Honda's cute ute grows up and gets better
Table of Contents
Table of ContentsIntroduction
What We Drove
Performance
Handling
Visibility
Fun to Drive
Front Comfort
Rear Comfort
Interior Noise
Loading Cargo
Build Quality
Materials Quality
Interior Design
Exterior Styling
Storage
Controls
Competition
2nd Opinion – Perry
2nd Opinion – Wardlaw
2007 Honda CR-V – Review: Make the right decision, and your kids will likely talk about the CR-V in later years. Maybe they will give it a name, even, and we’re betting that there will be memories tied to various stains that the family will continue to talk about when the kids are grown and the CR-V has been replaced by a sleek luxury sedan. In the here and now, however, if you’re a young family in need of an affordable, smart and dependable vehicle, you’ve come to the right review. The 2007 Honda CR-V, restyled and recrafted, is vastly improved over the outgoing model – and most of the competition.
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What We Drove
As one of the most popular cars for commuters and young families, the thoroughly revised 2007 Honda CR-V is one of those vehicles we simply must review. You will buy this car and count on it to deliver years of good times and convenient motoring. You will put your kids inside, carry groceries, go on vacation, to work and, in essence, live your life. Few things are more important than that, so explaining what’s good or bad about the CR-V – so you can make the right decision – is just about the most important thing we have to do. Our EX-L tester came with Honda’s Real Time 4WD, leather trim, navigation and backup camera. This model sells at an MSRP of $26,595, including $595 destination.
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Performance
Honda fans won’t be surprised to find that this powertrain does best at high revs. The five-speed automatic transmission made gear changes smoothly, though we noticed some slight hesitation from time to time. The transmission is excellent at squeezing the power from the CR-V’s four-banger, the Honda’s Grade Logic works well for piloting the CR-V up hills. The CR-V’s ride is stiff and a bit harsh, and while many people in this market want a softer ride, if you’re a CR-V owner looking to upgrade, you know what to expect. If not, the CR-V’s stiffness is balanced by feeling more connected to the road and with slightly more performance-oriented handling than is common in a compact crossover.
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Handling
The Honda CR-V is pretty nimble for an SUV, but then it’s really not an SUV…never mind. Overall, it’s nicely sure-footed at normal speeds. Steering input is accurately measured and applied – you point the thing where you want it to go, and it goes there. While handling is good for a car in this class, it’s no sport wagon. Drive it hard and you’ll get the kind of protesting you expect from tires and suspension.
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Visibility
There’s excellent side and rear visibility with or without the camera in back. We think the camera is a little ridiculous on an SUV this size, like putting a leash on your pet turtle. The rearview mirrors are big enough, and the greenhouse tall enough not to need the added expense.
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Fun to Drive
A fun to drive, small SUV…it’s possible, though we wouldn’t label the CR-V so much fun to drive as fulfilling, in that it does what it should do remarkably better than the price tag would indicate. Here is the commuter’s favorite SUV, with 24 miles per gallon, enough power to get you home, a more upscale look and an innovative, usable, comfortable interior. If that’s fun, then call me a clown.
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Front Comfort
At this point it’s almost a cliché: the CR-V is comfortable in a utilitarian sort of way. You won’t sink in the seats, but your back will thank you for choosing the CR-V. Firm and supportive, these are the types of seats in which you can log a hundred miles or more and not feel it. To that end, the correct arm rests make a big difference, and while the driving relationship took a little while to get used to, once we were comfortable it was pretty much second nature. For a small vehicle, the CR-V offers plenty of up front shoulder and legroom.
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Rear Comfort
There’s plenty of leg room in back but not a lot of shoulder room; put a child’s car seat back there and back row room vanishes. Center head rest gets in the way of your shoulder and must be adjusted. Cupholders centered in the middle of the pull-down armrest are hard to use, and, with the armrest down, there’s not a whole lot of hip room for rear passengers. There is plenty of head room, however, and the soft touch arm rests in the back are a, um, nice touch.
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Interior Noise
It ain’t no Lexus, or late-model Hyundai, for that matter. But the Honda CR-V is above average when it comes to handling road and wind noise. In fact, there was very little wind noise during our test, but tire whine and mild chassis clatter does seep into the interior on rougher than average roads. Very little – if any – vibration goes on inside the cabin; any unwanted noise you’ll hear is likely to come from those tires, as the car is tightly built and slips through the air.
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Loading Cargo
The rear seat is 60/40 split, and it’s very easy to fold down. The seats also tilt forward at the front to maximize cargo room, and they slide fore and aft for expanded legroom. It’s really easy to move the seats around, in fact, and the hatch’s liftover height is very low, a big plus for the backs of moms and dads everywhere, but not such a great thing for the neighborhood chiropractor. Another great touch is how the cargo cover can be placed flat on the floor – the mold fits the floor console – though it’s a little cumbersome to put in place. Folding and tilting the seats is as easy as pulling the top and bottom tabs.
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Build Quality
Gaps inside the 2007 Honda CR-V are tight, compartments are damped, there’s very little to complain about as far as build quality goes. The lone exception is the floppy top glovebox. The exterior build quality doesn’t warrant the same kudos, though overall it was a well-made test vehicle. Some of the panel gaps are wide – front door to back door – and the front hood is a bit tight on top and wide at the bottom. Given normal driving habits, the plastic body accoutrements look like they’ll hold color and placement for a good long time.
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Materials Quality
What you expect from Honda – nice, sturdy and comfortable. Not a lot of flash here, the goal here is durability first and style second. To that end, plastics and leather feel as though they’ll keep their appearance for a good long time. Love the hard plastic and black knobs, and the mesh headliner is another high point.
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Interior Design
Two words describe the interior of the 2007 Honda CR-V: usable and innovative. Though we’d like more storage compartments, overall the interior is smartly appointed with an intelligent layout that suffers no pretensions. This is a car to be used, and Honda designers took interior function to a higher level. Up front, for example, the instrument panel is grounded in the ideal of getting the message across. Based on a design that’s big, bold and simple, all the information a driver needs is at the ready, at a glance. Seats are comfortable and supportive, and the materials used bespeak durable quality. Entry and exit is easy, thanks to the low stance, though the back doors are narrow and a little hard to navigate.
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Exterior Styling
Few people will love it, many will like it and more than a few will hate the new styling of the CR-V. Granted, designing a car to appeal the diverse demographic that buys the CR-V is a black-belt Sudoku challenge. Most staffers at Autobytel were conflicted over the style of the nose, using words like “ugh” and “ugly.” Others found the rear blister to be troublesome to the eyeball, and none felt as though the design was a home run. Overall, call it a much more refined CR-V in its sheetmetal dress, with a little character on the ends and a lot of grace in between. It’s just that some buyers may dislike the character more than they like the grace.
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Storage
There are smart storage spaces with clever designs, but we want more! There’s not enough throughout the cabin to serve all the needs of a growing family. While the center stack is well designed, the two-tiered glovebox is just too small for a family car. With one or two kids, families also need more in the back by way of compartments to stash stuff like crayons, napkins, maps, coloring books, dolls, toy cars, baggies full of Cheerios…
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Controls
Honda infotainment and environmental controls are easy to use, simple and to the point: heat and air consists of two knobs and five buttons, all of which are large and easy to read. One thing irritates, however. Do we really need to know the temp inside the cabin? If it’s cold, turn up the heat. Hot? Move the knob closer to the blue line. Beefs center on the smallish entertainment buttons and steering wheel controls that are pointless because the primary controls are located so close to the driver. The steering wheel controls are also hard to see and located awkwardly; we found it was just easier to use the actual controls.
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Competition
There are more competitors to the CR-V than an old dog has fleas, to be sure, all of which offer something a bit different for discriminating shoppers. For example, the Toyota RAV4 comes with an optional V6, more adventurous styling and seating for seven. So does the Hyundai Santa Fe. Mitsubishi’s newly redesigned Outlander is also a very credible opponent to the CR-V. But far as doing what you need a vehicle to do, and doing it extremely well, without the manufactured excess so common in today’s cars, the CR-V is at the top of our list.
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2nd Opinion -- Perry
Honda CR-V – Ron Perry’s Opinion:
I found little to complain about during my drive of the 07 Honda CR-V. Acceleration, braking and steering feel were all good, as was the utility, build quality and design. If there was one thing that bothered me it was the way in which the rear seats folded forward. I think they’re still in the way and they are held in place with a strap that must be attached to the doorframe, a bit archaic. Overall, the CRV is a nicely executed package for the money and well worth consideration if shopping in this segment.
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2nd Opinion -- Wardlaw
Honda CR-V – Christian Wardlaw’s Opinion:
Met friends for dinner last night. They’re getting ready for their first child and it’s time to find a replacement for their VW Golf. She’s an environmentally-conscious vegan who refuses to pilot a minivan; he’s a new media marketing whiz in Hollywood. They live a down-to-earth lifestyle in the Hills not far from the Sign, and asked me about the new Honda CR-V I was driving for the weekend. “Tell us what you don’t like,” they asked, knowing how critical I am. All I could respond with was: “The front styling.” Shopping for a small SUV? You must drive the CR-V. Honda nailed it.
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Photos courtesy of Keith Buglewicz