MOTORING

The CR-V Touring wasn’t broken, but Honda fixed it anyway. wheels’ Sony Thomas drives the latest iteration of one of the world’s most successful crossovers to see if the changes have made it even better

Honda’s CR-V was always pretty and practical, so how is the new avatar better?

When you’ve sold over 8.7 million units of a model globally, it’s only natural that you’d want to keep changes barely incremental.

Since its launch in 1995, Honda has been very cautious with the updates it introduced to the CR-V, one of the most popular crossover vehicles in the world. In the US market alone, Honda has shifted over 4 million of these, and two decades since its introduction there, it still continues to be the country’s bestselling utility vehicle. So, understandably, the all-new CR-V keeps all the winning traits that made it a global success story intact. However, there are significantly more changes, cosmetic and mechanical, than the 2012 model.

So while being practical and versatile like its predecessors, the 2017 CR-V also manages to be betterlooking and more comfortable and refined. The design follows Honda’s new styling language introduced in the new Civic, and is characterised by an abundance of edges and creases, which is a major departure from the curvy, rounded lines of the previous generations. In fact, the new grille and the LED headlights suit the CR-V better than it does the Civic. At the back, the taillights have been given a once-over with new boomerangish clusters replacing the vertical lamps from before. Although the CR-V has grown significantly in every dimension – it’s 15mm longer and 15mm taller than before and 35mm wider, with a 40mm longer wheelbase – the designers have managed to hide the extra bulk pretty well.

The cabin also has been thoroughly revamped, with everything from design and layout to the materials used and the workmanship representing a huge leap over the earlier iterations. In fact, it’s one of the best-built interiors in this price segment.

The seats in our Touring trim tester are well-contoured and supportive, helping in keeping fatigue minimal, even on long drives. It’s not just attractive but utilitarian as well, with a number of storage compartments in the centre console and doors.

Unlike the Accord, which has two screens on the dashboard, the CR-V has just one tablet-like screen placed centrally serving as an interface for the