Honda Accord and CR-V: What's really changed after 25 years?
Did Honda's golden age ever really end?
The world has changed a lot since 1995, but has Honda?
CNET is 25 this year. That got me thinking about other things that have survived the intervening years and come out looking pretty good here in 2020. Naturally, that led me to the Honda vehicles of the 1990s -- part of what's frequently described as the automaker's golden age.
In the '90s, Honda hit a near-perfect balance of cost, quality and performance (not to mention performance potential, but that's a whole other article) that most car brands only dream of. There's still a lot of these old Hondas on our roads, too, so longevity is also a big feather in the company's cap.
What's maybe even more impressive is that the vehicles that Honda is building today aren't vastly different from the cars it made back then, despite changing tastes, changing regulations and increasing sizes and weights. To see the evidence of this, one only needs to look at the current Honda Accord and CR-V and compare them to their mid-1990s equivalents.
Sure, the current Accord has turbo power and a 10-speed automatic transmission, while the fifth-gen Accord could only muster four forward gears and a naturally aspirated inline four, but the character is still there. Ditto for the CR-V, which still offers the same value proposition now that it did when it was introduced -- that is to say, it's a compact SUV with room for a family inside that sips fuel and isn't a bummer to drive.
Wrapping it back to CNET, Roadshow's home, the online news giant was covering consumer technology in 1995 in a way that was easy to understand while also offering solid advice on new products. CNET is doing the same thing now, and Roadshow applies that same straightforward approach to transportation topics.
What will CNET and Honda look like in another 25 years? Who knows. I'll be 60 years old and even grumpier than I am now, but I'm willing to bet CNET will still be a go-to source for culture stories, news and product reviews, just as Honda will be building, affordable, nicely packaged, good-driving cars. Here's to the next two and a half decades.
