TRAVIS LANGNESS: The Honda CR-V is the best small SUV out there, and it's been that way for years. How do we know? Well, we rated one. Back in 2017 when it was redesigned, we rated one at the top of its class. And we wanted one in our long-term fleet to see if it could stand up to the test of time and wow us after a full year of ownership and continue to beat out vehicles like the Mazda CX-5 and the Nissan Rogue.
And guess what? After 40,000 miles, we were still smitten with the CR-V, leaving it at the top of its class. So when Honda released a hybrid version, we wanted to test that too. So we got one in our long-term fleet as soon as we could. This is an SUV that's rated at 38 MPG combined by the EPA. And that's a big promise. If you want to read all of our editor's comments about the nitty gritty details of life with the CR-V Hybrid, click the link in the description below.
That's where you'll find our whole long-term fleet. Let us know in the comments what you think we should put in our long-term fleet next. For a cash offer on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sellmycar. More than just seeing what the ownership experience was like, this was a way for us to compare long-term fuel economy between the standard CR-V and the Hybrid, and also stuff like driving characteristics and cargo space.
So how did it do after 17,000 miles? Well, let's dive right in. Fuel economy in this vehicle is rated by the EPA, with all-wheel drive, the only way it comes, at 38 miles per gallon combined, 40 in the city-- whoa-- and 35 on the highway. Unfortunately, during our 17,000 miles of driving, we didn't even get close to those numbers.
We averaged around 30 miles to the gallon over all of that time. And the closest we got to that 40 MPG rating was 36.5. That's all we could manage. Even with a light foot with a mind towards fuel economy and driving in stop and go city traffic, that's the best we could get. Now, you compare that with our old long term CR-V with the optional 1.5 liter engine, it did much better-- 38.9 miles per gallon on a particular tank, which is, frankly, much better.
And you don't have to pay the cost premium of going up to the Hybrid, which is pretty expensive, even on the EX trim level. The base version of the CR-V hybrid, it's $1,200 more than the standard CR-V. That's a big difference that won't pay off in fuel economy for quite a while.
The base trim for the Hybrid is the EX trim level. The lowest price you're going to pay is around $32,000. The standard CR-V's base trim level is called the LX and it's about $5,000 less. But the features don't exactly line up between the two vehicles. The EX hybrid, you get all-wheel drive is standard, and a number of Honda's driver aids like adaptive cruise control and forward collision mitigation.
But we wanted more. So we went with a top of the line Touring model. It comes with stuff like a heated steering wheel, wireless smartphone charging, a hands-free power lift gate, and the optional nine-speaker stereo. Add all those options up and what do you get? Well, including destination, the price is around $37,000.
Now, we can't buy every single vehicle in our long-term fleet. We run too many cars to make that a reality. So we reached out to Honda and they loaned us this one for a year, which meant that there was no haggling over the price, which is nice.
What was our CR-V like to drive? Well, in the city, it was fine. Pulling away from a light or in stop and go traffic, it feels like there's plenty of power. But on the highway, it's a different story.
Several of our editors had complaints about the way the CR-V drove on the highway in terms of passing power and engine noise. You really have to plan passing maneuvers well in advance. At the Edmunds Test Track, it was pretty slow, taking 8.6 seconds to reach 60 miles an hour and nearly 17 seconds to pass the quarter mile.
Both figures are well behind our old standard CR-V. And this is a bummer because in a lot of cases today, Hybrid versions are better to drive than the normal SUV, especially with vehicles like the Tucson or the RAV4. But it's not so here.
We had really good experiences in the gas only version of the CR-V, so we had high expectations for the Hybrid. And overall, it didn't let us down. Now, on the highway, it was pretty quiet and comfortable, easy to drive, except for when you went up long grades or went to make passes. There was a ton of racket from the engine, and none of that was accompanied by a lot of power.
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It's really unsatisfying. Then there's the seats and the ride quality. Those are still top of the class, just as we expected from the Standard model. Honestly, you could drive this vehicle for thousands of miles across the country, as some of our staff members did, and have no complaints about the seats or the ride. They're great for drivers and passengers alike.
Let's talk about tech for a minute. One of the Honda's biggest drawbacks is this center console-mounted transmission controller buttons system. Difficult to learn at first and it's hard to use in practice when you do things like a three-point turn, for example. Or if it's been a while since you've driven your CR-V, you're going to be fiddling with it for a while.
The buttons and the controls on the dashboard and the steering wheel, they're all well laid out and logical to use, aside from the transmission. Unfortunately, when it comes to the touch screen, that's going to take some learning as well. Some of the controls are buried in the menus, and we've had poor performance over our year of ownership in terms of connectivity and the screen just generally staying on.
It's glitched out on us several times, and multiple editors have had problems connecting their smartphones. So you have to plug out, plug in, and sometimes reboot the whole system just to get it to work. Yuck. Tech features that you'd call driver aids-- forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring-- those have been, let's say, an issue for us on Hondas of the past.
Our long-term Pilot, our long-term Passport, our long-term Ridgeline all had really sensitive driver aids. Luckily, though, the CR-V hybrid, that didn't seem to be an issue. All of those systems worked well, so we'd call that a win in our book.
One of Honda's best qualities is how well they lay out interior space. There are tons of cubbies, and cupholders, and pockets everywhere. Your smartphone, your water bottles, your soda cans-- everything is going to fit in this interior with space to spare. And then cargo space is impressive too.
The standard CR-V leads its class in terms of cargo space, and the hybrid isn't far behind. It only loses six cubic feet of cargo space, which is like that much, I think. I don't know-- it's not that big of a difference. And interior space, for the passengers, anyways, isn't affected by the Hybrid's batteries. Let's see what our other editors had to say about the CR-V Hybrid.
BRENT ROMANS: Used that thing a bunch when we had it over the year. We included taking my family on road trips, hauling stuff, just driving around town. And it was great. But the problem was a lot of things that I liked about it were the things that were inherent with any CR-V, so it's the comfort or the space.
And when it came to the fuel economy, which is the big reason why you buy the hybrid, it was better but not a whole lot better. And given some of the trade-offs that we're also talking about in this video, I think, overall, it just really wasn't worth it for me.
AMY SILLMAN: I drove the CR-V over 5,000 miles on a road trip with my kid through the Texas ice storm of 2021. The handling on this car outperformed my expectations considering the crazy weather. We packed the backseat with clothing, pillows, a huge folding crate, and I will say we had enough room in that backseat for my kid and all our stuff, but she wasn't too happy about the comfort during the long road trip. Said it wasn't all that great.
However, I was in the driver's seat the entire time and I was very comfortable. Considering I did at least 16 hours each day, I felt really good.
TRAVIS LANGNESS: The 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid did have a recall for seatbelts. But it didn't apply to our car specifically-- so no recalls to address, which is a good thing. Maintenance was a pretty hassle-free part of the ownership experience. At around 12,000 miles, a service reminder popped up on our dashboard so we scheduled an appointment and went to our local Honda dealership.
We like to go to the dealer to see what the ownership experience is like. In this case, it was super easy. All we needed was an oil change and a tire rotation. It took a grand total of 90 minutes and the total cost was $100.71. Oh yeah, and later on, we got a nail in one of the tires and that cost us $40 to repair. So pretty easy overall.
So how much is our CR-V Hybrid worth now? Well, the only way to know for sure is by selling it. Or we can use the Edmunds appraisal tool to get an approximate value. And it puts in things like specific trim level, condition, mileage, options, and location. After plugging all that in, we were able to get a private party estimate of around $33,000 and a dealer trade-in value of around $31,000. Now, we are living in the weird used car price spike times. So depending on when you watch this video, your values may not be reflected in your appraisal.
Did the CR-V Hybrid live up to the promise of its gas-only twin brother? Is it the best vehicle in its class? Not really. The CR-V Hybrid has significant issues in terms of powertrain and fuel economy. So in the compact SUV hybrid class, it falls behind the Ford Escape Hybrid and the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid.
That's not to say that the CR-V Hybrid is bad. It's still good at what it does. And if you spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic, it's certainly worth a closer look. But if you're given the choice between the Hybrid and the Standard model, we'd go with the standard almost every time.
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