Honda CR-V review (23/01/2013)

PERCEPTION can sometimes be a dangerous game in this business. Take the Honda CR-V, for example. I always thought of the car — although something of a pioneer in the soft-roader segment — as something primarily aimed at middle American buyers who largely wouldn’t know the difference between a decent car and a takeaway hamburger — or care less for that matter.

But that has not really been the case with Honda’s 4x4 machine which, despite rather dumpy looks through its first two generations (although it got a lot sharper in its third incarnation), has managed to clock up over five million cumulative sales since it was first seen back in 1995. It did do well in America, but it has also been very popular in many other markets and has sort of stealthily imposed itself on the worldwide market.

Looking back on the history of the car, therefore, my presumptions about it have been pretty wide of the mark. Nothing new there, you might say, but I’d like to think I’ve never actually done a disservice to a machine which in very many ways has been an innovator throughout its various lives and which has actually spawned a host of imitators because of its success.