2013 Honda CR-Z Facelift: Price from £20,550

The price for the facelifted 2013 Honda CR-Z has been announced. The CR-Z Sport will start from £20,550 and the CR-Z GT will cost £23,050.

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Honda’s Hybrid Hope – the Honda CR-Z – arrived in 2010 as Honda’s effort to take a slice of the hybrid car sales from Toyota, but it’s not been an unmitigated success.

So Honda revealed back in September that they’re giving the CR-Z a bit of a facelift for 2013, the main focus is on the running gear where Honda has upped the output of the 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine and attached electric motor to deliver 135bhp and changed the battery pack to a Lithium Ion one instead of the old  Nickel-metal hybrid.

That means performance improves – the CR-Z Sport will now get to 62mph in 9.1s (down from 10.0s) and the CR-Z GT manages 9.5s (was 10.1s) and Honda has a Sports Plus boost system, activated by prodding the S+ button on the steering wheel for 10 seconds of increased acceleration (just don’t expect warp drive).

The cosmetic facelift for the 2013 CR-Z is pretty minor, with the addition of a couple of extra colour choices – Aurora Violet and Energetic Yellow – a titivate of the bumper and grill, 17″ alloys on the CR-Z GT, small changes to interior colours and slightly better cabin storage.

The 2013 Honda CR-Z will be available in Honda’s UK dealers from January (order books are now open) with the CR-Z Sport costing £20,550 and the CR-Z GT £23,050. Honda has also divvied up some low rate (6.9 per cent) PCP deals over three years with no deposit and a free service plan to try and tempt extra punters.