Our Honda CR-V Hybrid long-termer: the eight-month test

Published: 24 March 2020

► From one Honda CR-V to another
► Hybrid SUV under the microscope
► Snapper Alex is reporting

Last summer, driving back from Wales after photographing our Sports Car Giant Test, I discovered a new dimension to the Honda CR-V Hybrid. It had spent a couple of days excelling as a workhorse. But now, on the A-roads between Snowdonia and Lincolnshire, it was proving itself to be a rapid cross-country weapon.

James Taylor and Mal Bailey in the Lamborghini Huracan Evo just couldn’t shake the red Honda from the rear-view mirror. Of course, in other, less congested, circumstances the Lambo would leave the CR-V standing. But life is mostly not about other, less congested, circumstances. Mostly you need something that helps you see over other traffic, lets you sling heaps of clobber in the back, and keeps you comfortable for hundreds of miles at a time. And you need something that can hold high average speeds much more than you need something that can match the Lamborghini’s 2.9 seconds to 62mph.

Based on my seven months with the Honda, not long after a happy spell with a Peugeot 5008, I’m increasingly inclined to think that for family and work use an SUV is the way to go, in preference to an estate or hatch.

The hybrid aspect of our CR-V I’m not so convinced about, mind you. A decent diesel or petrol would probably have matched its average consumption. But my wife – whose journeys in the CR-V tended to be shorter and more likely to involve driving near schools – really appreciated the fact that you could stick it in electric mode and drive emissions-free, if only for a short distance at modest speed.

Part and parcel of the hybrid package is Honda’s eCVT system, which combines the role of gearbox with the job of juggling the petrol engine and electric motor. Although I’m no fan of conventional CVTs, I came to like this one. It feels so smooth that it’s almost like driving an electric car.

You might expect the ride to be compromised on an SUV, because of the weight and height, but you don’t get that with the CR-V. It absorbs pretty much everything, without being squidgy.

For me, Honda’s not a brand you’d shout about. But the CR-V’s a good-looking car; people who don’t get hung up on badges seem to like the way it looks. And it’s pretty nice inside, certainly in SR top-but-one spec with its leather upholstery and good selection of safety and convenience aids, if not in any way pushing the envelope.

The CR-V does what it’s meant to do very, very well, with utter dependability and no unnecessary complication. How many cars can you say that about?

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Price £34,470 (£35,320 as tested)
Performance 1993cc hybrid four-cylinder, 144bhp, 9.2sec 0-62mph, 112mph
Efficiency 51.4mpg (official), 37.1mpg (tested), 126g/km CO2
Energy cost 15.5p per mile
Miles this month 511
Total miles 9763

Month 7 living with a Honda CR-V: what does it do?

I recently voiced doubts that the CR-V’s steering wheel paddles actually perform any function. Honda insists they adjust the engine’s regenerative braking. But I find the effect imperceptible.

As you lift off the accelerator simply blip the ‘-’ on the left side to increase the resistance. There’s four levels of resistance, changing with each pull. Blip the ‘+’ on the right hand side to decrease the resistance.
Today, on a long trip, I make a conscious effort to use them and monitor their effect. In vain. To make worthwhile use of them on your daily drive would take some serious adjustment, as they reset to the default after a few seconds, which means you’re constantly flapping around.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Month 6 of our Honda CR-V Hybrid long-term test: family duties

There’s an urban myth in the world of road testers that says if you/your partner were to give birth in a test car, you’d get to keep it. Now that could be pretty traumatic experience to go through – but a free car? It can’t be that traumatic, can it? Although first I’d have to check my eligibility, as a photographer rather than road tester. And of course that assumes there’s any truth in it, rather than wishful thinking.

In the final weeks leading up to the arrival of our second child, I would regularly find myself imagining what the perfect car for such a scenario might be. A car that in other circumstances might top my wish list – a Porsche Cayman GT4, for instance – would make a catastrophic mobile maternity unit.

When your priorities are not so much dynamic excellence as comfort, luggage space and ease of cleaning the interior, SUVs become infinitely more appealing.

On a recent family outing I posed the question to Mrs T. Once she’d got over her initial horror at the mere suggestion of giving birth in a car, she assured me she’d be very happy to keep the CR-V. It’s rare that she takes any interest in the cars I bring home, but she’s taken a liking to the Honda, with the result that I’ve often had to use her Mini Countryman (no hardship, except when I need more space) as she’s nabbed the keys to the CR-V.

When the day finally came and the contractions got to a point where it was clear we needed to get to the hospital, we upped and made a move downstairs to the car. And then all hell broke loose. We needed to be at hospital now. NOW!

With a 15-minute journey down bumpy B-roads – which may well have hastened things along a little – we made it to the hospital, and 20 minutes later our new baby was born.

And now, with mother and newcomer back home, the CR-V is making a good case for itself as a serious contender for the title of ultimate family car. It has oodles of second-row space for our four-year-old and the newborn, while still leaving plenty of room for our dog and all the paraphernalia that comes with small children, babies and dogs. Even with the front seats adjusted for tall adults such as myself, row two is vast.

There are plenty of airbags and two Isofix points. We’ve got a combination of the Graco SlimFit for our four-year-old, chosen for its side impact protection, while the newborn has a Primo Viaggio i-Size, picked for its incredible safety ratings. We’re looking forward to plenty of safe and happy travels.

You’ll notice that my initial reservations about the combination of hybrid engine and CVT haven’t loomed large in this report. That’s no oversight; the slight lack of pin-sharp dynamic excellence built into the powertain really doesn’t seem at all important when the car has so much else to offer.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Month 5 living with a Honda CR-V Hybrid: junk in the trunk

Honda CR-V Hybrid boot space and luggage capacity

When I first got the CR-V I noted that its hybrid hardware ate into the boot space and ruled out the third row of seats available on other CR-Vs. Well, having five seats rather than seven hasn't been a problem yet, and the boot has proved itself to be usefully big and well shaped. The 2019 car is bigger than the old CR-V, remember, and that growth means rear passengers get 30mm more legroom – or, if you fold the rear seats down, luggage capacity is 1697 litres, 70 litres more than the old model. (You get more still – 1756 litres – in a non-hybrid.)

This has become highly relevant for me lately, as the '20s cottage we moved to recently has gifted us with plenty of rubbish for me to remove.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Price £34,470 (£35,320 as tested)
Performance 1993cc hybrid four-cylinder, 144bhp, 9.2sec 0-62mph, 112mph
Efficiency 51.4mpg (official), 39.4mpg (tested), 126g/km C02
Energy cost 15.0p per mile
Miles this month 3234
Total miles 7403

Month 4 living with a Honda CR-V Hybrid: a very good family crossover

CR-V hybrid roadside

I’ve just returned to the CR-V after driving a Jaguar F-Pace SVR for a week as a happy by-product of a photographic assignment involving shooting Jag’s ballistic XE SVR Project 8. The F-Pace SVR isn’t quite as extreme as the Project 8 – just the 542bhp, not the saloon’s 592bhp – but it’s breathing the same air.

On my return journey from Coventry to Peterborough in the CR-V I’m struck that this is half the car of that F-Pace in almost every way. Same number of wheels, same number of seats – but then everything gets sharply divergent, starting with the price: £35k for my CR-V, £75k for the Jag SUV.

The engines embody entirely different philosophies about four-wheeled transport. In the 2.0-litre Honda hybrid you pull away in pure EV mode. It emits a hum that isn’t quite loud enough to warn pedestrians of your approach. By contrast, the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 in the Jaguar barks and growls like it’s alive, and on a mission to savage your licence.

I hadn’t previously been particularly conscious of it, but on this journey I instantly notice that the Honda’s driving position feels awkward, with insufficient adjustment to let me get into a more comfortable position. It’s the same seat I’d used when I drove the same route in the opposite direction a week earlier, but I’ve been spoilt by the Jaguar. In the CR-V it feels like you’re perched on the driver’s seat rather than sat in it, and there’s no lumbar support.

Honda CR-V Hybrid long-term test

Throughout the Honda’s cabin, the materials, fit and finish are half as good as the Jaguar’s. The plastics feel cheap and the leather might as well be fake.

Turning to the car’s exterior, the panel gaps are just bizarre. Why so big? And the hollow sound the doors make as you slam them shut reaffirms a lack of premium-ness.

And the road noise that makes its way into the cabin means you have to crank up the stereo to make any sense of the sat-nav.

None of this counts against the CR-V’s familiar plus points of tough, unfussy practicality and family-friendly convenience. But don’t go mistaking it for something as special as the Jaguar. Or as expensive.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Price £34,470 (£35,320 as tested)
Performance 1993cc hybrid four-cylinder, 144bhp, 9.2sec 0-62mph, 112mph
Efficiency 51.4mpg (official), 39.9mpg (tested), 126g/km C02
Energy cost 17.2p per mile
Miles this month 448
Total miles 4169

Month 3 of our Honda CR-V Hybrid long-term test: long-distance family trip test

Alex Tapley and friends/family on board the Honda CR-V Hybrid

The CR-V got to take on chauffeur duties recently for a friend's wedding. Our – ahem – impeccable timing meant we got stuck in not one but two accidents on the way there, one of them clearly serious enough to close the road and have everyone turn their engines off. In the end the 90-minute journey took over four and a half hours.

With snacks stashed away in the plentiful cubbyholes, pregnant Mrs T's formidable hunger-anger was kept at bay. We missed the ceremony but arrived just in time for the wedding breakfast. The Honda's cabin proved plenty big enough and comfortable for four adults, contained as we were while the authorities cleared up the mess on the A421.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Price £34,470 (£35,320 as tested)
Performance 1993cc four-cyl plus electric motor, 144bhp, 9.2sec 0-62mph, 112mph
Efficiency 51.4mpg (official), 39.1mpg (tested), 126g/km C02
Energy cost 15.4p per mile
Miles this month 1968
Total miles 2971

Month 2 living with a Honda CR-V Hybrid: shock as CVT is okay

Honda CR-V hybrid paddle

Let's get straight to that white elephant in the room: our CR-V Hybrid's CVT 'box. My initial fears of loathing it and wanting to drive the car off a cliff haven't quite materialised.

Don't get me wrong: put your foot anywhere near the go pedal and it sounds like a fox being flayed outside your bedroom window. Thing is, all the non-CVT automatics I've driven recently have been set up to engage high gears quickly, and hold on to them doggedly, in search of lower emissions. This results in slow pick-up and jerky gearchanges. And in truth that is more annoying than the CR-V's CVT, which is seamless, and almost as smooth as a good electric drivetrain.

But I'm baffled by the shift paddles behind the steering wheel. Rather than shifting between artifical steps, which some CVTs have built in, the Honda's don't seem to do anything at all.

By Alex Tapley

Logbook: Honda CR-V Hybrid SR AWD

Month 1 living with a Honda CR-V hybrid: hello and welcome

Honda CR-V hybrid hello

Our new CR-V is the hybrid, which has six months to prove itself to be more than just a way of business users paying a little less tax. The 2.0 petrol four is linked to the i-MMD (Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive) system, using an electric motor to up power and take the CO2 output down to a respectable 126g/km, which should make it a tempting proposition for those whose next move is dictated by company car schemes.

I'm interested to see whether the hybrid's fuel consumption will get close to the manufacturer's claimed 51.4mpg in my typical use: long trips, heavily laden with photographic gear, driving fast in an attempt to keep up with the more powerful cars I tend to photograph for CAR; or more sedate trips with my young (but growing) family on board.

Honda's CVT 'box has received a lot of flak over the years. I got on fine with it in the Jazz, so I'll be interested to see how it performs in this far larger car.

Read our regular CR-V long-term test reports

In SR spec (one down from top EX), the only added extra we've gone for is the pearlescent Premium Crystal Red paint (£850), putting the car on the road at £35,320. As standard I've got leather, front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera, built-in sat-nav and Apple CarPlay (I don't typically get on with that).

The fourth-generation CR-V doesn't look very different from its predecessor but it has a longer wheelbase, which contributes to an additional 30mm of rear legroom; I rarely have adults in the back, but it's surprisingly important when you've got a toddler's child seat fixed in. Those Isofix points will also come in handy once again when child number two makes an appearance later this year.

Ours is all-wheel drive, which with other powertrains is available with seven seats, but in hybrid form is strictly five seats. The batteries eat into the boot space, ruling out a third row of seats. But as things stand, the luggage space seems like a decent size at 497 litres and will take all my photography/family paraphernalia with ease.