The Honda CR-V existed long before today’s saturated SUV marketplace, starting its life in 1996, a good ten years before the Nissan Qashqai made it on to many a driveway.
But now, with many SUV options at every price point and style, it’s hard to see how the CR-V can stand out. To name a few, you have the Qashqai, Volkswagen Tiguan, Hyundai Santa Fe, Toyota RAV4 and Ford Kuga.
2018 Honda CR-V revealed in European specification
UK Honda boss Dave Hodgetts admits it’s a very competitive space, and is banking on a number of factors to help with its latest CR-V model. First, its “iconic image” thanks to being more than 20 years old and the fact that it has incredibly loyal customers who buy its cars again and again. This is very much the core of CR-V buyers.
However, the new CR-V will also get hybrid and seven-seat options for the first time, which Hodgetts is hoping will entice some new customers too.
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The biggest change is not introducing a diesel in the model. It’s a bold move when you consider 60% of UK sales are currently diesel – even if we are seeing a dramatic turn against the oil-burner. Hodgetts believes plenty of those buyers will turn to its 1.5-litre petrol engine, but he’s hoping the hybrid will be popular with former diesel buyers too.
And so the CR-V is more convincing than before but, nonetheless, it’s not going to be an easy ride for the new CR-V, when you consider the extensive competition and incoming electrified technology from almost all car makers.
Still, Honda’s volume is never going to be on the scale of the Qashqai or Tiguan. Hodgetts says a reasonable sales goal once the new model is up and running will be 15,000 units.
When you consider the Qashqai sold 64,216 units in the UK last year – making it the fourth-biggest-selling car in 2017 – the CR-V becomes irrelevant.
But given that globally it’s the biggest-selling SUV ever – largely thanks to that 10-year head start – and is Honda’s third-biggest seller in the UK, it has a place, no doubt backed by the legion of Honda loyalists out there.
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They're not an Audi!
As a previous owner of two CR-Vs I bought mine because they're not trying to be something other than a functional, comfortable tool. They're not trying to be sporty or bling, they're not excessively expensive, they're reliable and they're a great family and towing car. I wouldn't touch a VW/Audi with a barge pole due to the EGR/DPF problems created by the VW "fix" for Dieselgate. CR-Vs are rather cheaper that the usual BMW/Audi/JLR crowd and don't suffer from their "pushy" image problem. Overall, they're just a nice car.
Why I will not buy another CR-V
Limited choice of paint colours, even then many are "sludgy" in tone
Unable to specify anything but funeral black interior trim (fabric and leather) unless I select the Executive model; both BMW and Land Rover and others are far better at this
Poor dashboard entertainment module... ongoing
Honda say they "think" customers will pick the 1.5 petrol or hybrid and not a diesel, well if their UK EU marketing team was up to scratch they would "know" this rather than "think" it... and they forget that for many recent years everyone bought a Nissan or Toyota or Ford because Honda didn't have a competitive diesel option or diesel auto... so they should "know" why they failed in Europe, now "they propose to repeat their errors" of the past by dropping the short lived and decent 1.6 diesel which is also pretty good as a manual and as a 9 speed auto
US centric product planning is failing Honda in Europe, soon they will have an even smaller market share here... they will only have themselves to blame
Wake up Honda... you can do better and you should !!!