HONDA’S FAMILY HIT
WERE you to compare Honda’s new family favourite CR-V to a music genre, it would be easy listening. It’s comfortable, conservative, cosseting and roomy, but that doesn’t make it bland — rather it’s an engaging drive.
It’s also the world’s top-selling SUV, of which the UK buys nearly four out of ten sold in Europe. This is the fifth generation of the CRV or the sixth if you count a facelift in 2015.
There are significant firsts. It’s ditched diesel — for ever — in favour of a 2-litre petrol-electric hybrid set to come out early next year. But at September’s launch there’s a capable 1.5-litre VTEC 193 hp fourcylinder turbo with six-speed manual or automatic continuously variable transmission.
The manual is a delight to drive and willing, but the automatic in allwheel drive will be the big seller. Suspension has been tweaked for UK roads, and soundproofing makes it far quieter inside.
One game-changer is the option of seven seats. You may rarely use them, but knowing they are there can be reassuring, and they are standard on other premium SUVs.
Honda’s spectacular stand at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed will show off the new CR-V. Expected cost is from £24,000 to £37,000.
Styling is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but it looks sharper, and I like the protruding rear lights. The tyres are bigger and wider than ever.
Unlike previous models, this one is not built at Honda’s Swindon factory — which is now given over to Civics — but in Japan.
The CR-V is the ‘bread and butter’ vehicle for families, with more than 9 million sold since the model first went on sale in Japan in 1995, and 270,689 in the UK since 1996.