Cars get every year. I doubt much could convince Kia now to downsize the , because people buy big cars. Big cars fit more cargo and more people. But some cars laugh in the face of that paradigm, and I was reminded of this by the Mexican market three-row , which scoffs at the Telluride’s excess.

For reference, let’s look at the 2021 Kia Telluride. It’s not the biggest three-row SUV/crossover you can buy, but it’s not small. The Telluride seats up to eight passengers. The Honda BR-V seats seven. Not exactly the same, but then again, the Telluride is about 197 inches long and weighs over 4,100 pounds. The BR-V is around 175 inches long and weighs a little more than 2,700 pounds.

That’s a 1,400 pound difference. And for what? For one more passenger? No, thank you, Kia. I’d take the little Honda, all day. I mean, just look at this:

It’s like someone combined a Honda Odyssey with an HR-V, minus the . Then, they threw in a Honda City drivetrain and out came this little guy. It’s pretty tiny, but even so, it manages to fit a third row! One of these drove past me today and I found myself mimicking as I stared at its little i-VTEC badge in my rearview mirror.

The BR-V’s engine is a 1.5-liter four-cylinder that makes about 116 horsepower and 107 lb-ft of torque. It’s suspiciously close to the Honda City output. As you would expect, it does than the small Honda . The BR-V starts at about $348,000 MXN or just over $17,000 USD.

We’v written about the BR-V , but had only a concept sketch to go on. At that time in 2015, the BR-V had just been ; it wouldn’t be until 2016. That concept sketch made the BR-V look larger and more aggressive than it looked to me on the road today.

The BR-V reminded me of the , except with modern Honda design. Its ride height from head-on seemed low, but its rear hatch was slightly taller, or upturned. I imagine cramming passengers and cargo into it would be easy.

The BR-V is sold in a number of other markets, like , and . It shares a platform with the , another little big car, but one which I’ve never seen rolling around South Texas. It makes sense; it’s not for sale in Mexico.

For now, the BR-V will remain my anti-Telluride. A third-row mighty mouse that proves bigger isn’t always better.