After a new car. Family of 2+2

3 sitting in the front and a kid in the back, I think 4 bikes (29/26/24/24) could go in with wheels off.

Wife drove the 1.8 FR-V today and liked it. Will the 2.0 be worth it for the extra £80 tax and fuel cost?

Only 10k miles a year so I assume the 2.2 diesel is a no go area.

The 2.0 will be a lot nicer if you drive fully loaded often.. Guess it depends how often that is.. Only 10k per year I’d be tempted to go with the 2.0.. Petrol saving won’t be much with the 1800

For a car of that age, pick one on condition, nothing else.

2 ltr petrol is 25-30mpg.
Lots of people go by what it costs over x amount of years etc, but for us (well wife) she felt it each time she went to petrol station. I’d rather pay more in one lump and visit the station less.
Diesel will be + 10 mpg and has no dpv

The 2.0 ran up to 2006. From 2007 they went to the 1.8.

So for the best condition example its a 1.8. But I would prefer a 2.0 if the inc in power/drive-ability is significant.

Anybody driven both?

1.8 is ok but you need to rev it to go anywhere. I’d go for the 2.0 kn your mileage.

K20 engines will go on forever.
N22’s are expensive if they go wrong.
Not too clued up on R18’s, they were the successor to the D series though so can’t imagine they would be a bad choice.

You need to rev the arse off any Honda to get it to move, on an FRV K series it’ll be eco VTEC rather than fire breathing lunacy though.

I get 34 mpg out of my 2.0 FRV, I’ve had it 11 years in August and it just keeps going. It’s a fantastic engine – as above it needs to be given plenty of revs to get the best out of it but for a biggish engine I don’t think the mpg is at all bad.

Thanks folks. A hunt for a 2.0 is on.

Considering I almost never see a FRV on the road, there are lots of listing AutoTrader (twas my Friday Night curry/larger/Autotrader).

I do find the idea of VTEC baffling. I would have though most ‘normal drivers’ actually want power and torque to be delivered early as possible aka diesel style.

The valve /cam timing with vtec makes a lot of sense if your racing, but as you said, if just pootling about then power delivery at the lower end of the rev range is far more useful.