Car reviews

Introduction

The Honda Stream is a fairly spacious seven seater MPV with plenty of head and legroom all round. It underwent a facelift in 2006 that improved the overall looks of the car, but also changed it from a seven to a six seater, turning it into an even more spacious and comfortable MPV. The handling is superb for such a large vehicle and it feels surprisingly agile and sporty as well as coming with good VTEC engines, even if there is only a choice between two of them.

Exterior & Interior

The Stream originally came with seven seats laid out in a 2-3-2 formation but was later changed to a six seater after the 2006 facelift turning the three person middle bench into two separate chairs. The chairs are all very comfortable and the middle bench in both models slides forwards and back in order to maximize the legroom where it is needed most. The boot isn't very big with all of the seats up, but the back two seats can be folded away into the floor of the Stream which creates a spacious boot that you should be able to pile the whole family's luggage into for a week away. The dash is clearly laid out and easy to use being designed to suit the driver more than the passengers with even the stereo volume button being on the drivers' side of the central console. The dash mounted gearstick does look a little strange but it is extremely easy to use and get along with. There are two choices of trim in the 1.7-litre coming as either the entry level S or SE. The SE is the better of the two to go for as you receive more kit for you're money whilst the 2.0 only comes with the SE trim.

Drive

The Stream offers a surprisingly agile and sporty drive with the steering feel well weighted and accurate. It corners well too with minimal body roll and plenty of grip thanks to its stiff suspension. The suspension can create a bumpy ride at slower speeds, but not uncomfortably so. The engines do need to be revved hard to get the full potential out of them and can become noisy, but at motorway speeds it's relatively quiet and there isn't much wind or road noise to speak of either.

Faults & Repairs

The Stream is almost fault free with owners having very few complaints with it. There was a recall for cars built between June 2000 and October 2001 to fix a potential problem with the dipped beam headlights. Exhaust on vehicles only used for short trips can suffer from rot so make sure to check these two things. Other than that there are very few problems to report of and the service and repair costs are cheaper than most other rivals and Honda consistently receives good reviews for their customer care.