We liked the five-door HR-V at launch, although I see we used the fell expression "sports utility" about it. Well, as far as that's concerned, yes but mostly no. The phrase conjures up a vision of an off-roader with a couple of coils of barbed wire, half a dozen wooden posts and a sledgehammer on board, crashing over the prairie, or the outback, as a bunch of roughnecks taking several six-packs along head off to work on the boundary fence.The Honda is about as far away from the Big Bill Broonzy kind of 4x4 as it could possibly be. This is a very subtle vehicle for its class - except that, on the test car, there were some door welds obviously done by the factory's newest apprentice.The longer wheelbase compared with the three-door makes a tremendous difference. Our launch report, written by somebody who's obsessed with the Subaru Forester - especially the S-Turbo - reckons the Honda approaches it for stable handling, but only to a very respectful distance.I don't think that's quite fair. The five-door HR-V won't corner at the amazing rate of the Forester, but it isn't meant to. It's light, precise, responsive, on its toes. It sweeps through multiple bends without any fidgeting, showing much better ride quality than the SWB three-door. And it doesn't drone or bounce along main roads and motorways like so many bigger sports utilities (oops . . . ) inevitably do.In fact, it's one of the best cars in its category for actual driving pleasure. There's no hardship in piling on the miles, because it goes well, you can "think" it through the bends, and the controls are light without being airy-fairy.Like most Honda VTEC engines, the single-cam 1.6-litre unit fitted here starts thinking about torque as the lift passes the third floor, and the HR-V is quite low-geared, perhaps to counter that. It could certainly pull a higher fifth for motorway work. And the fact that you tend to do a fair amount of cog-swapping shows that the gearchange can be quite clonky if you hurry it and use more elbow than it needs.There's excellent passenger and luggage space for a car which creates something of an optical illusion. At a distance, and partly because of the rear spoiler, it looks quite tall, which makes it look pretty long. But the roofline is actually quite low, and the five-door isn't anything like as bulky as you might think.All of this makes the packaging a notable success. There are very few mid-sized cars in this class with so much rear-seat lounging room. And the double-decker load space is fine too.The appearance may not be to everyone's taste, but it shows that Honda is now prepared to come out with styling ideas that don't bump into anybody else's, and it suits the five-door better than the three-door. At first, you tend to regard the blue shading applied to the instrument faces, the steering wheel badge and one or two other places as a despairing attempt to perk up a pretty plain interior, but after a while everything seems fine.Honda provides a comfortable driving position, good side support in the front seats, and neat net pockets in the front doors. But there's something rather prissy about the ashtray being a leave-it-behind-if-you'd-rather kind of thing stuffed in one of the cupholders.That's just a something-to-moan-about comment, of course. Overall, this is a most agreeable, quiet and smooth-running road car, the styling grows on you as it becomes more familiar, the engine's beautifully put together, there's an ease and balance about driving it . . . and, yes, the little pink clouds beckon.Second opinion: Nothing much to add to my first impressions, except that after driving the HR-V for a few days I began to wish that the steering wheel had more adjustment, as I couldn't get it into a position that was comfortable for a long drive. I'm increasingly impressed with the handling - the Honda hangs on long after most rivals would have started to complain - but I still don't think an engine that does its best work at very high revs is appropriate for the class. David Finlay. Engine 1590cc, 4 cylinders Power 121bhp Fuel 33.6mpg Acceleration 0-62mph: 11.3 seconds Top speed 106mph Price £16,596 Details correct at publication date
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