SMALL SUV BATTLE! -- 2026 Honda HR-V vs. 2025 Mazda CX-30: Comparison

What's going on youtube so more and more people are choosing to trade in their sedans for small crossovers and today we have two of the prominent offerings the honda hrv and the mazda cx-30 and for 2026 honda has refreshed the hrv with some noteworthy upgrades so we want to know which of these affordable crossovers gives you the best experience and bang for your buck well that's so like we mentioned at the introduction these two represent the entry price point into each brand's suv lineup occupying competitive price points in the low thirty thousand dollar ranges as equipped today that's below the average new car price in the u.s right now and if you're looking to buy one make sure to check out carconfections.com slash new car quotes to get the best price and access to invoice pricing information now jumping right into the exteriors you can see that these two are designed with quite different philosophies. Mazda plays into the sporty design with sharper appointments in the grille and body lines throughout with a lot of cladding. Honda goes for more of a rounded and substantial appearance with a smaller amount of cladding. We don't score the appearance of vehicles but we'd love to hear what you guys think in the comments below. What we do score are all the various features and differences so let's get into those. Starting with the headlights both models feature full led arrangements but the Mazda goes the extra mile by selecting adaptive projector leds instead of reflector leds on the Honda. Walking around the vehicles you notice both feature 18 inch alloy wheels although lengthwise the HR-V is the bigger of the two. Of course we will be comparing all the interior space and dimensions later on in the comparison. In the back we have a surprise treat. Despite the less expensive price tags both models feature completely led taillight clusters. Even the class above often skimps out on them. They also both have spoilers and exposed wipers. The mirrors on both of them feature heating and blind spot monitoring and as far as all the other important active safety features they are also all included here as well to help you avoid crashes. That's going to conclude the outside so now let's move on to the more important interiors but first if you're new here we're brothers and we've been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We started young and since then we have reviewed over 2,000 vehicles at every price point. No matter what you're looking for from humble to high-end we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let's learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars. Heading to the interiors both crossovers feature smart entry systems although only the Honda has remote start on the fob. After opening up the doors you'll find cabins that have a few design similarities but not many. The first stop is the seats where they are leather covered in the Both have heating but another noteworthy thing to mention is that the Honda's driver's seat doesn't have lumbar support and the Mazda also has the leg up with memory seats. Material quality is a broad category so we're going to start dividing it into solidity and material selections. In the first category these two both feel very solid in construction when you press on the materials or do things like close the door. However the Mazda excels past the Honda on the second criteria since it has a lot more soft plastics and leatherette padded areas over commonly touched surfaces. Once you fire the two crossovers up you'll find partially digital seven inch gauges on both of them and pulling back to the wheels we have leatherette wrapping manual adjustment and no heating. When it comes to storage we're going to look at the console and the multi-use cubbies in the dash. Starting with the console we perform the signature car confections donut test on both of them and the HR-V is the largest subcompact crossover we have ever tested fitting 14 donuts versus the Mazda's 9. But the packaging genius of Honda doesn't end there because they also have an extra pass-through storage area and a larger front bin compared to the CX-30 despite still retaining a regular shifter. Speaking of when we go into reverse the backup camera has extra views and active trajectory on the HR-V. Although both of them have electronic parking brakes with brake hold. Moving up the dashboard next we have climate controls. Both have two zones and easy to use physical controls for all functions. They both also have physical volume knobs for the audio systems. These are unbranded systems which have eight speakers so let's give them a quick sample. Overall they are both totally fine for this price point. Infotainment wise the HR-V has upgraded to a standard nine inch screen on all trims for 2026 model year. However the Mazda still has it beat by about 12% with a 10.25 inch screen. You might have noticed how far away the screen is mounted on the dash in the Mazda and that's because some functions of the system are controlled by the dash mounted control knob instead of the touchscreen. That's certainly harder to deal with day-to-day so we'll give the HR-V an advantage in ease of use. One exception is that you can touch the screen when using wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto which both SUVs offer. Wrapping up the front of the cabins the HR-V has an auto dimming mirror and both of them have sunroofs. Now let's head into the back seats and the cargo areas which are also very important. If you remember from the exterior part the HR-V has a size advantage which translates to more rear legroom. On paper the numbers are very similar but Mazda uses a different measurement technique than other manufacturers because you can see it clearly demonstrated with our driving position equivalent and measured with our ruler. Headroom is the same for both. As far as the features back here the CX-30 gives you more for comfort since it features vents. Even though EXL is the top trim of the HR-V offered in the U.S. there are no vents or USB connections. There is also no center armrest with cup holders in the HR-V which the Mazda has. Out back neither has a power tailgate but this is where we probably see the biggest advantage of the HR-V cargo capacity. With the seats in place the Honda has over four more cubic feet of space and that advantage expands even more with the seats folded with it having just under 20% more space. That's very significant for weekend warriors or families with kids. Finally both of them have spare tires. All right we're done with the interiors now but some of the most important things to consider take place on the test drive so let's take this fight to the streets. So what's under the hood of these two? Well the HR-V only comes with a two liter naturally aspirated four cylinder engine while the CX-30 has regular and turbocharged engines available. At this price point you can afford this turbo engine making 250 horsepower versus the much lower 158 horsepower in the Honda. The HR-V is one of the slowest vehicles we have ever tested so even if our CX-30 didn't have the turbo engine it would still be quicker to 60 miles per hour. But in summary the CX-30 has more horsepower and torque and is a lot faster. Nice very nice. You gotta love the Mazda turbos. Oh yeah it's always just fun to be behind the wheel of one of these turbocharged Mazdas because they are quick guys. I mean this is not that big of a vehicle far from it and but yeah you put 250 horsepower 320 pound feet of torque on this guy I mean you're gonna see some serious performance that's for sure. All right so that was an acceleration up to about 50 miles an hour we are going up a little bit of an incline before this red light is a two liter naturally aspirated four cylinder engine makes 158 horsepower and 138 pound feet of torque. Overall in terms of acceleration this is on the slower side you could probably tell that this segment generally speaking is just slower across the board compared to some of the rivals though this is on the slower side of the segment. Transmission wise we have a CVT in the Honda and a six speed automatic in the Mazda. While not the fastest shifting transmission out there the CX-30's six speed is smooth and helps avoid the droning you hear in the HRV. Now as far as the other element of the powertrain that's a six-speed automatic transmission most Mazdas do have this powertrain arrangement and it's a good smooth transmission they do a good job with this of course when you're also dealing with an engine that's this torque rich it's okay that you're down a couple gears from most of the competition because you don't really need to shift as much. Now as far as the transmission is concerned this has a continuously variable transmission and it does have shift simulation on board as well. Ride and handling are strong areas for both models but with different levels of emphasis placed on each item the CX-30 is the sportiest and best handling subcompact SUV out there with excellent steering as well but the HRV is not sloppy either and it has the better ride quality with more compliance over bumps. Now that we're turning back out onto the highway let's take a second to discuss ride quality for the HRV. Now when it comes to this the HRV does a pretty good job overall even despite the larger 18 inch alloy wheels on the outside for this EXL model I think it does a good job of soaking up the bumps when you hit them in the road. I will point out also that these EXL seats I think are a really big upgrade over the cloth seats we've sampled out in some of the other versions those are going to be a little bit firmer these have a nice softness to us and feel a lot more premium that's for sure. You are going to feel a little bit of intrusion into the cabin this is one of the sportier options in the segment so it's not going to have a super soft suspension but certainly I think it's a good one overall. Now out on the highway sound insulation is important which is why we take sound level readings of every vehicle we test here at Car Confections. Scientifically speaking most people cannot discern a difference of less than one decibel between sounds and as you can see both are right at that 57 decibel mark. Official car convection sound level reading is coming in at 57.1 decibels 56.8 decibels is what we are looking at as our sound level rating. Lastly let's get into fuel economy. To get to 60 miles per hour in about half the time you pay a penalty of two mpg combined in the CX-30 turbo versus the HR-V. That's a lot less of a difference than we expected but still about eight percent so it'll get a point advantage. In our reviews and comparisons we have also added in reliability and resale value information to give you a better picture of overall value beyond just the original MSRP. Beginning with reliability we developed the combined reliability index which takes into account several studies from trustworthy sources and combines them in a way that gives you a more realistic picture. In this respect the Honda pulls ahead. It is rated 13 slots above the industry average giving it plus 2.6 points but Mazda is two slots above average awarding it less points plus 0.4 points to be exact. Related to that they have the same warranty coverage but Honda has one year of complimentary maintenance that the Mazda doesn't. We also put Mason's economics degree to work to develop a detailed predicted resale value tool. After five years and 60,000 miles Honda actually has the highest value in the entire auto industry at 64.79 percent expected retained value. Mazda is pretty close behind at 59.44 percent after five years and 60,000 miles. This still gives the Honda plus one point. Now let's break down the cost of these two and evaluate how much value each model is delivering. Our loaded HR-V EXL is just slightly under $33,000 after the price increases for 2026. The CX-30 on the other hand has a lot more trims so this not completely loaded carbon turbo is very comparable in price at $34,000. Nevertheless let's account for the $1,700 price difference using our scale. This will give the HR-V plus four points since as affordable crossovers customers are typically much more price conscious. I want to emphasize that if money, reliability, or resale value matter less to you personally feel free to disregard these points. So there you have it the objective winner. Do you agree? Well here are a couple things to consider so you can pick your personal winner and we'll also tell you what we would put in each of our driveways. Now you should probably pick the CX-30 if you're looking for that available turbocharged engine which has way more power and actually still gets nearly the same mpg. Also if you like the more premium interior finishes. Now on the flip side the HR-V should be your choice if you want the best resale and the predicted reliability of the Honda brand. It is one of the very best. Now it also has significantly more space than the CX-30 so that's certainly something to keep in mind. And by the way if any of those categories matter more or less to you we'd encourage you to use our tools at carconfections.com slash vehicle rankings. Now the reason you'd use that is because we've gone through all of these subcompact crossovers out in the market and ranked them in individual categories that might matter more or less to you. Things like cargo capacity, powertrain experience, luxury features, resale reliability, all of that is noted on our website and you can actually sort based on what is most important to you. So if you want to make an informed buying decision we'd certainly recommend you check that tool out at carconfections.com slash vehicle rankings. Now for the driveway picks having power and being fun to drive is important to both of us so we would choose the Mazda CX-30 for both of our respective driveways. And guys that's going to be it for this comparison hopefully you enjoyed watching if you did we'd really appreciate it if you hit that subscribe button down below. By subscribing you're going to be a part of our CarConfections family and I promise you won't want to miss out on the latest videos we're doing out on the market. Now I do also want to remind you all if you're looking to buy either the HR-V CX-30 or any new vehicle to go to carconfections.com slash new car quotes. The reason you do that is because we have a tool on our website that will connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price. It's also going to give you access to invoice pricing information so if you want to get that best deal we definitely encourage you to check that tool out on our website. And guys that's going to be where we wrap up thanks so much for tuning in if you're already a fan and subscriber thank you so much for your continued support. We'll catch you next time as we sample more of the latest automotive delicacies.