Review and photos by Jonathan Yarkony
So ends another Autos.ca Long-Term Test. The 2013 Honda CR-V served us diligently throughout its tenure, racking up over 8,000 km by several drivers, and rarely wavering from its consistently efficient nature.
 2013 Honda CR-V LX AWD. Click image to enlarge |
In order to maximize that efficiency, I kept it in Econ mode almost all the time, quickly adapting to its modest power. However, after the return of our CR-V and getting into the next press car, a far more powerful crossover, my wife was not so kind: “It’s refreshing after driving the CR-V. I hate how slow the CR-V is. You said I’d get used to it but I never did. Just hated it.” For some power junkies I guess there’s no cure but power, and the CR-V is not the one to deliver it.
With only the 2.4L four-cylinder on offer, you either accept the limitations of 185 hp, which really isn’t so bad, and 163 lb-ft of torque, which is kinda’ weak even against other four-cylinder competitors like the RAV4 and CX-5, or you look to turbocharged offerings from Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru or Volkswagen. Some people gripe about the power, but even from the first week, I found it was entirely acceptable for daily driving. The transmission, while seeming at a disadvantage on paper with only five gears, was smooth and matched the engine well to maximize efficiency.
However, the grating engine note that often deterred my aggressive driving in this vehicle gradually faded into background noise, and once or twice, I caught a hint of the racy, high-revving Honda engine scream, though it’s not a car I would ever push hard for sheer aural delight. Well, yeah, duhhh, nobody buys a mainstream compact crossover for the soundtrack, and it must be tolerable for a substantial number of people that keep it at the top of the Canadian SUV sales charts year after year.
 2013 Honda CR-V LX AWD. Click image to enlarge |
The engine’s strength is not in delighting the senses, but in getting the vehicle moving in as efficient a manner as possible. To that effect, our overall fuel consumption for the three months and 8,202 km was 9.3 L/100 km, as displayed by the trip computer and 9.4 as calculated manually by yours truly. On the one longer trip we took, we managed an impressive 7.5 L/100 km over several hundred kilometres of highway driving, generally at a steady 110–120 km/h. Almost every tank ended up averaging between 9.2 and 9.5, and with its 58 L fuel tank (though I never had a fill-up go over 50 L), was consistently good for about 500 km of range. Bear in mind that this is predominantly city driving, a routine of commuting during GTA rush-hour traffic with occasional lighter highway traffic on weekend activities.
This result is not atypical, as the EPA estimates fuel consumption at 10.7 city, 7.8 highway, and 9.4 combined for the AWD CR-V. Real world owners of 2013 Honda CR-Vs on Fuelly average 9.0, but cannot be filtered by AWD, so this includes FWD models, whose EPA estimates peg it at 10.2/7.6/9.0. For fantasy fans, Natural Resources Canada ratings provide estimates of 9.0/6.4 for FWD models and 9.2/6.6 for AWD.
And for those curious how it compares to its arch rival, the Toyota RAV4, I can tell you that it narrowly bested a FWD RAV4 on a recent drive on the same roads, on the same day, by the same two drivers. Look forward to the full comparison coming soon.
