Honda HR-V facelift previewed in Malaysia, sporty RS Variant confirmed



Honda Malaysia has just previewed the facelifted Honda HR-V here on local soil and interested parties can now place their bookings for the refreshed compact SUV. Scheduled to make its official debut in Q3 of 2018, the company will introduce a sporty RS variant to the facelifted HR-V line up.

The facelift exercise is a nip and tuck situation with minor revisions to the full LED headlamps (like the Honda Civic), front bumper with LED fog lamps and LED combination taillamps. The RS variant gets a sportier appearance with Sport Design front grille, more angular front and rear bumper, black chrome license garnish, sport black side sill and 18-inch dual tone alloy wheels. The HR-V RS also gets an exclusive Passion Red Pearl paint job.

Like all previous previews, the facelifted HR-V’s interior is sealed off from prying eye. Internationally, the HR-V benefits from reshaped front seats, eight-way powered driver seats with memory function, additional damping material and a restructured high-pressure fuel pump for suppressed engine noise during acceleration. It remains to be seen whether Malaysian-bound units will feature some or all the items above.

Safety specification is somewhat of a let-down because Honda Sensing is a standard fitment on all HR-V variants in Japan. Malaysian-spec HR-V has been confirmed to come with six-airbags, ABS, Vehicle Stability Assist, Multi-Angle Rear-View Camera, Hill Start Assist, Emergency Stop Signal and Honda LaneWatch as standard on all variants.

The facelifted Honda HR-V will soldier on with the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder i-VTEC engine and CVT combination which is good for 140 hp and 172 Nm of torque, driving the front wheels. Pricing details and full specification will be unveiled in full closer to the official launch.


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Honda HR-V RS Facelift in Passion Red Pearl