Honda CR-V

On the inside, the Honda CR-V looks posh without going too overboard and has a sort of soothing appeal in its layout which somewhat isn’t there in its competitors.

The Honda CR-V shares its multifunctional steering wheel and the layered part digital instrument console with the Honda Civic for its driver’s cockpit, which looks very modern and appealing. The curved design for the upper dashboard layer looks nice with slightly pushed forward central AC vents, below which is placed the slightly protruding out trapezoidal touchscreen infotainment system and a small panel for the automatic climate control buttons.

Just below this panel, a slanted free mounted housing is there, which is home to the transmission knobs, electric parking brake, and other controls. This complete all-black cabin gets a smooth looking walnut brown layer in the middle, and the same brown finish is extended on the door panels and seats as well.

Currently in its fifth-generation version, the Honda CR-V is in its finest and sharpest avatar and hasn’t sacrificed a bit on its factor of urban design. The CR-V doesn’t look as macho and intimidating as its ladder on frame peers priced similarly, but looks stylish and sophisticated enough to give them a run for their money.

The current generation Honda CR-V looks bold when viewed from the front, with a large hexagonal front grille, whose upper portion gets a thick slab of chrome acting as its upper lip. Besides this chrome slab and adjacent to the upper edges of the front grille, the Honda CR-V gets trapezoidal full LED headlamps. A pair of sleek daytime running LEDs are placed on the lower corners of the front bumper, which does get black body cladding and silver skid plates to add some ruggedness to the design.

The Honda CR-V looks clean and aerodynamic when viewed from the sides, with a slightly sloping front bonnet and rounded wheel arches adding to its soft-roader appeal. The machined alloy wheels and chrome finished window surrounds add some more modernity and the black cladding extended on the sides continue the rugged appeal here on the sides as well.

At the rear, the Honda CR-V has a distinctive appeal with a raked windscreen with a spoiler above it and vertically placed LED tail lamps with lower horizontal extensions, with a thick chrome bar in between them. The black cladding and silver skid plates find their place here at the back as well.

The Honda CR-V has been highly respected for its car-like driving mannerisms, which in this current fifth-generation version, are in their best forms. The CR-V sits on a monocoque frame and gets Macpherson struts at the front and multi-link at the rear. Despite having a substantial ride height, the Honda CR-V feels sharp and agile with negligible body roll on offer. 

The Honda CR-V here is being offered with two powertrain options. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine makes 154 PS of power and 189 Nm of torque, and is coupled to a CVT gearbox. On the other hand, the 1.6-litre four-cylinder diesel engine, which is mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission, produces a maximum power output of 120 PS and a peak torque output of 320 Nm.

The Honda CR-V gets a sufficiently long list of safety features, which includes the likes of the front, side and curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, vehicle stability assist, multi-view reverse parking camera, emergency stop signal, hill start assist, agile handling assist, lane watch camera, driver attention monitor, rear parking sensors, and tire pressure monitoring system.

The Honda CR-V doesn’t feel too rugged and go-anywhere in terms of the way it looks and its mechanicals under the skin have been engineered. However, there is no other SUV in this segment, which feels as responsive and agile to drive with great ok road mannerisms as the Honda CR-V.