A living room on wheels

Honda's Step Wgn is spacious enough to accommodate seven adults in comfort

- Lee Nian Tjoe

My first drive in the Honda Step Wgn sets my heart racing. The multi-storey carpark I am heading into has a height limit of 1.8m and the Honda's brochure says the car exceeds that mark by 46mm.

Should I risk damaging car and property or face the wrath of the drivers queuing behind by backing out?

The Step Wgn is a rather familiar mid-sized seven-seater in Singapore. The boxy car has been sold by parallel importers since 2022. After a preview in January, Honda is finally offering the car as an official model through its agent.

The Honda is actually not exceptionally tall, as multipurpose vehicles go, but some of the older carparks in Singapore have not kept in step with how cars today are just bigger than those in the 1980s.

The Step Wgn's height translates into a lot of headroom in the cabin. This is useful not only for those from the Victorian era who wear tall hats, but also eases access to the back seats.

Passengers can get into the car without having to bend over exaggeratedly after the motorised doors slide out of the way at the push of a button.

The design of the two individual seats in the second row is quite clever. Besides having extendable leg rests for the comfort of those using them, the seats can be tipped forward to let passengers get to the seats behind or positioned apart from each other to create a walkway between them.