2012 Honda CR-V: It's Good at Everything
May 15, 2013
I remember when we were still talking about adding a 2012 Honda CR-V to our long-term test fleet. I was a proponent of it. The CR-V excels at being ordinary, and since most of us lead ordinary lives most of the time, this Honda is nearly impossible to dislike.
Space efficiency is the CR-V's greatest asset. It feels hugely spacious on the inside, and you're sitting in comfy seats with simple controls and useful storage slots all around you. Yet on the outside, it's not huge at all, and so it fits just about anywhere. It's a better fit in most garages than Honda's Accord.
2012 Honda CR-V: More Cargo Space
May 9, 2013
It's no secret that the Honda CR-V compact SUV has grown in size since it first hit the market in the late '90s. As I was vacuuming out the rear cargo area this morning, I decided to see how much more room the rear area offered in the current model compared to a 10-year-old CR-V.
2012 Honda CR-V: Few Faults
May 7, 2013
Sometimes, a vehicle is so good that you struggle to find faults with it. The 2012 Honda CR-V falls into that category.
I'll admit there are times I wish its little four-cylinder engine had more power, especially at higher speeds, like when you're trying to pass a line of cars on a two-lane road. But then it wouldn't get such respectable fuel mileage.
And sure, the rear-end styling is a bit odd. At least in my opinion.
2012 Honda CR-V: Livin' the SUV Life
May 6, 2013
I don't really consider myself an SUV guy. To be honest, I'd much rather be driving a sports car or a sport sedan. But there's no denying the inherent utility of an SUV. Hey, it's in its name.
2012 Honda CR-V: Is It Still Special?
May 3, 2013
The Honda CR-V has been a best-seller in the U.S. since it was introduced in 1997. Back in the day it was a practical if scrappy vehicle that appealed to people who wanted an SUV but didn't want to go off-roading and didn't want something the size of Montana.
2012 Honda CR-V: Fuel Economy Update for April
May 2, 2013
In the month of April our 2012 Honda CR-V traveled 1,530 miles on 87-octane fuel. We averaged 24.3 mpg for the month, just shy of the EPA rating of 25 mpg in combined driving.
2012 Honda CR-V: 20,000-Mile B1 Service Complete
April 23, 2013
Earlier this week, I took our long-term 2012 Honda CR-V to the dealership to address the B1 service reminder that popped up just before it hit 20,000 miles. I showed up at Honda of Santa Monica just before 11 on Monday morning. I didn't have an appointment, so I pulled right in to the service department's dedicated lane for customers without appointments.
Within 30 seconds, a porter approached and asked what I wanted.
"I'd like to get a B1 service if I can," I said.
"Sure, I'll get a service advisor for you," she replied.
Sure enough, a friendly advisor appeared at my door with his own iPad about 30 seconds after that.
2012 Honda CR-V: 20,000 Miles and We Barely Noticed
April 19, 2013
Our long-term 2012 Honda CR-V recently hit 20,000 miles, and we drove another 400 miles before we even noticed. Of course, the CR-V isn't really a milestone kind of car. It just goes about its business and doesn't make a fuss about anything. That's probably why I like it.
2012 Honda CR-V: Oil Change
April 11, 2013
Before our 2012 Honda CR-V turned over 20,000 miles, I noticed it telling us that its oil life was down to 20 percent. Shortly after it ticked over 20,000, oil life dropped to 15 percent and the CR-V also tells us it wants a B1 scheduled service: replace engine oil and filter, check front and rear brakes, rotate tires, and inspect a grip of the essentials like brake hoses and lines, tie rod ends, suspension components and more.
2012 Honda CR-V: Icons, Redux
April 10, 2013
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I liked how the Beetle mixes icons with text buttons in its center stack. But I'm not so sure how well icons explain the file structure in this example of the CR-V's media display.
2012 Honda CR-V: Nooks, Crannies
April 9, 2013
Whatever grief Honda has taken, and the harvest it now reaps, for letting bean counters strong-arm the engineering corps over the past decade, the company still knows how to package.
2012 Honda CR-V: Fuel Economy Update For March
April 2, 2013
During March, we put about 1,200 miles on our Honda CR-V and we're closing in quick on 20,000 miles. Despite only average four-cylinder sauce (especially on long grades), this versatile crossover remains a staff favorite and a go-to road tripper. In March, we used the CR-V mainly in and around town, except for a ski run to the Sierra Nevada mountains which accounted for about 700 miles.
2012 Honda CR-V: Captain's Seats and Great Armrests
April 1, 2013
The seats in our 2012 Honda CR-V are really comfortable. They give great support and the leather isn't bad either. But I think my favorite part about them is the armrest. When I have control over my own folding armrest, I feel like I'm in First Class on a transatlantic flight and there's no one in the seat next to me.
2012 Honda CR-V: Double-Duty Mirror
March 27, 2013
Here's a feature I haven't seen anywhere except in a minivan: The sunglasses holder that doubles as an interior rearview mirror. Sure, Honda probably just stole this thing from the Odyssey. But it's every bit as useful for spotting back-seat hijinx here as it was there.
2012 Honda CR-V: Headlights
March 14, 2013
Sometimes we get emails from disgruntled car buyers calling us out for not addressing certain shortcomings in X, Y or Z's road test or model review. The most recent of these emails concerns the Honda CR-V. Here's what this reader had to say:
2012 Honda CR-V: Power Rear Hatch
March 13, 2013
Here's the thing about our 2012 Honda CR-V's power rear hatch: It doesn't have one.
Sure, the door is lightweight and easy to open and close by hand, but with a spacious 37 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, the CR-V can handle a big load o' stuff.
It would be convenient to pop the hatch remotely as you're on the approach.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 19,919 miles
2012 Honda CR-V: Dropping the Second Row
March 11, 2013
By now you know how quickly and efficiently the CR-V's rear seats can be dropped. What you don't know is that the same can be accomplished by pulling this fabric loop which sticks out from both seat bottoms inside each rear door. The tab triggers the same tumble-and-flop scenario that you'll get using the releases inside the hatch.
2012 Honda CR-V: Trip B Average MPG, Too
March 8, 2013
Here's something kinda cool about the 2012 Honda CR-V: An average fuel economy readout not just for Trip A, but also a separate one for Trip B.
I found this particularly handy on my road trip to Mammoth because it meant I could let Trip B keep a running tally of both miles covered and average mpg for the entire trip, while Trip A took care of each fuel fill-up segment.
2012 Honda CR-V: Mammoth Road Trip
March 7, 2013
The 2012 Honda CR-V served as transportation for my recent road trip to Mammoth for a ski weekend.
It was a good choice. We didn't really need the all-wheel drive, as only a smidge of new snow fell while we were there. But it's nice to have that bit of confidence in your back pocket when you're five hours from home.
With just two of us onboard, there was plenty of room for our skis and stuff. The CR-V is a comfortable and relatively quiet place to spend a five hour drive, although road noise was a bit higher than expected.
While the CR-V has always seemed to have adequate enough oomph for getting around the general L.A. slog, out on the two-lane sections of U.S. 395, where power is required to pull out and pass 18-wheelers, the CR-V proved a bit of a dud.
2012 Honda CR-V: Rear-View Camera Options
March 6, 2013
I noticed a few days ago that the CR-V's rear-view camera has three handy modes. The standard view, pictured above, shows a conventional field of view, which works for straight reversing.
2012 Honda CR-V: Fuel Economy Update for February
March 4, 2013
Our long-term 2012 Honda CR-V continued to rack up mileage at a brisk pace in February. We drove 1,892 miles in our compact crossover, and with three months left in our year-long test, we might just hit 25,000 miles before all is said and done.
2012 Honda CR-V: The Right Size
February 27, 2013
I've driven a lot of crossover SUVs, ranging from small ones like the Kia Sportage to biggies like the Chevy Traverse. Of them all, the Honda CR-V seems to strike the best balance between being small enough to be fuel efficient and easy to park, while being large enough to provide a spacious rear seat and generously sized cargo area.
2012 Honda CR-V: A Real Key
February 26, 2013
Look, the 2012 Honda CR-V has a real old-fashioned key. Well, not completely old school as it has buttons to lock/unlock.
But I mean the design. The key itself doesn't fold away into a piece of plastic. And it has a metal key, not just a plastic fob.
2012 Honda CR-V: Instant Average Fuel Economy
February 25, 2013
My daily commute is 37 miles each direction, and typically includes several stretches of stop-and-go freeway driving.
One way I entertain myself is trying to better the instant average fuel economy. Today I took the 2012 Honda CR-V from 19.5 mpg to 23.5 mpg.
2012 Honda CR-V: Expansive View
February 22, 2013
It's nice to be able to see out the front of a car. Modern cars are stuffed full of airbags and the pillars can greatly reduce visibility.
I appreciate the added safety features, of course. But it's refreshing to have a wide, expansive view out the windshield, like in our 2012 Honda CR-V.
2012 Honda CR-V: Writing on the Headliner
February 21, 2013
This weekend I noticed there was a long, dark pen mark on our 2012 Honda CR-V's light gray headliner.
2012 Honda CR-V: Carpool Ready
February 19, 2013
There are plenty of minivans and large SUVs filing through the school parking lot, but when it comes to carpooling two middle-schoolers, our 2012 Honda CR-V offers a full range of amenities.
During the six-mile, 20-minute drive, the girls spread out their breakfast fixings, charge their iPhones in the front center console, and loudly read off the name of each song that appears on the CR-V's stereo display.
2012 Honda CR-V: Midnight Cookie Delivery
February 18, 2013
When your daughter's sales goal is 500 boxes, she doesn't care that the call for more Girl Scout cookies comes at 11:00 p.m. She's happy for the order.
2012 Honda CR-V: I See the Music
February 15, 2013
I like that the display in our Honda CR-V shows me the next few songs that are coming up on my iPod. Working in an open floor plan like we do at Edmunds, I have a lot of "writing music" on my iPod. When I'm in the car I like to shuffle all of my songs. So I spend a fair amount of time skipping tracks.
Ocean waves and classical music are great for drowning out noise at the office, but not exactly rocking tunes for the commute home.
2012 Honda CR-V: The Replacement for the Lack of a Basement
February 12, 2013
The home I live in doesn't have a basement. Actually, few California homes (where Edmunds is based) do. So when it comes time to store my, err, stuff, I have to rent a storage unit. And this is where vehicles like our 2012 Honda CR-V are so great for me.
I'm often shuttling bins and boxes between the storage unit and my house, and the CR-V makes it easy. The spring-loaded fold-down rear seats are there for a quick transition from people to cargo hauler. There's also the low load floor and 70 cubic feet of space, which is among the roomiest you'll find in a small crossover (and more than enough for what I'm typically moving back-and-forth).
2012 Honda CR-V: Missing a Blind-Spot Monitor
February 11, 2013
We've previously written a couple of entries about our long-term 2012 Honda CR-V's blind-spot driver-side mirror. Neither was favorable. Kelly Toepke wrote that it reminded her of bifocal glasses, while James Riswick observed that Ford's blind-spot mirror design works a lot better. You can add me in to the mix as an editor who's unmoved by our CR-V's mirror design.
This would seem to be a fairly minor thing, and perhaps it is. But I was also thinking recently how my 67-year-old mom really likes the blind-spot detection system on her Ford Fusion. For a lot of drivers, I think blind-spot detection systems are great. But you can't get one on the CR-V. And that, I think, is important.
2012 Honda CR-V: 24 Hours With the CR-V
February 6, 2013
I'm 40 years old, married, have two kids and live in suburbia. I'm guessing that's close to Honda's target demographic for its CR-V. So it's with some interest that I've been observing how the CR-V fits into my life. For the span of 24 hours, I figured I'd jot down what I did with the Honda. In hindsight, it was all pretty mundane and could have really used some Kiefer Sutherland-style cliffhangers. But it did show off the CR-V's suite of strengths.
2012 Honda CR-V: Fuel Economy Update for January
February 4, 2013
We continue to rack up miles in our 2012 Honda CR-V, adding about another 1,400 in January. These were largely miles commuting around Los Angeles, unlike in December when Dan Edmunds used the CR-V for a trip to Arizona.
2012 Honda CR-V: Delivers The Right Qualities
February 1, 2013
A couple of weeks ago we noted how the 2012 Honda CR-V was the best-selling vehicle in its segment last year. Some of that success is no doubt due to sales momentum. Honda's been doing this a long time, and there's a lot of loyalty associated with the CR-V. But it all had to start somewhere, and the latest CR-V is still excellent at what people expect out of it.
Read through our various posts on our long-term CR-V the past six months and this is what you'll learn: It's roomy inside, but not too bulky to drive. It's comfortable around town and on the highway, but there's still a secure feeling to the handling. It's fuel efficient. It's inexpensive to operate and own. It's got top safety scores. And unlike a small or midsize sedan, you can fit bulky things in the cargo area and get it with all-wheel drive.
Whether you're young and single, starting a family, or have already made it to empty-nest status, the Honda CR-V will likely fit your life quite nicely.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 16,353 miles
2012 Honda CR-V: Ample Rear Leg Room
January 30, 2013
Leg room. The CR-V has lots of it. I've got a 32- to 34-inch inseam depending on how things are measured. This photo shows how much leg room is available in the CR-V behind the driver's seat when it's set in my preferred driving position.
No one will complain about rear leg room in this SUV.
Josh Jacquot, Senior Editor @ 16,100 miles
2012 Honda CR-V: Superb Small-Item Storage
January 29, 2013
Honda does small-item storage in the form of small, well-placed bins better than anyone else. Here's a tour starting with the two-bin door pocket.
2012 Honda CR-V: Manual Shifting
January 28, 2013
That Honda's CR-V uses a five-speed automatic transmission while its primary rivals, the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4, use six-speeds isn't ideal. That the five-speed lacks a manual gate, shift paddles and rev-matching abilities is inexcusable.
Here you can see that the only way to lock the transmission in a gear is to pull it down into 2 or 1 or use the D3 button. None of these options is as elegant or as easy as a rev-matched downshift would be using a paddle or a manual gate.
Josh Jacquot, Senior editor @ 16,062 miles
2012 Honda CR-V: Winter Crossover
January 25, 2015
Hard to believe for our friends in the Midwest and Northeastern climes, but not only do we get the shakes out in southern California, but sometimes also the chills. Whether or not a 38-degree morning qualifies as cold for you, to me its six degrees above freezing. Cold enough.
Regardless of the temp, I endeavor to always let the engine of any car I'm driving warm up a bit, three minutes minimum, enough time to get the phone plugged in, get some air moving around the cabin. Before driving the kid to school in the morning, I like to let our old Civic warm up a good five minutes or so, especially if turning the wheel over to the wife, who otherwise would simply turn over the ignition, place it in Drive and hammer on the throttle to be first up the on-ramp.
I can't help but feel that letting an engine's fluids come up to temp before asking too much of it is simply good karma and sound mechanical empathy. But as I was sitting there in the CR-V, letting it warm up, I began to wonder if today's engines are simply built to tolerances that allow them to be wrung out by unknowing, uncaring or just hurried drivers. What do you think? Old myth or good practice?
Dan Frio, Automotive Editor @ 15,564 miles
