HONDA HR-V

We put our crossover to the ultimate test: a 10-country, 1910-mile European road trip

- KRIS CULMER

MILEAGE 15,410

WHY WE'RE RUNNING IT

To see if a hybrid-only mini-SUV can be an efficient long-distance commuter car

Last October, I needed a laughably thick dossier of documents just to go through France and into Belgium. Ten months later, I require only a QR code to prove that I've had my three vaccines. At long, torturous last, the pandemic appears to be over, and my best mate and I are celebrating by driving through 10 European countries. Our destination is the Dolomites, and our mountain bikes are stowed beneath a tarpaulin and our baggage in the extended boot of my Honda HR-V.

Somehow we avoid the results of our government's incompetence and spend just a few hours at the Eurotunnel. Our compact crossover feels sure-footed and entirely relaxed as Hauts-de-France blurs into Flanders, our excited anticipation abating the tedium of the featureless landscape. Whether that feeling will last until our overnight stop in nine hours' time, never mind when we return home after a week on the go, is the ultimate test of the car.

We're soon approaching Brussels, whereupon Apple Maps throws up a warning on the car's touchscreen: 'Environmental zone ahead'. To our shock, the website replies 'non' when we check if our Euro 6 hybrid is eligible for entry. Siri plots a new course to a metro station in the industrial suburb of Anderlecht, famed for its football team. Parking is free and the train to the capital is cheap, depositing us near Grand Place - which ought to be used as a re-education centre for architects.

If French motorists on the whole drove as poorly as the British, the Belgians are rather worse. As for the Luxembourgers who come next, like their little country itself, they barely register. Entering Germany, though, makes us take note, as here we find surely the world's most disciplined drivers on the world's best roads.