The CR-V has been something of a success for Honda, with the company claiming it was the
world's best-selling SUV in the first nine months of last year.
To keep things relevant, Honda has given the CR-V a face-lift for 2015, and made a few
changes to the oily bits.
The bulk of the exterior changes are at the front, where there's a restyled grille and
bumper, complete with a fake skid plate and new fog lights, plus restyled headlights that
incorporate new LED running lights.
From the rear, things are much the same as before, although the rear lights have been
altered slightly, and there's a couple of new styles of alloy wheel.
The basic structure of the interior is as before, and that's a good thing because the
CR-V's cabin has always been a comfortable place to spend time.
Changes are limited to a few minor trim details, although the big change for this year is the
arrival of the new Honda Connect system.
Based on an Android platform, the system aims to offer a familiar touch-screen interface
that uses swiping and pinching gestures, and depending model you get web access and internet
music streaming, plus Bluetooth and DAB digital radio and a Garmin app-based navigation system.
While it all works efficiently enough, it does feel a little disjointed.
The design of the interface isn't consistent, with the main menus having a different look
and feel to, say, the navigation app, and while negotiating some of the settings pages,
it's not unusual to find yourself dumped out at a generic Android screen.
These days, most other systems are more unified, so while most competitors have navigation
instructions piped into the instrument cluster, for instance, that option isn't available
in the CR-V, and while we've always liked the dash-top display, it now feels a little
less relevant.
Rear seat passengers are just as spoilt as before; there's plenty of space in all directions,
and foot-room is particularly good thanks to the almost completely flat floor.
Plus, of course, there's the always fabulous 'one motion' folding seats that do their thing
at the pull of a lever mounted in the boot.
Practicality has always been a CR-V strong-point and that continues with this new model, thanks
to 589 litres of space with the seats upright, increasing to 1,669 litres with the seats
folded, and Honda's habit of thinking of everything means there's loads of useful hooks and tie-down
points.
Under the bonnet, there's the option of a new 1.6-litre diesel engine with 160PS and
350Nm of torque, replacing the previous 2.2-litre unit.
Unlike the 120PS version, it's available with four-wheel-drive, and it offers CO2 emissions
from 129 g/km and economy of up to 57 mpg, although during our testing our average was
around 45.
Also new for this year is a nine-speed automatic transmission, and we'll talk about what it's
like on the road in a minute, but for now we'll point out that the shift mechanism is
a little weird with the lever always returning to a home position.
There's also a pair of paddles mounted behind the steering wheel and these give manual control
when in sport mode and a momentary override when in Drive.
Off the line, it changes up through the ratios pretty quickly, and once up to speed everything
settles down into a quiet cruise, and for the most part the new gearbox always goes
about its business smoothly and calmly.
There are a couple of issues with it, though.
Firstly, if you use the paddles to downshift to gain engine braking for a hill descent,
the gearbox will quickly drop down two gears without any problem.
However, if you ask it to drop down three gears - and you might, because it's got nine
of them to choose from, remember - it seems to get confused and disengage drive altogether
for 3 or 4 seconds while it sorts itself out, but this of course leaves you coasting down
the hill and picking up speed towards the car in front, unless you were ready with the
brakes.
A second issue is in stop/start traffic.
Sometimes the transmission would change into a higher gear when you lifted your foot off
the accelerator, and because of the engine's huge torque, this can actually have the effect
of propelling you faster towards the car in front when you were actually expecting the
CR-V to slow down.
We also noticed a few instances when things all got a bit shunty coming off the gas, as
if the torque converter wasn't disengaging quickly enough.
And on more than one occasion, when the stop/start system had restarted the engine, the transmission
engaged 1st gear a touch too abruptly, leading to an uncomfortable jolt forward when pulling
away.
But these are likely to be teething troubles, and we've reported them to Honda so that hopefully
they can be easily addressed via a software update.
Honda have made a number of changes to the CR-V's chassis, some of them quite substantial.
It now rides on a wider track, has new bushes and dampers, and uses a revised geometry set-up,
and the result is a noticeable improvement in ride quality, a greater feeling of stability,
and - thanks to a slightly quicker steering ratio - it's also a touch more responsive.
Honda have also doubled the thickness of the door seals, increased the use of sound damping
materials, and subtly revised a number of other details that all add up to a quieter
cabin.
And after spending almost an entire day trudging up and down our motorway network, I can tell
you that there are few more comfortable places to sit than this.
Especially if you have a family and a boot full of luggage to take with you.
Prices for the new CR-V start at £22,345 for a 2WD petrol model, with the 4WD 1.6-litre
diesel starting at £27,570.
So, despite a couple of minor issues that we're sure Honda will address, the CR-V continues
to represent one of the most compelling options for family transport on the market today.