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The Honda CRV has been the best selling SUV for the past 20 years, having sold nearly 4 million units since its debut in 1997.
But let's face it, it's a little long in the tooth, maybe even just a tad bit boring.
Well Honda has now rolled out the fifth generation of the CRV and it is all brand new from the sheet metal up.
I've got a very sculpted hood, some flared fenders, and a new LED light signature that makes it very distinguishable on the road.
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My touring trim line here's got a arms free tail gate.
So I can open it with my foot, right?
Just kick underneath the car.
And this opens up to reveal five linear feet of faith and it's all wet on the bottom.
Now here's what's really cool.
Let's say you're short.
All you need to do is bring the tailgate down to where you want it to be, press that little button, and now the next time I open it, it will open to that height.
Pretty nifty?
[SOUND] The big news on this is the powertrain.
Now you can still get the 2.4 liter that's available in the 2016.
But from the EX trends and above You're gonna get a 1.5.
liter turbocharged engine.
Now that's good for 190 horsepower and 179 pound feet of torque.
Car goes to either the front wheels or all four wheels like I have here in my test model via continuously variable transmission.
Hey Amy what's the CBC?
Well Internet, I am glad you asked.
So instead of like a standard automatic that has say seven or eight distinct gears, a CVT is basically one gear that is completely variable, right?
It's like magic.
So you have an infinite amount of gears that keeps the engine running at the optimal speed at all times, makes it very efficient.
Now the CRV gets an EPA fuel rating of 2834 for the front wheel drive, or 2733 for my all wheel drive here.
But here's the thing, CDP's they kind of suck to drive.
They're just not very fun, they don't offer a lot of engagement.
But I have to give props to Honda, they really have improved the CDP that's in this car.
It offers a lot of very smooth, very quick acceleration off the line.
It's still a little noisy especially when it's under load, but on the whole it's a huge improvement from the previous generation.
Behind the wheel the CRV is competently smooth car to drive.
It's just not quite as fun as say the Mazda ZX5 and the Ford Escape.
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Still the seats are comfy, the rides pretty smooth and the steering been improved to offer quicker input as well as a variable ratio that makes it more precise even at lower speeds.
Honda has also doubled that on its drivers aides now offering low speed adaptive cruise control which even works in stop and go traffic situations.
Plus it's gotta driver attention monitor.
So that's gonna try to alert you if it thinks that maybe you're falling asleep.
I tried to get it to go off on its own just by sawing the wheel back and forth but, no dice.
The entertainment system now offers Apple Car Play and Android Auto Standard.
It finally got rid of that terrible volume slider.
Now, we get to turn our volume up with a knob like God intended.
The 2017 Honda CRV certainly does have a lot of the competition in this segment.
The Toyota RAV-4 has got reliability behind it.
The Mazda CX-5 is a hoot to drive.
And if you're looking for a smaller SUV with off-road capability, well there's always the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.
Still, I think Honda's got a big hit on their hands especially when you start looking at pricing.
The base LX will start at $24,000 and the top-of-the-line touring model like what I've got here, well that starts at about $32,000.
Honda says that the CRV will go on sale on December 21, 2016.
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