The second-generation Honda HR-V is designed to appeal to young singles and pre-family couples. Its rivals include the popular yet quirky Nissan Juke and Kia Soul. Continuing QUBE/just-auto's review of interior design and technology trends, we shine a light on this subcompact SUV to see what's new.

Flexible seating

The HR-V for Europe and North America comes from Mexico and there are two plants there building the model.  The interior of the coupé-like cabin incorporates Honda's flexible 'Magic Seat' system which flips up cinema-style to provide three modes, namely:

Utility mode – the rear seatback folds forward as the seat base itself lowers into the rear passenger footwell, creating a maximum 1,845 mm-long flat floor.

Tall mode – the front of the rear seat base rises up and back and is locked in a vertical position to leave a cargo height of 1,240 mm from floor to ceiling, allowing tall objects to be placed behind the front seats.

Long mode – the front passenger seatback folds back to a horizontal position, while the rear seatback folds forward, forming a 'tunnel' to accommodate items up to 2,445 mm long.

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The HR-V's centre-mounted fuel tank layout – located below the front seats – liberates underfloor space beneath the rear seats.   While head, shoulder and legroom in the front is generous, the sloping roof makes it feel pinched in the back seat. The cargo bay has a capacity of 470 litres with the rear seats upright, increasing to 1,533 litres with the rear seats folded.

Cockpit and instrumentation

The well thought-out cockpit has the wraparound feel of a coupé with soft-touch surfaces, stitched lines and brushed chrome accents to give a plusher feel. It also feels practical and robust with intuitive controls and decent-sized cubby holes and glovebox. Although some of the switchgear is shared with the Civic, the overall dashboard design is unique to the HR-V. During a week in which Britain was pelted with snow in some places and night time temperatures plunged to below freezing, we appreciated the heated front seats.

Facing the driver, a three-dial instrument binnacle features 'floating' illumination rings and the Japanese carmaker's ECO Assist function, which changes the backlight colour of the speedometer from white to green during fuel-efficient driving. The result is a neat, zen-like 3D effect design feature.

The air vents are also worthy of a special mention. Facing the front seat passenger, the HR-V's interior features a new 'wide flow' air outlet with three adjustable air vents across the dashboard. The air flow volume settings are optimised to deliver: high volume for the outlet nearest the side window; low volume for the centre outlet; and medium volume for the air outlet closest to the centre panel.

Depending on the grade and market, buyers have a choice of fabric: half-leather or full-leather upholstery. The sense of spaciousness is accentuated via the opening panoramic glass sunroof.

The HR-V offers plenty of equipment, too. The gloss-black trim centre stack incorporates a seven-inch touch screen that enables you to pinch, swipe and tap through a sat-nav, some advanced connectivity and infotainment functions.  This includes Honda's Connect in-car infotainment system, first seen in Europe on the 2015 CR-V which is fitted as standard on the mid and upper-grade HR-V, and as an option on the base model. Running on Android, it comes with some pre-installed apps, including 'Aha' providing access to thousands of audio stations – spanning music, news, podcasts and audiobooks – alongside social media feeds and location-based services.

The touchscreen also displays the usual vehicle information – such as trip data and fuel economy – and images from the rearview parking camera. The Garmin sat-nav also worked a treat, guiding us through some densely packed streets and circumnavigating roadworks.

Positioned below the touchscreen is a five-inch LCD colour display screen showing the HVAC and audio system settings.

Advanced driver assistance systems

The HR-V incorporates Honda's Advanced Driver Assist System, which uses radar sensors, plus forward and rear facing cameras. This ADAS suite includes: Forward Collision Warning, Traffic Sign Recognition, Intelligent Speed Limiter, Lane Departure Warning and High-beam Support System. The car also features Honda's City-Brake Active System, an automatic emergency brake (AEB) system designed to help avoid or mitigate low-speed accidents.

On the passive safety front, the HR-V incorporates Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure technology to enhance occupant crash protection. It also has no fewer than eight airbags positioned in all the right places.

On the road

The HR-V is offered with a choice of 120PS 1.6 litre i-DTEC diesel or 130PS 1.5 litre i-VTEC petrol engines, both part of Honda's Earth Dreams Technology series. The diesel has a six-speed manual while the petrol has a six-speed manual or CVT.

Honda claims its diesel variant will achieve up to a whopping 68 mpg combined, with CO2 emissions of 108g/km. Our 450-mile drive, mostly along motorways during the busy festive season, returned an impressive 58 mpg. Although the steering felt quite light, this was welcome in and around town. The relatively soft suspension set-up shook the cabin while driving on some imperfect road surfaces although it didn't lose its grip meandering along snow-covered back lanes.

Our top-drawer EX trim level was quiet (for a diesel), partly thanks to some refinements to the cabin acoustics.  An acoustic insulation package was developed for the HR-V, featuring a non-woven underlay and sound-absorbing carpets of a type usually found in luxury motors. The front and rear inner wheel arches have been treated with sound-absorbent material, while the floor carpet, underfloor cover and dashboard acoustic pad inserts all contribute to dampening cabin noise. According to Honda, at a constant speed of 62mph, occupants can enjoy a "whisper-quiet 65 dB of cabin noise". To be fair, that pretty much matched our experience.