HONDA CR-V 1,5T EXCLUSIVE AWD CVT

A LOT of buyers may disagree with me, but what is the point of buying an SUV (especially an allwheel-drive variant) if you never take it off-road? Although this Honda is not designed for serious off-roading, our rst open-road trip with the CR-V as a family involved a long weekend away to the Langeberg town of Mcgregor, 170 km from Cape Town. During this trip, the CR-V ticked all the appropriate boxes as the perfect family car: enough space; an engine that’s light on fuel; good ride quality; and all the necessary modern conveniences.

On the return leg, I decided to try the gravel roads that lead to the R317 before hitting the tarred road that connects to the N2 at Stormsvlei. It really is an added bene t that, when all four wheels leave the tarmac and hit the gravel, you can simply continue driving at speed On this gravel stretch, the CR-V’S standout asphalt-driving qualities such as cossetting suspension absorption and noise suppression remained. Granted, the surface was relatively smooth, but the way the CR-V handled this piece of road inspired con dence. No dust ltered through to the cabin, despite driving at 100 km/h. On our return to the highway, it was back to business using the adaptive cruise control.

Notable features I continue to enjoy are Bluetooth connectivity for phone calls and audio streaming. I nd the latter useful when sitting in traf c during commutes, as I prefer to listen to podcasts. The automatic tailgate is proving a boon, not because of the heavily sprung nature of nonautomated versions, but because you can press the button on the key fob before you arrive at the car and simply add weighty items to the boot without having to put them down rst.