Car Reviews > Honda > CR-V > Honda CR-V Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Prices: From £22,000 (estimated)
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Gearbox: 5-speed auto, part time 4-wheel drive
Power/torque: 180 bhp
Equipment: Cruise control, leather, climate control, Bluetooth, display screen, Eco button, starter button

Is the new CR-V still able to be a contender, when it comes to the compact SUV class?

With compact SUVs getting fresher, funkier and more daring all the time, the Honda CR-V seemed to be in great danger of being rather left behind, which would have been a somewhat ironic fate given that when it debuted 16 years ago it was one of the absolute pioneers of its class. Now the company is hoping to be able to regain some momentum with the arrival of this new model.

The firm’s home market of Japan will be acquiring the 2012 CR-V in just two weeks time, although the European-spec version will not be materialising until around this time next year. It will have an important role to play when it finally does, however, as the company is hoping for a turn for the better in its fortunes. The company’s sales in the United Kingdom have been halved to almost 50,000 over the course of the last three years, with the last year having proven to be a particularly difficult one thanks to supply problems because of the Japanese tsunami. Therefore, it will be up to the CR-V, alongside the Civic, to try to increase this figure by a significant amount.

In other words, a lot is expected of this newcomer, so what does it actually have to offer? For one thing, the styling has been sharpened up quite considerably, with the lower roofline creating a much more dynamic appearance and a near vertical hatchback. There is also a much bolder grille as well. The CR-V has not lost its own identity, and is certainly a very handsome vehicle, though it is also rather restrained in comparison with what has been done to the Sportage by Kia, the next Kuga by Ford and the Evoque by Range Rover. Company chiefs have freely admitted to have something of an attitude of “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”, and with its continued strong sales in Japan and the United States as well, an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach might perhaps be expected and even desirable in this instance.

Despite the Japanese vehicle being 30 millimetres shorter than the outgoing car, and the presence of the lower roofline, the cabin is more spacious than it was before. However, the hard plastics on the top of the dashboard seem rather out of sync with the rest of the interior, which has the usual high standard of build quality that has come to be expected of Honda. Softer plastics will be replacing these for the European release, however.

The test model was specifically designed for the Japanese market, and there are other important differences to the car that will go on sale in the United Kingdom in about 12 months’ time. The suspension settings are almost certain to receive some tweaking in order to provide a softer ride and refinement is set to be improved.

The model for the Japanese market has a 2.4-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine that delivers a bhp rating of 180 and a torque rating of 240 Nm. The engine performs reasonably adequately, but even so, the vehicle never feels particularly sprightly. The engine line up in the United Kingdom version will consist of a 2.2-litre diesel engine, a 2.0-litre petrol and Honda’s new 1.6-litre diesel.

Overall, this is a competent if not overly exciting package.

by Autoweb