Honda CR-V 2002 Review

There's no denying the new CR-V compact 4WD is a vitally important vehicle for Honda Australia. Arriving at a time when Honda's sales are at a three year low, down almost a third on the previous year, the CR-V carries a big responsibility.

It's Honda Australia's best selling car by some margin over Civic, so should it fail to perform on the sales charts, that would be a severe blow to the now struggling importer.

But, after our first aquaintance with the new CR-V, that seems highly unlikely.

The new CR-V, launched five years after it first took Australia by storm - and breaking Toyota RAV4's dominance of the compact 4WD market in the process - brings contemporary styling, more space, more power and better on road manners to the fight, at the expense of off-road ability.

Prices for the new CR-V at launch are $31,990 for the CR-V manual, $2000 extra for automatic. The up-spec CR-V Sport retails for $36,490 with 5-speed manual, $2000 extra for automatic.

For the money the CR-V comes competitively well equipped.Along with the new 2.4 litre four cylinder engine, four-wheel independent suspension, four wheel disc brakes and Honda's real-time 4WD system, both models get dual front airbags, air-conditioning, power windows and mirrors, CD player, split folding rear seats, and engine immobiliser.

The Sport's extra $4500 buys you antilock brakes, alloy wheels, sunroof, body coloured bumpers front and rear, fog lights, a hard spare wheel cover, and cruise control (on the auto only).

Honda's research included existing CR-V owners, to find out how to improve the car. Overwhelmingly, they asked for more interior room, but also said they liked the overall size of the car.

So, Honda pulled out the smarts to give the new CR-V a Tardis-like increase inside the cabin, with little effect on the outside. The end result is almost 10 percent more interior room in a vehicle only 5mm longer and 30mm wider than its predecessor. Biggest change inside is the relocation of the handbrake to the centre console.

Now looking more like a joystick than a handbrake, the lever retracts into hiding when set, camouflaging itself as an integral part of the centre console. The automatic gear selector is also dash mounted, a shorter stubby version emerging to the left of the steering wheel.

Clever, certainly, and asthetically pleasing for sure, but a practical advantage? We're not so sure anybody actually asked for more room below the centre console in the first place. But hey, we can be convinced.

The owner survey also highlighted the need for more power, but again there was a catch; without any increase in fuel economy. So Honda added a bigger 2.4 litre four-cylinder engine with more power and torque than the old 2.0 litre.

Fuel usage is up, only slightly, according to government AS2877 figures. Driving is where you really notice the benefits. The Honda now has more low down pulling power, great for getting away from lights, and also for rolling bursts of acceleration. Overall acceleration is not hugely improved, partly because of the extra 100kg the CR-V now carries.

Much of that extra weight is in asphalt sheets used as sound deadening to insulate the cabin. Even so, the CR-V is still a noisier car than it should be. Engine noise, and tyre noise on coarse chip bitumen, are the two biggest culprits. Wind noise is not a problem at legal speeds.

The manual gearbox has a fairly light action, with good feel and a confident throw. The new CR-V points easily on bitumen, though it can tramline a little and some kickback can be felt on rough corners. The new suspension geometry does a good job of smoothing the road, though is a little soft on rebound. This is something you can really only notice offroad, where lots of rocks and ruts quickly get the slow damping suspension in a tizz. 

Which raises the question: Is offroad ability important to a prospective compact 4WD buyer? Well, Honda certainly doesn't think so. Kenji Kuwabara, spokesman for Honda Japan's Research and Development centre made no bones about the fact the new CR-V was never evaluated on Australian dirt roads. In fact, Australia - the fourth largest CR-V market in the world, was not the site of any development work on the second generation CR-V.

"We did some development of the first model here," he said. "We felt that was enough, nothing has changed."

That's where we believe he's wrong. Everything has changed. The new CR-V now has a bigger 2.4 litre four cylinder engine with more power and torque. The front double wishbone suspension has been replaced with more compact MacPherson struts. The new car weighs 100kg more than the model it replaces. All of those factors will have a significant impact on how the CR-V handles, especially on dirt roads.

The new CR-V, with 118kW of power delivered predominantely to the front wheels, has a rather intrusive torque steer problem, making it a full time job just keeping the car on the road. The problem is far less evident on the bitumen, but is still there, nonetheless.

When asked about this issue, Kuwabara said "we knew about it, but felt it was not a serious problem. Not perilous."

That all depends on where you, as an owner, intend to take your new CR-V. For our money, anything that is marketed as a 4-Wheel Drive and sells as a 4-Wheel Drive should include offroad ability and stability in its repertoire. That the CR-V doesn't is a significant flaw in an otherwise impressively reborn package.

Read more on our Compact 4WD Comparison here.