The first clues emerged four months ago via a solitary image of a CR-V Concept, and now a selection of images of Honda’s all-new showroom-ready compact SUV have popped up on the company’s Japanese domestic market website.
The latest pics reveal Honda hasn’t strayed to far from the CR-V Concept, which made its world debut in September at the seemingly obscure Orange County International Auto Show in Southern California.
The production version -- expected to be revealed to the public at this month’s Los Angeles motor show -- carries over most of what we saw in the concept, but the wheel/tyre combo is far more conservative, the blacked-out headlight bezels are gone, and the gloss-black sill panels are now in a matte finish.
However, the streamlined proportions of the concept remain, along with the three-bar grille and tapered-back headlights. The unusual humpback rear-end treatment has also made the transition to production reality, and the end result looks reasonably good for a vehicle of this genre.
Under the revamped bodyshell sits an all-new new platform that allegedly contributes to a lower kerb weight than the current vehicle. Despite being lighter, interior space is expected to grow, as is load-carrying capacity, thanks to a lower floor.
Technical details remain scarce, but it’s believed the new CR-V will continue to be powered by a 2.4-litre engine, albeit with efficiency gains. The rumour mill suggests the existing model’s five-speed auto tranny will be ditched in favour of a six-speeder.
Formerly dominant in the compact SUV sales charts, the CR-V has now been swamped by a horde of rivals. Its tally of 4398 Australian sales until the end of September was comfortably topped by the Subaru Forester (9998 sales), Nissan X-Trail (8835), Toyota RAV4 (8817), Hyundai ix35 (8723) and Nissan Dualis (6524). In other words, the new model can’t come soon enough…
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