproof and - ideally in 2.2-litre diesel-form with a manual gearbox - frugal and capable. Glad I've finally found out.

Matt Master