Beyond fuel consumption, the CR-V had few faults, but as it is our job to find those faults, I’ll point them out. First of all, the styling. The styling is anonymous, and few, if any, had anything nice to say about its looks, although rarely would anyone go out of their way to point out any deficiencies. It is inoffensive and bland, which seems to be enough in this segment and for Honda in general.
Interior materials are a low point, with hard plastics and some loose assembly (the interior door panels in particular felt flimsy) that won’t impress anyone. The stereo, too, was barely acceptable, although there are upgrades if you choose to spend your money on features rather than AWD. The price of the AWD seems a bit steep on its own, but it did prove its worth during our snow-filled winter. That being said, I don’t think any of the weather was severe enough that a FWD model couldn’t have handled it with the winter tires Honda installed, but I’m a city boy, so take this with a grain of salt. Braking and turning were always in control, and ride comfort was fine without excessive loss of handling or increase in noise.
    2013 Honda CR-V LX AWD. Click image to enlarge |
Speaking of comfort, that soon grew to be my favourite aspect of this vehicle. Perhaps it is the selection of other vehicles I drove this winter, but I loved the soft yet controlled ride in the CR-V. It’s not as sporty as a CX-5 or Forester XT or Cayenne GTS (duh), and there were occasions when I wanted a bit more handling, but most of the time I was happy to return to the CR-V – as much as those cars were fun, it’s nice to have the CR-V to come back to.
Just because it was comfortable, though, doesn’t mean it was terrible to drive; it was entirely competent at turning, with well-balanced, light steering and reasonable control on the corners. Upgraded wheels would likely help firm up the cornering if one is so inclined. Also, while comfortable, it was not entirely immune from suspension crashing about and sounding a bit tinny when rocking through some really rough surfaces – I’m not surprised it didn’t make Justin’s Best Pavement-to-Dirt List.
Seating in every position is generous if not luxurious, and I never once heard complaints of the seats themselves. I particularly found the driver’s seat armrest perfectly positioned, although my wife always flipped it up out of the way when she drove. It even served reasonably well for three-person seating in the back – the middle occupant squeezed between two car seats – not spacious, but fit for short journeys, which is more than we could say of some competitors. Oh, and as far as I’m concerned, the most convincing reason to buy a crossover is seating height, which made getting in and out easy for average me (though not too high for my 5’0” wife), and perfect seat height for comfortable installation of child seats and children.
While the interior plastics seem cheap, the seat fabric was appealing to at least one tester (me), and seemed rugged enough to stand the torture test of time at the hands (and feet) of the children that are sure to occupy its back seat. And when moving duty calls or family life is a thing of the past or future, those back seats can fold down easily, leaving a wide, flat load space that Honda measures at over 2,000 L of capacity. This is one of the most generous and flexible interior spaces in a compact vehicle we have experienced, with particularly impressive cabin storage for all manner of things.
