The Honda CR-Z is a 3-door liftback from Honda, built from 2010 to 2016, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Under the bonnet: Petrol engine. Norio Tomobe drew it.
The story
The Honda CR-Z is a sport compact hybrid electric vehicle manufactured by Honda and marketed as a "sport hybrid coupe." It combines a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain with features typical of a sports car, including a standard six-speed manual transmission and a 2+2 seating layout (except in North America, where it was offered only as a two-seater). The CR-Z was seen as a spiritual successor to the second-generation Honda CR-X, sharing similarities in name and exterior design. In the United States, the CR-Z was classified as an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle by the California Air Resources Board.
It was the third Honda hybrid available with a manual transmission, following the Insight and Civic Hybrid, and the only one in its class to offer this option. The CR-Z used the sixth generation of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) technology, first introduced with the original Insight. Sales began in Japan in February 2010, followed by the United States in August 2010. Production of the CR-Z ended at the end of 2016, to make room for the Accord Hybrid and Clarity.
What is underneath
Power comes from Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 1211-1236 kg. It shifts through a CVT / 6-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2435 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Honda Insight (first generation); assembly was at Suzuka, Mie, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Nissan Leaf, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Lexus LFA — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Honda catalogue sit the Honda Envix and the Honda Crider.
What it costs now
The money question first: $5,800–$12,700 is the typical asking range today, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $2,962–$5,110 a year. Insurance sits around $960–$1,580 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.