2021 Honda WRV Facelift Diesel Review, Road Test

When Honda needed a model in India to truly up the sales and not rely on the City and Amaze, it surprisingly came out with the WRV and it became a proper success. With the Jazz platform being put to good use and sent to the GYM, the WRV came out shining and muscular to save the day. The WRV is the success mantra another foreign manufacturer can look at in the Indian market but they don’t have Jazz’s iconic and worldwide formula to base something like this. WRV had almost everything the customers wanted and those customers went to the showroom and bought it. WRV does sell rather well but for some of you, who are in fix, we have all the answers for you. Whether you should go for it or not. Let’s find out in this review.

On the outside, the sub-four meter car and is more pseudo crossover than an SUV. Based on the Jazz, Honda has made sure that it stands out as a more tough and rugged crossover and they have succeeded rather well at it! The elements on the car make it stand out such as the large front grille, bumper, the massive headlamps and boomerang-shaped tail-lamps! Headlamp throw could have been better but illumination is good enough. The side profile is the same as the Jazz, but it is higher thanks to more height over the Jazz. The build quality on the outside seems and sounds good. The diamond 16-inch wheels and cladding add to the rugged appeal of the WRV.

On the inside, the build and quality are good, not great. The stowage is good, charging points are in plenty and overall a very practical cabin. The feature list, we have explained time and again in our launch reports. You get every feature possible in the top variants of the SUV such as sunroof, start-stop button, connectivity features, Apple Car Play and Android Auto. Lack of rear a/c vents, Automatic lights, and wipers is a sore miss. However, you get cruise control, a sound system that is good too considering the premium price tag.

Space is excellent all-around with a massive greenhouse making the cabin a great place to be. The shoulder, head, leg, and knee rooms are segment best and better than all its rivals. The same goes for the boot space which is 315 litres. Road and wind noise inside the cabin is also well controlled, but road noise can get intrusive on really bad patches and wind noise also increases, but after 140 km/hr. The safety kit includes ABS and EBD with two airbags and comes with a newly designed ACE architecture which Honda says is stronger just like the Original WRV.

We drove the 1.5 litre diesel engine making 100 PS and 200 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to a 6-speed gearbox. The engine is now a much free-revving unit and low on NVH by a substantial margin. The clutch is light and so is the gearbox to operate. It still delivers spectacular fuel economy on the highway and city, so I guess the engine is heavily optimized despite the official numbers dropping from 26 km/l to 23 km/l. Low and mid-range are good but not in the face like before. The top-end is good enough now and it cruises at legal speeds easily. We got a fuel economy of 20.1 km/l in our Mumbai Pune run and spent time in both cities during peak rush hour traffic. You can end up doing 700 kms easily on a single tank!

The low to medium ride quality is good, yet slightly stiff. The high-speed ride feels solid enough. Body roll increases as speeds get higher while taking a corner or changing lanes at high speeds. It still remains Steering is light, precise, and has almost good feedback on offer which makes the car good fun and quite confidence-inspiring to push harder. Brakes are good with well-done pedal bite. Michelin tyres are the reason of very good fuel economy, low road-noise, but they need a bigger size to make things better. Overall, very easy to drive and quite fun to drive by far compared to most of its rivals.

2021 Honda WRV Facelift Diesel Review, Verdict

The Honda WRV has always impressed me with many things. Space, diesel’s fuel economy, practicality with more ground clearance and Jazz’s platform offers so much more. The New Honda WR-V offers complete peace of mind with 3 years Unlimited Kilometres warranty as standard. Additionally, customers can opt for an Extended Warranty for additional two years Unlimited / Limited kilometres. Improvement in the diesel engine is a welcome move! The good amount of feature list despite some still remain missing at this price point, does not really diminish the value for money the WRV offers.

Honda WRV’s cost of maintenance with Service interval of 1 year/ 10,000km whichever is earlier and the 3-year Annual Maintenance Package at the time of car purchase with an average cost of Rs. 4,000 for Petrol and Rs. 6,000 for Diesel per year. All of this makes the Honda WRV a proper Honda with a lot of realibiltiy, peace of mind packages on offer making it a worthy contender in its class.

Petrol (BS-6) Diesel (BS-6)
SV MT Rs 849,900 Rs 979,900
VX MT Rs 969,900 Rs 10,99,900