Specifications
Price:
From £19 000 to £25 000 (about R270 000 - R350 000). SA prices R268 900 to R309 500.
Engine:
2204cc, four cylinders, 16 valves, turbodiesel, 105kW at 4000rpm, 340Nm at 2000rpm.
Transmission:
Six-speed gearbox, four-wheel drive.
Performance:
186km/h, 0-100km/h in 10.3sec, 6.5 litres/100km official average.
This is a confusing car. Is it an MPV? A 4x4? Some explanation is needed. Honda's third-generation CR-V (still UK-built) is the SUV that's trying not to be. It tries so hard you wonder why Honda bothers designing a new car embarrassed by its whole reason to be.
But then you realise that Honda's being very clever. On one level, the world is turning against SUVs. On another, many people still love them; the all-wheel drive, the high driving position, the perceived safety advantages. Daft, of course, but plenty of otherwise intelligent people believe it all.
So here's a new SUV that does SUV stuff but doesn't frighten other road-users or trumpet all sorts of off-road abilities. From the front, it looks like an estate car's upper half suspended above a modest SUV's underparts.
That difference symbolises the gap between polemic and reality in the CR-V's likely damage to the planet and the other gap between people's notions of what they want from an SUV and the reality of what they do with it. This mutant is a marketing-led reflection of our confused age.
Personally, I don't like the idea of SUV-type 4x4s (as opposed to Audi quattro or Subaru Impreza-type 4x4s, designed for better roadholding) except where they are needed to do things a normal car can't.
Honda crows about the CR-V's fuel economy but the fact remains it's an SUV with a large frontal area and a weight the far side of a ton and a half, thanks partly to the 4x4 system.
The CR-V is frugal for a 4x4 but a conventional estate or MPV - a Honda Accord or FR-V, for example - would be more economical still.
So we've established that the new CR-V is pointless for most likely buyers and visually confused (to European eyes, anyway). But is it a good car?
Suspend disbelief, engage objectivity. It is. You're quickly taken with how solid it feels, how refined its ambience and progress.
It rides bumps with none of the agitation of some rivals, it's smooth and quiet. There's too much hard plastic in the cabin but the quality of the mouldings is impeccable.
Interior niceties
Wacky handbrakes are a Honda speciality; the CR-V obliges with a strange L-shaped device designed to free up storage space between the front seats, of which there is plenty in a deep box with a power socket and a sliding phone tray.
Other niceties include front-seat armrests, a giant clock in the sat-nav screen when the navigation is off, and a high-mounted gear lever.
Further back in the cabin we find more examples of the CR-V's MPV-wannabe status. The rear seats double-fold, they slide, they recline.
There's a clever luggage cover from which retractable blinds emerge both fore and aft, to attach to the rear seats and by the tailgate (a conventionally opening hatch).
The boot has a false floor that can be positioned about five-eighths of the way up the boot for an extra load-carrying layer.
Driving force
But we were driving... I'm in the i-CDTi turbodiesel version, with 2.2 litres, 105kW and 340Nm of torque - lesser figures than the new Freelander TD4, but adequate.
The petrol 2.0 has 112kW, 190Nm and fractionally better outright pace to compensate for worse economy and the need to work the engine harder.
The diesel now has an extra orifice in its high-pressure common-rail fuel supply, smoothing the pressure fluctuations to give a quieter, less "dieselly" pick-up from idle.
Honda wanted to make the CR-V feel like a good saloon or estate car to drive and - against most known laws of physics - it has succeeded. The steering is very positive for a 4x4, but without the exaggerated initial response of a Freelander.
Like its British-badged rival, the CR-V feels unexpectedly composed and agile, threading bends with no unseemly leaning and of course there's that lofty driving position to help you see ahead. This is genuinely useful.
Real time all-wheel drive
More so, probably, than the all-wheel-drive system. In our modern, timid age, there are those who value the security engendered by four driven wheels but most people don't need it and will never use it.
The CR-V's so-called "Real Time AWD" sends power to the front wheels most of the time but diverts it rearwards when it senses slithering at the front.
Many rivals control this electronically but the CR-V's system is mechanical, controlled by hydraulic pumps positioned each side of the clutch.
It's simple and rather clever, although the CR-V will never match a Freelander off-road.
So, the 4x4 that thinks it might be an MPV but isn't sure. It comes in SE, ES and EX trim, with the usual build-up of equipment, including (on the EX) a sunroof and a rear rear-facing parking camera.
That "grade", as the marketeers call it, can also be had with adaptive cruise control and a device able to brake automatically if it senses an inattentive driver is about to have a collision.
Do you still hate SUVs? I entirely understand if you do but if minds are to be opened and reality addressed, the Honda CR-V is a good place to start.
The rivals
Kia Sportage 2.0 CRDi
From £16 495 (R232 500) SA Price R249 995
Excellent-value compact 4x4: looks good, satisfying to drive, makes you question the need for anything more showy.
Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4
From £20 935 (R295 000)
All-new Freelander is bigger, better made and very capable, but expensive when fitted with all the options it needs.
Toyota RAV4 2.2 D-4D
From £20 315 (R286 000) SA Price from R294 000
A faux-US style glitzy 4x4 with limited off-road ability and fidgety ride, but well-equipped. This diesel version is lively.