2024 Honda CR-V review (inc. 0-100 & autonomy tests)

CarExpert

The new Honda CR-V has finally arrived in Australia! It’s been out for a while now, but it is finally on Australian soil. Paul Maric is testing the 2024 Honda CR-V VTi-L7 front-wheel drive to see if it’s worth spending your hard earned money on.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the full review: https://SITELINK  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:59 Interior 02:37 Infotainment 04:22 Safety tech 05:39 Practicality 06:18 On the road 11:28 Driver aids 17:17 Performance 18:41 Verdict 21:39  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #honda #crv #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul at the Honda CR-V. It's kind of been the quintessential family SUV for

00:06 a long time, and they've finally updated it, and we can finally drive it here in Australia.

00:11 It's been out in the States for a little while now, but we've finally got our hands on this.

00:14 Now, I'm excited to drive this one in particular because this is actually the seven-seat version.

00:19 It's the top-spec seven-seat version. It's called the VTi L7. This is priced at a little

00:23 under $55,000 drive away. If that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off from around $44,000

00:29 drive away. This competes with things like the Mitsubishi Outlander, the Nissan X-Trail,

00:35 and then the Toyota RAV4 as well, because this is available as a hybrid. It's one of

00:39 the few SUVs in the segment that you can get with seven seats as well.

00:42 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead

00:45 to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes that are on the screen, or

00:48 if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't

00:52 done so already, subscribe to our channel, press the bell icon, so you can find out every

00:56 single time we drive a new Honda.

00:58 Now, let's talk design. So this has been Americanised. So they brought in the ZRV, which sits beneath

01:05 this, but that also meant that the CR-V could grow. So it's longer, it's wider, it's taller,

01:10 and it's on a bigger wheelbase than the previous generation of CR-V, which means there should

01:14 be more room inside. And I've got to tell you, this actually looks really nice here

01:18 in person. I know styling is subjective, but in my opinion, this is one of the smartest

01:23 looking SUVs in this segment. And it's not overly gargantuan, but it feels big enough,

01:29 and I think it's struck a really nice balance there.

01:31 So down the front here, you've got this chrome strip, a big Honda logo there. You've got

01:35 full LED headlights, you've got LED fog lights down the bottom there as well. Come around

01:40 to the side with me. Round here, you've got yourself a set of 18-inch alloy wheels. Now,

01:45 it is worth keeping in mind as well that this isn't the top spec of the CR-V range. It is

01:50 the top spec of the 7-seat, but you can actually go higher in the CR-V range to get more bells

01:55 and whistles and to get a slightly sort of trendier looking car. But this is sort of

01:59 the setup that you're getting here. 60 profile tyres as well, so hopefully that means this

02:03 will ride nicely. You've got a side locator over here, wheel arch guards, indicator built

02:08 into the wing mirror. You've got privacy glass, some roof rails, a sunroof. And then come

02:14 around to the back with me. Now around the back, full LED taillights, they look sensational.

02:19 VTEC turbo, so this is turbocharged CR-V over on that side of the Honda badge there, plus

02:26 shark fin aerial up the top there. So, what do you reckon about pricing and also design

02:31 of the new CR-V? Do you reckon it looks good? I'm keen to know your feedback. Let me know

02:35 in the comments section below.

02:37 So we're inside the CR-V. This is what the key looks like. You've got a lock button,

02:42 unlock, you push and hold that for the boot, and on the back you have a Honda logo. I wonder

02:48 what the one means? Curious. So yeah, if you know what that means, let me know in the comments

02:53 section. It's a proximity sensing key, so you can just grab the door handle and then

02:57 you have a push button start just over here near the driver's knee that pulsates so you

03:01 know where it's located. Oh, sorry about my eyes, by the way. Bloodshot. I haven't been

03:06 out on a bender. I have a wife and a toddler, so that doesn't happen anymore. She's got

03:10 a bit of hay fever.

03:11 Okay, so let's talk about the design. I really like the look of this. So big step forward

03:16 over previous generation of CR-V. In fact, that previous generation of CR-V was so long

03:21 in the tooth, this actually looks really nicely presented. It's the same story with all of

03:25 Honda's current new batch of cars. They're all just nice to look at, inoffensive and

03:31 just look nice and premium. The only thing I don't love though is just, I guess the lack

03:36 of colour throughout this whole section. It's all quite sort of dark and dreary. We'd love

03:41 to see a bit of colour differentiation around the cabin here to sort of break it up a bit,

03:45 but minimal use of piano black and it's, you know, just looks very premium. So I'll run

03:50 you through the infotainment system in just a second. So what about your touch points?

03:55 Sort of nice and soft there. Soft on the door as well. How soft is it? We've got our durometer.

04:01 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to

04:04 others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description below. What

04:08 about your build quality? So, you know what, that's super wonky there in the centre. I

04:13 decided that this all feels nice and solid and this is what the door sounds like. So

04:22 let's chat infotainment. So you have a nine inch infotainment screen and then a seven

04:26 inch display ahead of the driver. Start off over here on the infotainment system. I've

04:32 mentioned before in other Honda reviews that I'm a big fan of this. It just works. It's

04:36 easy to use. Everything is pretty straightforward and it sort of doesn't try and complicate

04:41 anything it doesn't need to complicate. So inbuilt satellite navigation if you don't

04:44 want to be pairing your phone. If you do want to be pairing your phone, you have both Apple

04:48 CarPlay and Android Auto. Apple CarPlay is wireless. Android Auto is wired. So this is

04:55 what Apple CarPlay looks like. Nice and quick and snappy. No dramas there. That's what Android

05:00 Auto looks like. So same story again. Full screen integration and fairly quick. On the

05:05 audio front you have an eight speaker sound system. AM, FM and DAB digital radio. Then

05:12 you also have Honda Connected Services. So it means that you can connect with the car

05:17 and your phone. So you can connect to see what the car is doing. You can start climate

05:21 control and stuff like that. So a cool feature. And I think it's free for five years. First

05:25 five years of ownership which is pretty good. Screen ahead of the driver. Pretty straightforward

05:30 display. Nothing you can really sort of go to town on customising there. But you can

05:34 flick through menus to see sort of what's going on and get your critical trip computer

05:38 functions as well. Now what about your safety tech? So you have autonomous emergency braking

05:43 with pedestrian detection. You have an auto dimming rear vision mirror. You've got a blind

05:47 spot monitor on the wing mirror over there. So that lights up when a car comes into your

05:51 blind spot. You have radar cruise control with a semi-autonomous steering function which

05:56 we'll test later on. You have rear cross traffic alert. You also have auto high beam. Front

06:03 and rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera. I'll show you what that looks like.

06:06 There it is there. Quality is OK. Nothing spectacular. Could be a little bit better

06:12 I reckon but does the job. And this is what the horn sounds like.

06:16 Now moving on to your practicality and we'll start off with connectivity. You've got a

06:22 USB A port down the bottom here. A USB C port. A 12 volt outlet. Wireless phone charger.

06:28 In terms of storing your phone you can whack it down there on the charging pad or you've

06:31 got a couple of little... got that spot. Bottle. You can whack that over here in the cup holder.

06:38 Got teeth in there as well. Bottle storage inside the door. But will it fit our big bottle?

06:45 Let's have a look. Yes that fits in there. Good news. Additional storage. So you've got

06:51 this centre console that opens to reveal a little tray there. Nice and deep as well which

06:58 is good news. You have a glove box over here. Finally you have a sunglasses holder up the

07:06 top. It has a little mirror built into it as well so you can keep an eye on the rat

07:10 bags.

07:11 So on the comfort front you have dual zone automatic climate control. You've got heated

07:15 seats for the front row. Love this as well. So these are the air vents for the climate

07:18 control. Very sort of cool and make nice clicky noises as well when you're playing with them.

07:25 Back seat adjustments. You can go forwards and backwards. Your backrest can go forwards

07:29 and backwards. You can lift the front of the seat, back of the seat and you have lumbar

07:33 adjustment with memory as well. Steering is both tilts and reach adjustment and on our

07:39 reach test all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

07:42 Now before I close the door, have a look at this. It opens 90 degrees which means getting

07:48 kids in and out and stuff like that just becomes significantly easier. Now in terms of room,

07:54 look at this. Loads of knee room there. Toe room is excellent. Headroom is not too bad.

07:59 A little bit sort of crowded up here but it's not too bad.

08:03 Creature comforts. You've got air vents here. You've got two USB C ports. You've got map

08:07 pockets. You have a centre armrest there with two cup holders so you can whack your bottle

08:13 in there if you want. You can put your bottle inside the door as well. Kids ISOFIX points

08:19 on the two outboard seats and then you've also got top tether points as well. One of

08:23 them being on the roof back there. So I'll be interested to see how that works when the

08:28 third row is up in this because your top tether is really going to be kind of in the way of

08:33 everything there. So not sure how that works but I'll have a little play with that shortly.

08:38 It is a pretty sort of decent space here. It is surprising how much room there is. That

08:41 leads me to believe there probably isn't going to be a huge amount of room in the third row.

08:45 I think it is just a kids only zone but we'll check that out momentarily.

08:49 Now our window test. Does it go all the way down? So it's auto up and down. So close.

08:55 So close. Now can you fit an adult in the third row? Let's have a look. I know it's

09:00 a kids area. It's not for adults but let's have a look anyway. So love these seats. So

09:05 it slides forward and then just completely tucks out of the way. So we'll see what it's

09:10 like if I clamber on in here. Oh God this is. Sorry to all the children watching.

09:24 OK so I've got plenty of knee room right now but as you can see that is all the way forward

09:31 and Sean if you grab a shot of that I think it's not going to be a huge amount of room.

09:38 And it seems. OK so if you try sliding that back for me. OK that's about as far as I can

09:43 go. So yeah this is definitely a kid only area. But if you do have the kids back here

09:48 a couple of really clever things. So your cup holder folds into the door there like

09:54 that. You've got your own air vents and also your own blower controls as well. And head

09:59 room is OK but not amazing here. But you can see what I mean with that top tether point.

10:03 If you did have baby seat here in the center you're going to have a top tether running

10:08 between the kids here in the in the third row. So yeah look it's it's obviously not

10:15 for adults but I think if you're a kid back here it'd be pretty fun. Let's have a look

10:19 at how much boot room we've got. Now let's talk cargo space. How much room do you have.

10:25 So it is a powered tailgate behind the third row. So you can set the height which is good

10:35 behind the third row. You've got 150 litres to work with. You've got power outlet off

10:40 to the side here at 12 volts and then this sort of multi tiered floor here for the boot.

10:47 Now it is interesting. So if you go for all the other variants that don't have seven seats

10:52 or aren't hybrid you get a full size spare. If you go the seven seat you get a space saver

10:57 which I'll show you in a sec. And then if you get the hybrid you get a tyre repair kit.

11:01 So basically under here you've got a little bit more storage and then under that is where

11:05 the space saver is. Let's just see if that suitcase fits in here. No so that won't close.

11:14 But let's get this out of the way. We'll see what that space looks like. There it is there.

11:20 That expands to a little under 600 litres. You can then expand it even more by dropping

11:26 the second row. Once that is dropped down you have just under 1500 litres of cargo space.

11:39 Okay we're on the road in the CR-V. Now one thing that stands out immediately is just

11:46 how quiet and serene the package is. We're kind of used to electric vehicles being quiet

11:51 when you're driving but this has that sort of nice quiet vibe to it. A lot of it comes

11:55 down to the gearbox. It's a continuously variable transmission so it's not a traditional gearbox

12:00 that has stepped gears. So this kind of varies the RPM range depending on how fast you're

12:07 going, how much throttle input you have. And it means that at low speeds when you have

12:11 low throttle input the revs always stay quite low. Now under the bonnet let me run you through

12:16 the engine and then we can chat gearbox a bit more. Under the bonnet it's a 1.5 litre

12:21 turbocharged four cylinder petrol engine. So it's an interesting combo because the turbocharging

12:28 means you get that zip but 1.5 litre is a very small engine and I'll be interested to

12:33 see whether it actually sort of stacks up with this size of vehicle. It produces 140

12:38 kilowatts of power and 240 newton metres of torque. So it's not exactly a huge amount

12:42 of power or torque and torque is that sort of feeling that you get, the push in the back

12:46 when you press the throttle. Now what does all that feel like behind the wheel? Let's

12:50 give this a little kick. So it actually responds nice and quickly. It's sort of as quick as

12:57 a regular transmission there. It sort of gets up and moves and it doesn't really have to

13:02 think too much. And then once that turbocharger starts spooling it gives you a nice little

13:07 push in the back. Nothing outrageous and it's definitely not fast but it feels not too bad

13:12 with the two of us in the car at the moment. Now let's talk about the ride as well. So

13:16 I mentioned earlier on that this is riding on quite a high profile tyre and that means

13:20 that it is absorbing bumps beautifully. They've done a great job with the suspension tune

13:24 as well to give it that sort of luxury and premium feel. That means that it does sort

13:29 of feel nice and comfortable in and around the city and it doesn't sort of feel overly

13:32 sporty or overly soft either. It's got that sort of perfect middle ground between the

13:37 two. Now Honda claims a fuel economy of a little over 7 litres per 100 k's. We are currently

13:45 sitting on 9.5. So it's a little bit thirstier than I thought it was going to be. That is

13:55 with predominantly highway driving and then our laps around the track this morning. So

13:58 it's good but not really amazing.

14:04 Okay let's crack it up to 130 k's an hour. It's the maximum speed here in Australia and

14:10 it's also the speed we attack our sine waves at. Sine waves give us a good indication of

14:16 what the body control is like, especially when you are driving in the outback and you

14:19 find those terrible roads, or in the country rather. Alright there's 130. Yeah look it

14:26 is a bit floaty there at the top end but it seems fairly controlled. So they've sort of

14:32 dialled back the sort of firmness to give you the comfort but they haven't gone too

14:37 far where we find in some cars they just get too much float there over the sine waves and

14:42 become a bit sort of like a boat. Whereas this actually feels not too bad.

14:47 Okay it is time for the worst road in Australia. So this is our country road test. We do this

14:53 at 90 k's an hour. It's just a shocker of a road. It's full of corrugations and potholes

14:59 and this is a good indication of what this feels like if you do find yourself on a corrugated

15:03 stretch of road. We also have a condensed sine wave here as well that will shake the

15:08 car. So here we go.

15:12 Oh it doesn't actually feel too bad. They've done a really good job with the right hand

15:17 handling tune here.

15:21 Okay time to go for a bit of a fang around our track. There is no sort of sport drive

15:25 mode but you can pop it down into the sport gearbox mode. Now most people aren't going

15:31 to be driving their cars like this but we test all our cars back to back in the same

15:35 way.

15:36 Actually not too bad. So this is a front wheel drive car. You can get all wheel drive and

15:47 obviously the hybrid as well but this being front wheel drive it's actually not too bad.

15:52 It's getting along nicely.

15:53 Let's see what it's like on this faster stretch.

15:59 Yeah look it's actually pretty good. It's way sportier than I thought it was going to

16:04 be. When you think Honda you don't necessarily think that they're going to be giving you

16:09 a sporty SUV but this actually doesn't feel too bad.

16:12 Let's see what it's like on our back straight here where the speed really picks up.

16:20 It's surprising. It's got the softness built into it but it actually feels pretty sort

16:27 of sporty there as well and it's moving along nicely on our back straight here. Very good

16:32 Honda. Yeah not too bad.

16:36 So in terms of road noise you do get a bit of tyre noise coming into the cabin and a

16:40 bit of wind noise as well. We put it up against our calibrated sound meter and this is how

16:44 it went. You can actually compare this car to other cars that we've tested before using

16:48 the link in the description below. Gives you an idea of how this rates and stacks up.

16:53 Now on the visibility front I can see clearly down the front of the car there the wing mirrors

16:57 are really nice and big so it gives you good visibility down the side. The blind spot monitors

17:01 are built in. Visibility out the back is good as well but keep in mind if you do have the

17:04 third row up it's going to impede vision a little bit.

17:07 Now even though I doubt you're going to be towing with this it does have a 1000 kilo

17:10 brake towing capacity and a turning circle of 12 metres which is pretty good.

17:17 So time to test some of the semi-autonomous systems. We use our bowl here. We test the

17:22 three outer lanes. We want to see how well it will stick to the centre of the lane and

17:27 that sort of becomes harder to do as you move your way out of the bowl and that kind of

17:31 gives you an indication of how willing it's going to be to do this on a public road as

17:35 well. So I'm going to set the cruise control to 70km/h. The steering wheel is green there.

17:41 So in our first lane here it's doing a great job keeping us nice and centre. Awesome. Jump

17:47 over to the next lane. Okay let's have a look here. Wait for that steering wheel to go green.

17:56 Nice that's doing a good job keeping us well within that lane. That's awesome. Alright

18:01 jump over to the hardest lane which is our banked section. Okay I've got that steering

18:08 wheel to go green. Still waiting. Sometimes they struggle to, there we go, detect the

18:19 lines. I'm going to let go of that. It's not as willing to keep us up there. Let's

18:27 go back on. Yeah okay so it's a pass for lane 1 and 2 and a fail for that third lane

18:35 but it was actually doing a really good job with those other lanes. So I think it's probably

18:39 just a system that is going to just keep it floating along nicely but you have to stay

18:43 on top of it. It's actually the same story with all these systems. You always have to

18:46 be in control of the vehicle when you are operating in a semi-autonomous driving mode.

18:52 So time to do some performance testing. We'll see how quick this is to not only 100km/h

18:57 but 120km/h and we do that so we can see 80-120 which is our overtaking indicator. It gives

19:02 us an idea of how good this is at passing other cars.

19:04 Now before we do I want to tell you about Help Me Car Expert. If you go to Google and

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19:24 Okie dokie, let's do this. So I've left it in sport mode. I might just turn traction

19:28 control off so we have the best ability to get off the line here, build up some revs.

19:34 Alright, there we go. So fairly modest off the line there. Alright, almost at 100. Alright

19:43 and all the way through to 120. Alright, there's 120. It took a little while there to get to

19:54 120 so I'll be interested to see what our overtaking time is like. Okie dokie, let's

19:59 have a look at our numbers here. So 0-100 took 9.86 seconds so not exactly massively

20:09 quick and then 80-120 took 6.52 seconds which also isn't massively quick either so it's

20:17 probably, the engine might just be a little undersized for this size of vehicle especially

20:21 if you're going to be filling it up with the family and stuff.

20:23 Let's head back, we'll do a stop from 100km/h. Okie dokie, so we'll get it up to 100km/h

20:29 and then we'll slam the anchors down. Okie dokie, here we go.

20:41 100-0 took 2.95 seconds and 41 metres which is good for a vehicle this size. If you do

20:51 want to see how this compares to other cars that we've tested before, there is a link

20:54 in the description below.

20:59 Ok so how quick will it go in reverse? Let's have a look.

21:10 Oh my god, that was still going. I think we were doing like 90km/h there. That is insane.

21:28 Alright, that is really impressive. I think this may have taken the crown there. Very

21:38 nice.

21:40 So the new Honda CR-V, what do we reckon? Look, this is the first spec we've driven.

21:44 I'm really keen to drive the hybrid and also the all-wheel drive as well. I think the only

21:49 criticism I have about this is probably the engine is just a tiny, tiny bit underdone.

21:53 I reckon it could do with a bit more zest so perhaps that's something they are working

21:56 on and I think that is also where the hybrid will come in and really fix that scenario.

22:01 So keep an eye on this space but if you do want an affordable seven-seater that has a

22:07 really nicely presented interior with all the latest gadgets and gizmos and enough room

22:12 in the third row for the kids, not really adults, that isn't sort of outrageously overpriced,

22:16 I think this is a fantastic car.

22:19 So have you bought a new CR-V? Are you going to take one for a test drive and which spec

22:24 are you after? Let me know in the comments section below. If you did enjoy this video,

22:28 please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates and if you haven't done

22:31 so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. But until next time, take it

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