On
test... Honda CR-V
I bet you have a
favourite shoe. Your go-to shoe. It’s not a flashy shoe, but no doubt it’s
well-crafted, comfortable, and reflects modern footwear design. Crucially too,
it can be worn with a number of different outfits. It’s that versatile shoe you
reach for when there’s no time for carefully considered fashion co-ordination,
when you need to fly under the shoe radar, free of the judgment an
attention-grabbing pair of shoes can garner.
My go-to shoes are tan
suede lace-ups – a bit like vellies that have had something of a designer
make-over. Low-cut and slightly slimmer, they are altogether more svelte than
their bushveld cousins, and can as easily compliment black jeans and a
jacket as they can hipsterized chinos and a plaid shirt.
Which about sums up
the Honda CR-V. It’s like a pair of fancy vellies. And fancy vellies, in my
experience, are the perfect shoes. Ergo what you are looking at here may well
be the perfect car.
Let me illustrate this with some handy bullet
points:
· It has
everything. In just the right amounts. There’s plenty of space, but
despite its SUV proportions, the CR-V doesn’t drive like one. It has the
ability to happily accept mountain bikes and families, yet maintains impeccably
re-assuring manners in the road-handling department. In the trouser department,
the 2.4-litre, 4-cyclinder petrol engine won’t smoke any tyres with its 140kW,
but channeled through the efficient 5-speed auto ‘box, it’s more than adequate
to waft you along at stress-free speeds.
· It is an
actual no brainer. Yes, experts and scientists have determined that a
Honda CR-V will only occupy 0.5% of your brain. As a CR-V owner, you will never
have to think or worry about your car. Obviously being a Honda, it comes with
superior levels of reliability and build quality, but more than that, the CR-V
offers a special kind of peace-of-mind. Sitting in this car, thoughts like “Am
I looking cool enough?”, “Is this automobile an accurate representation of my
social aspiration?” will never worry you. It’s the kind of car that quietly and
effectively removes your from the car-as-status-symbol treadmill.
· It’s
like a flotation tank, but with wheels. The pressures and anxieties of
modern day life are not allowed inside the CR-V. Along with its asphalt hugging
all-wheel drive system and plethora of airbags, the CR-V boasts every
electronic, ant-locking, stability-assisting acronym know to mankind.
Basically, all you have to do is keep it pointing in the right direction and
obey the rules of the road.
At R445 000, the CR-V
does represents a sizey pile of money, however up against its rivals – and in
terms of quality we’re talking about the Germans here – the CR-V offers value
for money. It undercuts them by R10k-R50k and, crucially, comes highly spec’d.
(And we wall know how many Euros the Germans can charge for the extras)
The
Honda CR-V range starts at R299 900 and goes up to R499 900
(review as appeared in the March 2013 issue if the Kulula in-flight mag)
