The crossover SUV is a staple vehicle category in the Philippine market, appreciated by those who are charmed by their utilitarian nature, their increased ride height which can help with comfort in pothole-infested areas, and also comes in handy wading through flood situations in a pinch, or maybe even the sporty flair that manufacturers have been pushing into the segment in terms of body kits and turbocharged engines, for instance. And while it may not have any turbos to speak of, Honda’s crossover SUV entry, the BR-V, impresses through its stylish simplicity, smartly designed utilities, and the ease of use it offers to buyers all within a reasonable price range.
Specifically, what we’re examining here is the base Honda BR-V S CVT, where we’re trying to determine if there’s any substance to match its attractive pricing.
Exterior Styling
On the outside, the Honda BR-V S CVT can be described as a typical Honda-designed styling affair; it’s one of the best looking SUVs of its class, showcasing a smooth, aerodynamic look that reminds you of a larger Honda City, with a front fascia and grill area that looks somewhat reminiscent of the previous-generation Honda Accord; again, a look that sits right at home for Honda offerings in recent past and present times.
What’s nice about the BR-V’s design is that it’s one of the sportier-looking offerings in its segment, especially since even the 1.5 S trim test unit we were lent had stylish-looking 17-inch rims wrapped in nice and grippy 215/50 tires.
Other than that, the BR-V can be described as a good example for neat, sporty designs that extend to practicality and useability; the front and rear doors open nice and wide for ease of entry, and the rear tailgate opens just as wide with a low-slung liftover sill which makes it easy to access, and equally easy to load even larger and heavier items into the vehicle.
Interior Styling, Space, and Creature Comforts
While the 2025 Honda BR-V S doesn’t exactly set a benchmark for any new-age design standards, it does present an interior with practical and usable conveniences, which helps the driver and passengers settle in; the car features a neat, cleanly organized dash which has a nice height to it, matching the equally nicely fixed seat height which helped reduce fatigue during lengthier drives.
The gauge cluster is a compact digital and analog combination that gives you all the necessary readouts except a temperature gauge, as this has been replaced by a simple dashboard light which indicates hot or cold coolant temperatures, just as in the current-gen Honda City.
Towards the center of the dash, the controls are neatly organized and laid out simply in terms of physical buttons and easy-to-understand screen displays for both the radio and climate control, making them equally easy to use. And on the steering wheel, you get additional buttons for the infotainment system and hands-free phone; all in all, the BR-V in its “S” trim gives you no more controls and readouts than what you need, which has its merits considering how confusing basic controls can get for some of today’s cars.
Below the A/C controls is where you’ll find the USB connectors and power outlet for your devices, which are nicely marked and organized for ease of reach and access.
Like the Honda City, the BR-V S comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is a pleasant feature to have for a base trim and adds a good bit of tech to an otherwise rather plain-looking interior. The sound from the infotainment system is expressed through four speakers, and the sound can be described once again as acceptable, albeit it does have a bit of a muffled tone even when adjusted through the simple built-in equalizer.
If there’s one thing to point out about the interior space, it’s the fact that it feels rather plasticky and bare, and the exterior styling of the car certainly overshadows the look of the interior, at least on the “S” trim. But again, that is to be expected of a car within the base trim, and it is still to be appreciated that the interior remains neatly packaged and easy to use.
Despite its relatively bare nature, the interior of the BR-V is very much usable and comfortable; the seats are decently supportive, especially in front, and the leg room is of a more than good amount in all rows. We also like the fact that the rear seats, both second and third rows, fold flat and allow for plenty of cargo room. And for even more vertical space, the second row seats fold flat down and up, which allows cargo access until the floor of the vehicle’s cabin area.
Powertrain & Performance
The Honda BR-V S uses the same 1.5 Liter, Dual-Cam i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine as in the Honda City, making 121 horsepower at 6,600 rpm, and 145 N-m of torque at 4,300 rpm which is put down through a CVT transmission; while it’s the same engine and transmission put in a heavier car, the car’s engine & transmission combination retains its responsiveness, smoothness, and easy-to-operate character. As is the case with the lower trim Honda City, the BR-V does not come with paddle shifters and only has a “Sport” option on the gear selector.
When pushing a bit further on either the standard Drive and Sport modes, the car responds with a peppy feel, and the car clearly maximizes the bottom and midrange torque curve just as in the Honda City, albeit the BR-V does tend to use more of its rev-range even in more tame driving situations compared to the City, likely due to its higher weight, which translates to even more noise coming from the buzzy engine during hard acceleration. Engine buzz aside, the BR-V accelerates quickly for its SUV size, and pulls strongly even in uphill drives, as it has plenty of torque to back up each press of the gas pedal.
Handling Performance, Tires, Suspension, and Braking
The Honda BR-V S comes with a MacPherson strut suspension system up front and a torsion-beam axle at the rear, and the car’s 17-inch alloy rims are wrapped in 215/55 tires, which are actually on the thicker side as far as the class of cars in which the BR-V sits in.
Other than that, the BR-V boasts a fairly standard bit of kit for a standard family car. And, being a standard family car, it would only make sense for us to test the BR-V on a standard, relaxed, and scenic route: through the twists and turns of Tagaytay-Talisay road, where we got to learn a bit more about how the car moved.
And in this test, we were pleasantly surprised; the Honda BR-V S handled well and much better than initially expected. The car expressed light and nimble handling, and gripped on even through harder, more spirited cornering into the tight hairpins and sweepers of Tagaytay-Talisay’s touge-like road. And through that, the car only expressed a mild amount of front-end plow when powering out early through tight corners, all with decently present, but otherwise controlled amounts of body-roll. The brakes were also not on the touchy side, but were always easy to control and kept the car stable without any corrective action.
Overall, the car handled so well it was able to keep pace with two other Honda HR-V press cars during our mini “media drive” through our test loop, and it almost makes you wonder if the engineers behind the BR-V were really wanting to design the next Honda Jazz rather than the 7-seater SUV in question, since the car does continue the Honda-like spirit of agile handling and decently responsive and jumpy acceleration despite its larger stature; something we didn’t come to expect from a car in the base trim in its segment.
Everyday Driving Comfort and Fuel Consumption
The Honda BR-V intends to be a comfortable and functional solution to daily transportation, in which case, even in its base trim, it is; the car rides smoothly and comfortably, absorbing the bumps of varying road surfaces from rough concrete highways to asphalt surfaces and overall bumpy roads with ease.
The feel of the BR-V’s electric power steering is also light and highly boosted, which makes the car easy to maneuver in both slow and high speeds, and also helps with the fatigue especially when combined with the car’s comfortable and decently supportive cloth seats set at a nice height; overall a package which would actually guarantee a comfortable travel experience both in city drives and in highway cruises, and even in traffic.
One not-so-comfortable aspect about the BR-V, however, is its level of interior noise intrusion; this is because the car itself produces quite a bit of tire and wind noise, especially at highway speeds. This, combined with the aforementioned buzzy engine, can be somewhat of an annoyance when combined, but it is tolerable, especially during moderate-speed cruising at a lower rpm.
Noise aside, we can at least say that the BR-V is fair with its fuel-sipping practice, as the vehicle has a brochure claimed fuel economy rating of 24.71 kilometers per liter; although we didn’t have any official numbers, our test loop which consisted of city driving around Laguna, and a trip to Tagaytay and Makati each and back barely managed to scrub towards just about the half-point of the digital fuel level indicator, proving that the BR-V definitely sips fuel gently even with a mixture of spirited driving and light cruising.
Safety
The Honda BR-V in its S CVT trim comes with standard safety items, which include speed-sensing auto-lock doors, dual and side airbags, standard 3-point seatbelts, and even includes a reverse camera. Driving-related assists include key features such as ABS, Hill Start Assist, and an Electronic Brake-Force Distribution system, all in order to aid the stable characteristics of the BR-V with an additional barrier of driving safety. The S CVT trim does miss out on Honda’s SENSING safety technology, however, as it remains to be offered only on the top-trim 1.5 VX CVT.
Conclusion
All-in-all, the Honda BR-V is a simple and sporty SUV that gives utilitarian levels of use and functionality in a neat and clean package; even looking past its few flaws, the vehicle stands its own as a well-founded offering within a decent price point in the Philippine SUV market. With a spacious, easy-to-use, and nicely organized interior, ease and safety of driving, along with the combination of peppy acceleration and surprisingly agile and grippy road handling, the Honda BR-V 1.5 S CVT makes for a truly enjoyable and usable 7-seater family car within the range of today’s offerings.
Price: P1,165,000*
*Correct as of this article’s writing
0 comments on “2025 Honda BR-V S Review: Fundamentally A Great Drive”