India-spec Honda WR-V details revealed

With the dispatch of the City facelift behind it, Honda is presently preparing for the dispatch of its second new item for the year, the WR-V.  It will be dispatched next month.

As such, it shares several things with the Jazz, including the drivetrain, platform, certain body panels as well as interior bits. The car though gets a heavily reworked front fascia, along with tweaked rear styling and a new tailgate, revised tail-lamps and bumper. From the sides though, the car still bears a heavy resemblance to its sister model save for the body cladding.

The interior too is familiar to the Jazz though with some added kit and a few revised surfaces such as the new seat fabric, slimmer gear knob and a front centre armrest. The car will also be offered with a choice of two upholstery colours.

While still fitting into the sub-four-metre segment, the WR-V is larger and taller than the Jazz. At 3,999mm length, the WR-V is a good 44mm longer than the standard Jazz with width up from 1694mm to 1734mm. In terms of height, the WR-V sits a good 57mm taller than the standard Jazz at 1601mm, which could come down to the addition of roof rails and the raised ground clearance (up 23mm at 188mm) and larger 16-inch steel or alloy wheels (depending on the trim levels).

Interestingly, the WR-V also gets a longer wheelbase at 2555mm as against the standard Jazz’s 2530mm. Boot space is up from 354 litres to 363 litres. The WR-V is also heavier than the Jazz with the top trim levels weighing 1104kg for the petrol and 1204 for the diesel as against 1042kg and 1154kg for the top trim petrol and diesel Jazz, respectively.

The WR-V gets the same engine and gearbox options as the Jazz. These include a 90hp 1.2-litre i-VTEC petrol mated to a five-speed manual gearbox and a 100hp 1.5-litre Earth Dreams i-DTEC diesel mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. Honda claims to have tweaked the gearing to improve acceleration. There is no option of an automatic gearbox. Honda claims fuel efficiency figures of 17.5kmpl and 25.5kmpl for the petrol and diesel engines, respectively.

Honda is set to offer the WR-V in two trim levels – S and VX – with both offered with the aforementioned petrol and diesel engines. Honda has also added more equipment on the WR-V with the model featuring LED daytime running lights integrated into the headlamps, large 16-inch alloy wheels on the top variant, a new touchscreen infotainment system, roof rails and a front centre armrest. The diesel model additionally gets cruise control and keyless go on the top variant. The car misses out on certain kit such as the magic seats from the top spec Jazz, auto headlamps and rain sensing wipers. Dual airbags and ABS are offered as standard on all trim levels.

Revealed toward the beginning of November 2016 at the Sao Paolo engine appear, the WR-V is set to dispatch in India on March 16, 2017. It will be situated marginally over the Jazz, and will rival any semblance of the Hyundai i20 Active and the Fiat Avventura, and additionally minimized SUVs like the Maruti Vitara Brezza and the Ford EcoSport.

Credits: www.vicky.in