Have you ever driven HRV ? As compared to all other 1.5 and 1.6 naturally aspirated cars, it produces more power. And with its double over head cam engine, above 80 km speed the pick is quite a bit.
On the motorway at 120, the speed remains fixed easily and you have the itch to speed up more. It has very good pick up on motorway speeds. Regarding this itch, you can ascertain this point from other HRV owners also. To get even better pick up , just press off the ECONO button and you will receive a nice surprise.
Regarding noise insulation, I think that here you are not right as HRV is very very quite as compared to city and BRV , both of which I possessed, but I sold off the city due to steering problem. In the BRV I damped all the doors and now the car is okay , and for the city damping wasn't needed at all. But HRV is more silent than the city.
But everyone have their own standards. My standard is that a car should have leg room at the rear and should be wide enough for 3 adult persons,. And as I visit northern areas, it should have high ground clearance and should be able to wade in above half tyre level of water (which you easily encounter in the area between Kaghan and Naran due to glaciers). And because the speed remains really fixed at 120 and 130 , I don't really feel the need of cruise control.
Corolla announced that not to take the cross in water above half level of the tyre otherwise they won't be responsible (this is for the hybrid, I don't know about the naturally aspirated versions). As I plan to keep my cars for more than 5 plus years (as I currently have BRV which is 4 years old), I don't know about resale. But the shape of HRV is the current one with wide squarish front like that of Tucson. Sportage has old shape and they were supposed to introduce new model in April 2023.
I came back from Murree 3 months back and the car gave me 15.5 which is fine for me. I had actually gone to buy Altis manual after selling my city , but my children failed it as they showed to me that the rear seats were bucket type and not really possible for 3 persons to sit in comfortably, maybe for short drives and certainly not for long (out of city) drives. Surprisingly the seats of Grand were flat (the seat and the back both), and that my children passed , but as I hadn't made my mind to buy grande, so I didn't and I went to Honda showroom to buy aspire, but was told that it too had steering problems, and then my children failed the civic and passed HRV. The rear leg room is quite a lot in HRV and my children are happy in it and that is all that matters. I am a family man and the needs of my family come foremost. I haven't even travelled with friends even , only with family.
Now the point why cross hybrid sold so much, The fact that it is a toyota (reliability) and hybrid were the two main points. But for me SPACE is the most important consideration and everything else comes later on. If not HRV, I would have then purchased the 7 seat version of oshan. Right now we have a Revo and even that is not being able to be sold off as people don't have money (or the price is too high).
Eventually I will also sell off my HRV as our family has decided to purchase another 7 seater car and not 5 seater.
But why did I buy HRV , because of the name of Honda, and this is the reason I would stay away from Kia and hyundai and even changan. But out of all the seven seaters currently available, oshan would be my first choice.
When I had purchased BRV , people were saying "oh it is underpowered". My question is that have they even driven the car???. Without driving the car and giving Fatwa of it being underpowered , it that logical at all ???
Anyways check out HRV, it has the ability to go in all those areas where the BRV can go and it has a higher ground clearance than cross and due to its design at the back the departure angle is quite good , more than ANY other SUVs / crossovers (not comparing with Fortuner / prado as they are in a different category)
My BRV manual goes from 0 to 100 in around 10 seconds (I have checked it myself), and you can also check in the internet. It gives pick in all the gears including the 6th gear, and I am always ready to race with anyone. Yes the back seats are just okay and you cannot compare it to a sedan but what it was made for , it truly delivers. The entrance towards the third row is the most and the best among all the current SUVs and most easy, no one comes even close. Yes, Honda should have introduced HRV in hybrid form but as honda products are higher priced, then the hybrid version would have most probably crossed one crore rupees. And also the last row seats of BRV, the sitting position is better than at least 98% of all other 3 row SUV's.crossovers.
And to reiterate, I had visited toyota township to check the cross and I was really very disappointed to see its congestion at the back and even the front, as I was planning to purchase it. The back middle seat, even you will have to bribe a child to sit in it for long durations. For a 4 family person, cross is just fine and may even be great due to better mileage, but for a 5 family person, never.
In the end I will say this again, it depends upon your needs and preference.