The 2000s have been one thing of a golden decade for “tall hatchback” MPVs in Europe, and the excellent news for Japanese producers was that that they had loads of home-market-optimized automobiles designed for house effectivity that could possibly be introduced over to compete with the likes of the Renault Modus, Citroën Xsara Picasso and Hyundai Matrix. From my current journey to the scrapyards of Northern England, here is a discarded instance of a flexible Honda that we by no means noticed in North America: the FR-V.
What actually makes this automotive stand out is its fascinating seating association. There is a row of three seats within the again…
And one other row of three seats within the entrance! The six-passenger setup was commonplace in huge, bench-seat-equipped Detroit sedans of fifty years in the past, nevertheless it’s a more durable engineering problem to do it in a small automotive that shares its platform with the Civic and CR-V. The strange-looking Fiat Multipla of the identical period had an analogous seating association.
The center entrance seat backside hinges ahead to make a middle console.
The rear seats fold as much as make extra cargo house, which is respectable even with the seats in use.
In Japan, this automotive was referred to as the Edix. It was constructed from the 2004 by 2011 mannequin years.
Not bad-looking, however actually not the truck form that took over the world quickly sufficient.
Within the UK, the 2007 FR-V was accessible with a selection of a 1.8-liter petrol engine or 2.2-liter turbodiesel. This one has the oil-burner, rated at 138 horsepower and 251 pound-feet.
This six-speed handbook gearshift protruding of the sprint is harking back to the setup within the outdated Honda N600. There isn’t any room for a ground shifter with that center seat, and column-shift manuals have been lengthy out of fashion by the 2000s, so this placement made sense.
The JDM TV commercials are good and frantic.
Sid the Rectangular canine provides the FR-V a three-bone ranking.
Beanie Burgers throughout and Fizz Buckets to share, with Sid the Rectangular Canine getting the gherkins.
Prime Gear broke the information of this automotive’s cancellation.