At $5,900, Is This 2011 Honda CR-Z A Hybrid You Could Get Behind?

Honda did something interesting with today’s Nice Price or No Dice CR-Z: it created a hybrid car with sporting intentions. Was it totally a success? No. But as a six-speed-equipped edition, this is the best of the bunch. Let’s see if it requires bunches of cash to buy.

In the Grand Tour special “Carnage A Trois,” Clarkson, Hammond, and May undertook a deep dive into the French motoring industry. Their findings turned out to be negative on the whole, save for a bit in which Clarkson and May fan-girl over an old Citroën SM. The show ended with the trio attempting to send another Citroën, a C3 Pluriel convertible, back to its home country across the English Channel by way of a massive trebuchet. Such derisive behavior and outright dismissal of French cars by the English trio were likely born out of jealousy over France still having an auto industry, as that of Great Britain is largely gone. 

Also going without mention were cars like the 1998 Peugeot 106 Rallye we looked at on Friday. A fun and frivolous little racer, our Pug had gone from France to Japan and then to America, where it wears its battle scars with pride and asks $7,499 to race to a new owner. Sadly for its seller, you all black-flagged that price, giving the 106 both a DNF and a massive 87% No Dice loss as a result.

Back before Toyota launched the Prius in the late 1990s, the idea of an automotive hybrid engendered a different mindset. Instead of frugal gas/electric drivetrains, hybrids of the past were European sports cars and saloons powered by big American muscle. That gave us such cars as the Ford-powered De Tomaso Pantera and Iso Grifos with small block Chevy V8s under their shapely hoods.

The Prius usurped that meaning, changing it to what we know today: cars and trucks with both internal combustion and electric power combined for the dual goal of improved fuel economy and lower emissions. This stands in stark contrast to the older version of a hybrid, which was simply a way to get the biggest bang for the buck possible.

Since the advent of the smugness-inducing Prius, the idea of a fun, or dare to say, sporty hybrid was not in the cards. That all changed in the mid-aughts when Honda introduced its Accord Hybrid, a V6-powered model with electric assist that proved substantially quicker than the gas-only model. The company followed that with another fun-seeking hybrid in 2011, the CR-Z. That car was even made available with that rarest of the rare feature in a modern hybrid: a manual transmission.

Launched for the 2011 model year in the U.S., the two-seat CR-Z cribbed its mission notes from the beloved CRX sports car of the 1980s and ’90s. In place of that model’s simplicity and modest weight, however, the CR-Z went for a hybrid drivetrain for its quirk. That could be matched with a six-speed stick as standard or a CVT automatic—the transmission equivalent of public housing—as an option. Happily for us, this 2011 CR-Z has the stick.

It also has 158,000 miles on the clock and two owners in the rearview. According to the ad, the first owner used it for commuting. That’s a task that, save for manual-unfriendly stop-and-go traffic, it should excel at. With two seats and a lot of cargo space under the hatch, it would also make for a perfect grocery-getter. These cars are sporty enough with the stick to not feel like a penalty box when doing either of those tasks.

Part of that is made possible by the 1.5-liter VTEC four found under the hood. That alone makes 111 horsepower and 106 pound-feet of twist and shout. An electric motor wedged between that and the gearbox adds an additional 13 horses and 58 lb-ft to the mix. Juice for the electric motor is kept in a small six-kilowatt lithium-ion battery pack mounted below the floor of the boot.

That battery pack can be the CR-Z’s Achilles heel, as they have a reputation for giving out after around 10 years or 100,000 miles of service. The seller doesn’t give any indication of whether this car’s battery offers diminished charge or if it has ever been replaced. Replacements are available. They do claim that it “runs excellent and looks excellent,” and the pictures in the ad support the latter part of that boast. They show the car to be in terrific shape, with only some minor bumper scrapes to belie its age and use and an interior that looks to be without flaw. Yes, there is a carpet cap on the dash, but that’s probably an Arizona thing.

In another effort to sing the CR-Z’s praises, the seller promises that buyers will “not be disappointed.” That’s a bold claim, given that not everyone’s disappointment threshold is going to be the same.

The reason given for the sale is medical issues and the price tag on this clean-title car is $5,900. Considering its sporty nature, six-speed stick, and Honda build quality, we now need to decide whether or not that’s a fair price to ask.

What’s your take on this hybrid for that kind of cash? Does that make for a compelling mix? Or is that price just too much for a car that’s just not sporty enough?

You decide!

Prescott, Arizona, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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