May 10, 2010 08:12 PM
37000 Views
The CR-V manoeuvres well. There's power-assisted steering and it has a low front and rear overhang and seems to turn on the proverbial sixpence. One problem I have found, and it will be common to all SUVs is that it's difficult to see obstacles below window level on the passenger side. This explains the passionate encounter that I had with a trolley-park rail in Asda's car park which took a moment to perform and a frightening amount of time and money to put right.
It's an all-wheel drive vehicle but I'm not going to give you tales of my off-road exploits, as you might find the location vaguely reminiscent of Tesco's car park. I have had it down rough country tracks, and it handled well. My daughter, who lives in Nepal where she drives a Discovery from necessity, has regularly driven the CR-V. She likes the car, but says that she doesn't think it would cope with what the Nepalese laughingly refer to as road, but which we would call rough terrain with potholes. The car copes with snow well, but not so well with ice. I had one memorable morning when the car slid off down a road that I hadn't been down for years, and I was left wondering if we'd bought a rather expensive sledge.
The ride is very comfortable, and the seats well-upholstered. We've got a radio-cassette player with a detachable front, but it's fiddly to fit, and only having one good hand at the moment I usually end up swearing at it, and, in consequence, don't use it as much as I would like ? it's not worth the hassle on a relatively short journey.
The tailgate is split ? the top half lifts up, whilst the bottom hal
f opens as normal. This is quite handy if you've just got something small to put in, but annoying if you've got two large dogs, as you need three actions to get them into the car: unlock tailgate, lift top section, use handle on bottom section. The boot capacity is 374 litres with the rear seat up, and 668 with them down. Litres mean nothing to me in this context ? but the dogs are separated from the main body of the car by a dog grid and there's adequate room for tow Rhodesian Ridge backs to lie down. We have a cover that fits just under window height so that you can leave your shopping in there without tempting every ne'er-do-well in the neighborhood. It's cleverly coloured so that it doesn't actually look as though there's a cover there at all. There's also a boot tray in case you're transporting anything messy (no ? not the dogs: they refused!), but it's not an easy thing to store when you're not using it. There are cargo anchoring points in the floor of the well, and a cargo hook on the door. I've never worked out what you'd use this for, and it has a habit of swinging round in travel. I inevitably end up with a dog lead tangled round it.
There's a well under the carpet in the boot area which is meant to be a repository for dirty boots and the like, but we've never used it, simply because of the logistics of it. You have to have everything out of the boot, including the dogs, to use the well, and then replace them afterwards. What do you do with two dogs whilst you're changing your boots? Perhaps it just doesn't work for us ? You might be more organised. The spare wheel is mounted on the rear of the tailgate, but the mounting is quite low and doesn't impede rear vision. You can get a stainless steel cover for it, but that costs extra.
The interior of the CR-V has a 'flat floor' design, so it's technically possible to move between the front and the back? Or so the literature says. I can't see that I would want to and I would have to be a lot more nimble than I am now but I would imagine that a child could do it quite easily. I'm not certain whether this is a good thing or a bad thing! Between the front seats there's a fold-down tray, which has a special section for a cup.
ABS is fitted as standard, and there are two full-sized airbags for driver and passenger. The beams in the side doors are impact-resistant and there are the usual crumple zones front and rear. I like the dashboard layout ? but then this is our third Honda on the trot, and there is more than a passing similarity between them. Everything seems to come easily to hand. Driving the car is easy ? particularly as you're that bit higher up on the road than you are in a normal saloon car.
You're wondering if it's got an engine, aren't you? Well, I'm told it has. It's 1973 cc and the published fuel economy figures on manual transmission are 22.4 mpg for urban, and 32.8 mpg extra-urban. Our car has automatic transmission, and we're more than happy with the fuel consumption: the published figures suggest that the auto transmission is greedier in town, but less of a guzzler once it gets on the open road. The CR-V does like the open road, and with good acceleration there's no problem about overtaking.
I think the most annoying thing that I've found with the CR-V is the 'remote keyless entry'. You know ? you flick this thing vaguely in the direction of the car, lights flash, and there's a satisfying 'clunk' as all the doors unlock. Yes, I'd like to know about it too! Sometimes you have to get so close to get it to operate that passers-by wonder if you're trying to nick something. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. Sometimes the lights flash, but there's no 'clunk'. Once the car battery drained through my efforts and the RAC had to come to the rescue. We've had a faulty car battery replaced under warranty, and I've replaced the batteries in the handset ? but you're never quite convinced that it's reliable.
Over the years we've had quite a few cars, from the cheap to the expensive, and this is the one that we both like the best. We've had it for three years now and we would normally be thinking of trading it in, but we don't feel inclined to do it just yet.
I'll leave you with my Grandson's description of the car to his father. 'It's got two windbags in the front'.
