Honda CR-V 1.5 T Executive AWD - The CR-V strikes back

By Ané Theron

The original ancestor of SUVs

The CR-V has been a worldwide runaway sales success for Honda. When the whole SUV-segment (which Honda claims to have invented) was born in 1995, little did they know how popular it would become. Now in its fifth-generation, it’s already proving to be a massive hit - did you know that the CR-V is the USA’s best-selling SUV ?

In SA it’s a slightly different story. Does the new CR-V have all the right stuff in all the right places for our picky SUV market? Time will tell. During 2016/17 it wasn’t selling as well as it should have, while the usual suspects such as the Toyota RAV4, VW Tiguan, Hyundai Tucson/Kia Sportage and Mazda CX-5 enjoyed significantly more suburban garage space.

So, what makes the new CR-V...new?

The new CR-V now shares a platform as well as a new turbocharged 1.5-litre engine with the superb Civic, and boasts a more roomy cabin as well as plenty new tech-tricks.  The styling is not that different from the fourth-generation, but the rear ends sees the most changes with slightly Volvo-esque LED tail-lights. The 2.0-litre naturally aspirated derivatives (the CR-V 2.0 Comfort and 2.0 Elegance, with 113kW and 189Nm) come in at the bottom, while the two new turbo variants, namely the CR-V 1.5T Executive and 1.5T Exclusive, are the top dogs. Honda is aiming to sell 150 CR-Vs per month.

CR-V 2.0 Comfort                               R422 900

CR-V 2.0 Elegance                              R477 900

CR-V 1.5T Executive AWD               R584 900

CR-V 1.5T Exclusive AWD                R626 900  

The SUV’s entire look is more assertive, zealous and determined, and looks as though it may get short-tempered if you keep subjecting it to nothing rougher than the school run. The1.5T CR-V is all-wheel-drive, after all, and is happy to send the torque to the front or rear wheels if the road surface should warrant it. Should you take your CR-V offroad, hard low-profile tyres won’t ruin your fun - our test model had pleasantly usable chunky rubber numbers fitted as standard, that complemented the gorgeous new 18-inch alloy rims rather nicely.

Being a Honda, as a rule the interior layout is clean and practical. The location of the gearbox frees up loads of frontal interior space, not to mention how easy and close-by everything is to operate. A 7-inch touchscreen is your main control area, but all other functions can be selected via the steering wheel. Options and settings are viewable on the instrument binnacle as well. Even though the cabin’s orangey fake-wooden inserts irked me at first, I hardly noticed it after a day or two. The rest is all soft-touch plastics, high-end surfaces and upmarket switchgear. For ease of use, the CR-V’s cockpit scores full marks.

Get out of town

With all of our bags packed into the massive 522-litre boot, I closed the tonneau cover and then the boot lid, but somehow the cover just wouldn’t stay where it was supposed to, and would flip up annoyingly, blocking the rear view. In the end I just didn’t bother using it anymore to save me the frustration.

A few minutes later we were on the road to Struisbaai, an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Hermanus. This road is not new to me - it’s an old favourite for testing press cars. You drive through Stanford (a nice bumpy start to test the suspension), take the Akkedisbergpas to the left, (quick corners down-hill on a patchy surface) and then you head to Napier on your way to Bredasdorp (long, smooth, sweeping bends with a couple of  sharpish curves). After another thirty minutes of driving down a very straight and narrow road, we arrived in Struisbaai.  

So how did the CR-V do?

For a relatively large SUV with outdoorsy tyres and a practical amount of ground clearance, the CR-V delighted and surprised me with its direct steering, grip and road-hugging disposition.

The 1.5-litre turbo-engine with a hearty 140 kW (in the 1.5-litre turbo Civic Sedan it’s 127 kW)  is much more spirited than I thought it would be, and adeptly moves the voluminous CR-V along without any trouble at all. If there was any turbo lag, I didn’t  pick it up. There’s even a Sport setting and flappy paddles on the steering wheel, and I did test it out just for fun - and the CR-V became even more responsive. But with petrol prices the way they look now, I mostly kept the Eco button depressed. Payday was still over a week away!

The often-lambasted Continuous Variable Transmission does a fine job of not sounding like an overworked hair dryer, and even though another journalist felt that it “hunts for gears” , I found the CVT ‘box altogether very agreeable. If you are a complete petrolhead, then no CVT  is ever going to float your boat. But if you take the CR-V’s comfort-cruiser character into consideration and drive it accordingly, the transmission is perfectly suited to its day-job.

From a techno-perspective

Honda is huge on technology, and the CR-V rises to the occasion of  the marque’s flagship SUV in this regard. Not many tech-stones have been left unturned. As I plugged my iPhone into the dedicated smartphone-USB port (There are four USB ports in total - 2 in front, 2 in the back for the kids - bonus!) I was immediately asked if I wanted to connect via Apple Carplay, and from then onwards Siri took care of everything. If you’re connected via BlueTooth, you can call someone via the voice activation button on the steering wheel (if you pre-recorded voice tags into the system).

Dr Fuel-good?

In my care, the CR-V had a hearty-ish appetite for petrol, somehow. We used no less than 8.2 litres per 100 on the open road, but no more than 10.5 litres per 100 km in heavy traffic. And my driving was hardly fast, aggressive or jerky. Honda’s figure is 7.0 l /100 km, but that was out of reach for me. Then again, my heavy-footed colleague managed 6.9 litres on the launch! I suggest having a look at his first drive impression here.

Should you spend big on a turbo-model?

After 300-kilometre trip, my 73-year old mom declared that she would buy one if she won the lotto, as the CR-V was just so gentle on one’s system. Most of us would indeed have to win megabucks to afford one. But it’s not a must to splurge on the turbo-models. I’d probably spend my money on the 2.0-litre Elegance variant, if only for the comfy (and easy-to-wipe) leather seats. Safety features on all variants include the usual ABS, EBD and brake assist, but there’s also hill-start assist, driver attention assist, auto headlamps, stability control and 6 airbags as standard, to name a few.

Verdict?

The CR-V’s magic-carpet ride quality and oodles of comfort and convenience features do the trick for me. From its movable armrest and plentiful storage solutions to an additional mirror to see back-seat occupants, the CR-V shines as a family SUV. Then there’s the cavernous boot, and fully-maximised legroom on the rear bench. Honda totally gets what the modern family needs and wants: To travel in supreme comfort, safety and style, with enough ports to charge everyone’s tablets and phones and enough luggage space for those of us who can never decide what to wear.

For more info and the exact specifications on the CR-V reviewed above, please click here.