After the immense popularity of the Duster and Creta, Honda has brought in its own contender with an ace up its sleeve – a third row of seats.
With every new model that’s launched in this segment, the segment itself gets harder and harder to classify. It’s no longer the ‘compact SUV’ segment, as that belongs to sub-four-metre offerings like the Brezza and EcoSport. And with rivals like the Hyundai Creta pushing the price well beyond the Rs 15-lakh mark, maybe we should be calling it the ‘premium SUV’ segment. The new Honda BR-V confuses matters even further. At 4,456mm in length, forget compact – it’s really a ‘mid-size’ SUV. And because it has a third row of seats, it should technically compete with even more expensive SUVs like the Mahindra XUV500. But then, Honda has priced it at a competitive Rs 8.75-12.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), which brings it back down to earth again. So, just where does this rather unique SUV fit into the scheme of things, who is it for, and what’s going on under that familiar-looking body? Only a full Autocar India road test can give you the answers.