Honda CR-Z

**Samah AbdAllah** · 08-02-2010 02:38 AM

Honda CR-Z

It's understandable to be confused given the number of similar-looking concepts shown over the last three years but Detroit 2010 finally saw the global production unveil of the Honda CR-Z coupe
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHb89a207e8[/youtube]

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Unfortunately the car that actually goes on sale this summer seems to have lost some of the finesse of its 2007 and 2009 Tokyo show concept incarnations. The big and gapey Maserati-esque front grille still dominates the face of the car but the concepts' prominent Honda badge inside it has migrated to the hood and the stylish blue-tinged and LED-heavy front lights make way for more conventional ones.

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The CR-Z is shorter than its sister hybrid five-door Insight by 295mm with a 115mm shorter wheelbase too. Its side profile looks broadly similar to its concept predecessors but at the back the 2007 concept's strikingly dominant vertical blacked out section connecting the centralized twin chrome exhausts at its base to the top of the rear window is long gone (as are those pipes). The rear lights also no longer curve up to meet a shoulder line that dipped downward at the rear. On the 2009 production model they are sharper and sit more horizontally above a chunky bumper section, although the hatch still features a see-through lower vertical section akin to those found on the Honda Insight, FCX Clarity and European Civic.

Arguably the biggest change on the US production model is on the inside where the two-plus-two seating arrangement has been swapped for a straight two seats (Europe and Japan still get two-plus-two). For the US version the package behind the front seats is little changed aside from the removal of the small rear seats, leaving a fold-down rear bulkhead that extends the load space and creates two secret box areas underneath.

Elsewhere the dashboard's two-tone gray plastics feel and look cheap and some of the ....l effects are different colours and finishes. Overall, on this limited viewing, its design fails to convince as a slightly upmarket sports car so the hybrid's manual gearbox drive will have to be exciting and the price keen if it's to succeed