The Honda XR-V has been launched on the Chinese car market, giving Honda another brand new entry in the booming compact SUV segment. Price starts at 127.800 yuan and ends at 162.800 yuan. The Honda XR-V is a sporty Chinese-market variant of the Honda Vezel and the North American Honda HR-V, featuring a shipload of black plastic, a redesigned grille, and different taillights.

The Honda XR-V is manufactured in China by the Dongfeng-Honda joint venture. It is based on the same platform as the Honda Fit. The Honda Vezel  is also available on the Chinese auto market, it will be manufactured by Guangzhou-Honda, Honda’s other Chinese joint venture. China thus has the same car twice. This madness is perfectly normal down here where most foreign carmakers have two joint ventures with two different Chinese companies, and each wants what the other one has.

The XR-V is available with two four-cylinder patrol engines: a 131hp 1.5 and a 165hp 1.8, both mated to a 5-speed manual or a CVT. Size: 4295/1770/1605, wheelbase is 2610.

I can see your muffler! Exhaust pips hanging awkwardly ugly in nowhere-land under the bumper. Not pretty.

Roof rails too small to be of real use, and thus fake. On the other side; they are just too big to be called a complete fake, like the rails we saw on the Qoros City SUV.