Gadgetory

welcome to Roadshow rivals where we bring together the best of the best to find out which machine you should take home today it's small SUVs and we have three the latest entrance into this increasingly competitive market from Jeep the chunky renegade from Mazda the rather more curvaceous cx3 and from Honda it's the brand-new HRV we'll start with HRV which you can think of as a slightly less compact version of one of our favorite compact cars the Honda Fit it's a little bit taller a little bit more room inside has available all-wheel drive yet still manages 35 miles per gallon on the highway it's possibly the most family-friendly choice of the three but it's also probably the most boring as configured our HRV starts at a reasonable twenty six thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars this is the 2016 Jeep renegade and as an added bonus this is a trail rated version baby you know what it lacks in cargo space it certainly does make up for in off-road prowess I've got twenty nine miles per gallon epa-estimated on the highway and an MSRP of thirty one thousand four hundred and forty dollars little pricey the third car in our roundup is the 2016 Mazda cx-3 this is like a beaker version of the Mazda 3 and it's got plenty of Mazda zum-zum spirit plus some surprising driver assistance features this front-wheel drive model gets 35 miles per gallon on the highway and our ABS tested price is twenty eight thousand three hundred forty dollars you start with age before beauty and we're inside the Jeep renegade which is the oldest of the three but that's not saying much since it's only been on the market since last year as Emmy mentioned it's the most expensive car but it's also the most powerful with 180 horsepower on top and 175 pound feet of stump pullin trailer towing torque actually you can only TOA bout a 2,000 pound trailer that's more than the other two who aren't ready to tow anything at all it's also the heaviest of the bunch weighing in at three thousand four hundred and ninety pounds that's thanks to the complex 4x4 system underneath go for the two wheel drive version and you'll shave some four hundred pounds off of that mark but you also get a smaller motor to go along with it in terms of driving dynamics well this is not a road optimized machine this is a Jeep after all and it feels like you're driving a Jeep it's over sprung over dampened and honestly kind of bouncing most of the time something that I think will come into its own when Emmy takes it offroad but this is the only one of the three that gives you that SUV driving perspective you're sitting up high you're looking over the world and all the smaller cars around you in fact if this car feels like a much bigger car than it actually is by the way did you know that Jeep has been making cars since 1941 I didn't either but thankfully they stamped it right peer on the center of the dashboard just in case you need to see that every time you drive the car maybe it's a Jeep thing I don't get it next up is the new HRV which has actually been on the market in Japan for a couple of years now where it's called the vessel why the name changed well Honda obviously wants me to think of this as being closely related to its big brother the CRV actually it's much closer to the fit but that's a good thing the car weighs 3,100 pounds in all wheel drive trim as we have hearings powered by a 141 horsepower motor but go with the front wheel drive trim and you can shave some 200 pounds off of that figure now if you're looking to tow a jet ski or miniature pony or the like you should know that Honda doesn't recommend towing anything with this car and that's despite having a 1,500 pound tow rating in Japan overall the HRV is a comfortable drive if not a particularly invigorating drive the 141 horsepower offers decent performance and the grind is comfortable but it's not really a great corner carver behind it means the car has a continuously variable transmission or a CVT which enthusiasts love to hate but this one's actually reasonably responsive it's not going to invigorate your life behind a means but it does do a good job of getting power to ground and it does give you great fuel economy which is pretty important in this segment finally is this 40 looking Mazda cx-3 which actually delivers on that look it's the lightest of the bunch at 2,800 pounds but remember this is the only car with front-wheel drive go with the all-wheel drive model and you're looking at two thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds which is still pretty light compared to the competition the motor puts down to 146 horsepower and while Mazda again does not rate this car for towing in the US in Europe it's rated for a massive 2,600 pounds which would have actually been class-leading except again you're not supposed to anything with it here in the US as soon as you sit in this car you realize that this is far and away the sport is to the bunch their seats actually have bolsters which actually work the steering wheel actually feels direct and while it's not especially powerful again 146 horse powers not a lot it does get up and go with more aplomb than any of the other eight corners better it does have a little bit of roll in the corners but you can actually genuinely good time in this car much more so than either of the other two of course in addition to driving your car from point A to point Z you're also probably gonna have to haul some stuff stuff like laundry baskets or bicycles or babies right people haul babies run against the middle of the bunch I've got eighteen point five cubic feet of space behind the sieve but don't think that that's going to be enough for a bicycle so let's take this guy out let's see how we are with monger baskets let's see I can't double stack my laundry basket so I can get two laundry baskets back there all right car seats car seats car seats ah let's see can get this guy in here like that all right that fits well skip this booster seat oh my god ours why are these so heavy they don't even have kids in them this guy sits in the middle I don't know quickmail fit three two all the way through I don't know you guys the second row seat I'm not sure we're gonna get all three wait wait get in there kid oh my gosh so two laundry baskets three car seats nobody now the Mazda is definitely the smallest of the bunch I've only had ten point one cubic feet of space back here in our Grand Touring model although that gets a little bit bigger for the other trim lines but I'm not even going to try the bike I know it's not going to work but laundry baskets looks like as one trademark laundry basket rating of one all right now for the car seat let's see all right we got to get three these babies across it's hot calling babies is hot hurry oh my gosh shoot one there and big guy because I really have to get back to the gym oh geez and there's two I'm not sure about this third one this might be pushing it God how come these weigh so much yeah I mean safety third and all but that doesn't look right so I think we can definitely only get two baby feeds across the back now if you do want to refold those verses down you get forty two point three cubic feet of space which will give you an F for probably full of laundry baskets but yeah it's a small Hey I gotta get in better shape but the true winner is the Honda HRV I've got 23.2 cubic feet of space behind these seats it's not quite enough for the bike but it's definitely going to be enough for a trademark laundry basket rating let's see a4 wait for it wait for it there we go trademark laundry basket rating a4 but let's see what happens with the cursor number 1 I'm getting so good at this it's like I had kids myself which is hilarious to anyone who knows hmm this guy tax car seat this kid's got two cupholders well I'm not two cupholders in my car and the last one there we go oh three car seats trademark laundry basket reading a four but there is another thing that makes this car even better when it comes to utilities so here's what makes a Honda HRV so special two words for you magic seat baby alright anyway so I just flip this guy up push that down and look I've got room to haul things that are four feet tall for navigation and in-cabin electronics picking a winner from these three cars is tough all the navigation systems show plan and perspective view maps they all use traffic data for dynamic routing guidance the Jeep and the Honda used touch screens while the Mazda has a dial controller on the console none of these cars support apple carplay or Android auto yet and that would give them an edge this renegade comes with a compact version of deeps UConnect system that shows on the 6.5 inch touchscreen now I really like the full-size you can access them on other Jeep models but this one's kind of cluttered it's a little harder to find my way around the interface at first blush the Honda HRV is a nav system looks really good there's these touch controls on the bezel they only light up when you need them and these menu icons slide into place that looks really cool but when you get into the sub menus you kind of lose the aesthetic appeal doesn't look quite as good now for connected features I've got Pandora and AHA apps integrated with the system those have to be running off a connected smartphone my winning pick in this category is the Mazda cx-3 here I've got simple controls on the console but let me control everything on the seven-inch screen from the simple home screen I can get music phone and navigation really easily and guess what this is actually a touchscreen too so if I can't figure out these controls I can just choose what I want right here as with all the navigation systems here the cx-3 shows really nice maps I get 3d rendered buildings in the city and out of the country here I got nice topographical features but this is the most a little bit better because when I'm browsing around it moves just a little more smoothly than the other systems for connected features I have aha Pandora and stitcher apps integrated with the car those would have to be running on my phone to work but what really puts the cx-3 over the top is its driver assistance features all the cars in this test have a backup camera and some sort of blind spot monitoring system but the cx-3 takes it further by having a head-up display and adaptive cruise control those add safety and comfort on the highway and that makes the cx-3 the winner in the electronics category and now my favorite part of the test that's right it's the off-road part now I want to make a little bit of a distinction between all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive I mean we could go on forever about this but suffice it to say that all-wheel Drive is best for inclement weather and four-wheel-drive is best for inclement terrain like this giant hill here behind me that we are going to take all three cars up now this is the front-wheel drive cx-3 you can't get an all-wheel drive and that's pretty engaging on the pavement but this is only got 6.10 inches of ground clearance so we're not going anywhere I can't even get past the first bump yeah I would say you don't want to take this baby on anything else besides a graded dirt road and now I got to try to back this up now the HRV fares a little bit better in that it has six points seven inches of ground clearance and it's got all-wheel tires but they're rated for mud and snow but it's still just an all-wheel drive car there's no low range there's nothing the all-wheel drive system is definitely going to do what it wants to do not necessarily what you want it to do but it's going this a lot better than I thought it was going to just going as slow as I am there we go that's as far as we're gonna get that was a good eight feet of the hill honestly you know if you had to get through some soft sand probably dropping your tire pressures and keeping the Rebs high we'd get you through it but don't get cocky all right Jeep renegade Tom now this is the trail rated version I have got skid plates on my transfer case transmission and on my fuel cell I've got five different off-road modes here Auto snow sand mud and rock I have put this baby in to stand and look at that she is crawling up like it ain't no thing now if I wanted to put this into the low gear I could have come on girl come on girl come on girl there you go on I could have a twenty to one a low gear ratio but I really don't think I need that whoo oh man there is nothing like going off-road I just love it so much oh no come on girl come on girl yes hahaha that's my baby how you doing honestly all you got to do is let the car do the work for you right you want to go as slow as possible and as fast as necessary all right I see a spot up here where I can turn around because another great thing that the renegade has is hill descent control so let me get this baby turned around I'm gonna go down hill right and I've got hill descent control so I'm going to put it in for low and press hill descent control hill descent is on and now I'm gonna take my foot off the brake and all I'm gonna do is steer I have to tell you it's a little nerve-racking look at that I am this it might not seem like it's super steep you guys but it's pretty steep hahahahahaha it goes pretty good if you're going up on your mountain roads to your cabin I think you're going to be pretty satisfied you've seen how they test Flint let's talk about the results Emmy I think we got a clear winner for the off-road portion oh my gosh of course I mean the renegade its trail rated I've got 22 one crawl ratio I've got skid plates on the bottom this thing is going to get you wherever you need to go within reason how about the interior technology well for the nav systems and stuff like that you know it's a pretty tough choice I'll have connected features I'm really good nav systems but I went with the cx-3 ultimately because it also has a driver assistance systems it's got adaptive cruise control and a head-up display and you just don't really find that in this segment then these cars quite match that so cx-3 for electronics and in terms of driving dynamics the Jeep has the most power but it really doesn't feel that way on the road all of us were fighting over the keys for the cx-3 that's the most fun on the road for sure the HRV is fine it's comfortable it's not really that dynamic it kind of lacks personality I would by and large absolutely the cx-3 is the most fun but we still got to pick a winner here yeah that's a tough one to slice up because each of these cars has their strengths you know I mean I would personally go with the CH 3 because I like the looks of it I like the driving character but maybe the end of the day for the segment practicality any which would you take down yeah I mean I always pick my cards based on personality and the Jeep renegade has it in spades so I really do love that but again I do see the value in the HRT yeah and I think in terms of driving dynamics again which would be something that I would be looking for would be to see X 3 but ultimately if you're talking practicality and if you're talking about cost and economy to the hunt is pretty hard to beat so I think we got to go with the practical choice right yeah I mean I got it I like the cx-3 a great driving character but calling it an SUV it's got it's so small it's so tiny there's no cargo room and just you know for this segment practicality practicality practicality HRV all right well if you want to go off-road its the Jeep if you want to have the most fun on the road it's the Mazda but overall it's got to be the Honda HRV you