Honda CR-V 2026 review | A premium Japanese family SUV

What is the Honda CR-V?

The Honda CR-V is one of the most recognisable nameplates in the SUV market. The first generation went on sale in the mid-1990s and quickly established itself as a spacious and dependable family car. As with many long-running car models (think Volkswagen Golf, Honda Civic et al), each generation of CR-V has grown compared with its predecessor. Honda believes this latest CR-V can stand tyre-to-tyre with what might have previously been considered vehicles from the class above, such as the BMW X3 and Audi Q5.

The sixth-generation CR-V is longer (by 8cm) and wider (by 1cm) than its predecessor, with a wheelbase that has been stretched by 4cm. Partly as a result of its increased size, and partly due to more assertive styling, the CR-V also has much more presence in its latest guise. The car’s distinctive look is another reason Honda believes it can attract buyers who might otherwise gravitate to premium-badged alternatives.

The CR-V is offered in hybrid and plug-in hybrid forms only; there are no plain petrol or diesel models in the range, and no fully electric CR-V either. What’s more, despite its size, the CR-V only seats five people, with no option to upgrade to seven seats (as in rivals such as the Skoda Kodiaq or Nissan X-Trail).

If you want a CR-V with all-wheel drive, you’ll need to opt for the standard ‘self-charging’ hybrid, badged e:HEV (here is also a front-wheel-drive version). The plug-in hybrid CR-V, called the e:PHEV, is front-wheel-drive only.

Given Honda’s loftier market ambitions, it’s little wonder the CR-V has become more expensive. The asking price for an entry-level CR-V back in 2012 was £21,395. Today, you’ll need just over £47,000 to get behind the wheel of a hybrid, and a fraction under £50,000 for a plug-in hybrid. The badge still says ‘CR-V’, but this isn’t the same kind of affordable SUV any more.

How practical is it?

Aside from the fact it isn’t offered with seven seats, which seems like a big miss given its size, the CR-V aces the practicality test. Its rear seats offer so much legroom that even taller adults won’t find anything to complain about. Furthermore, there’s good headroom even with the standard-fit panoramic sunroof, while the backrests of the rear seats can recline to maximise comfort. While you don’t get three individual seats like in a Citroen C5 Aircross, the CR-V’s 60:40 split-folding rear bench is wide enough to cope with three adults sitting side-by-side. As a final practical touch, the rear seats are on runners so they can slide fore and aft by up to 19cm – allowing you to trade some of that plentiful legroom for extra boot space.

Not that you’ll feel short-changed when it comes to carrying luggage, either. The all-wheel-drive hybrid’s boot is between 579 and 587 litres with the rear seats all the way back (depending on the trim level), which is among the largest in the class. Opt for the front-wheel-drive hybrid or the plug-in hybrid CR-V and you’ll get an even bigger boot, with a capacity of 617 litres. This extra space is a result of an adjustable-height boot floor, which can be set to a lower position (not possible in the all-wheel-drive e:HEV hybrid). In both models, you can fold the rear seats completely flat to create a vast load area with between 1,643 and 1,710 litres of storage.

The front of the CR-V is equally as roomy. You sit up high with a commanding view of the road, giving the CR-V the feel of a full-size SUV. The electrically adjustable seats make it easy to find a good driving position. There’s also loads of storage for odds and ends, including cupholders and a large cubby under the armrest. Honda is generally very good at thinking about how people really use their cars in daily life.

For an added splash of practicality, Honda also offers a number of accessories with the CR-V. Two additional rear seats aren’t on the list, of course, but there are rubber floor mats, rear-seat window shades, boot nets and dividers to stop luggage sliding around, and an extendable boot mat that folds out to stop dogs scratching the rear bumper as they leap in and out.

You can specify a tow bar, should you wish to make use of the 1,500kg of braked towing capacity (depending on the model). There are also bicycle racks for mounting on the roof or tailgate, plus roof rails and roof boxes of various capacities.

What’s it like to drive?

Both CR-Vs use what is essentially the same hybrid system, the difference being that the plug-in model has a significantly larger battery to give a fully electric range of up to 50 miles (in official tests – expect more like 40 miles in normal driving). The drivetrain combines a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine with two electric motors. One of these motors drives the wheels, while the other is a generator. In normal driving, the system works by using the petrol engine to power the generator, which can send power either to the wheels via the drive motor, or to the battery.

This makes the CR-V feel similar to an electric car in how it drives, and also means the petrol engine can work at its optimum efficiency. One of the system’s neat tricks is that at higher speeds, when it would be inefficient to use the electric drive motor, the petrol engine can bypass the generator motor and provide direct drive to the wheels. As a final layer of complication, petrol and electric power sources can work in combination for maximum thrust when needed. In such scenarios, the CR-V can accelerate from 0-62mph in 9.4 seconds and onto a top speed of 121mph.

As a driver, you might well care less about how the hybrid system works, and more about what it feels like. In that regard, it’s a smooth system in terms of power delivery, and even the regular hybrid CR-V will run in its EV mode for a fair amount of time (at low speeds or when coasting, for example). When the petrol engine is running from cold it can be quite noisy, but it becomes quieter once warmed through – to the point that it’s only under hard acceleration that you ever think about it. Even then, it’s appreciably quieter than in the previous generation of CR-V, which used an earlier and less refined version of this hybrid setup.

When it comes to ride and handling, the CR-V is unashamedly comfort-oriented, with its standard-fit 18-inch alloy wheels and relatively soft suspension doing a good job of soaking up bumps in the road. That’s fine with us, as there are already plenty of ‘sporty’ SUVs that are less comfortable day-to-day. There’s a fair bit of tyre roar at motorway speeds, and the steering is unexpectedly heavy, but aside from that the big Honda generally wafts you about in a calm and composed manner.

That’s less the case if you opt for the plug-in hybrid version, mind you. With its bigger battery, the e:PHEV CR-V is 100kg heavier than the e:HEV model, and despite standard-fit adaptive dampers the suspension struggles to contain this extra weight when the road starts to undulate. While the e:HEV generally feels composed, the e:PHEV’s mass counts against it, with a ride that quickly becomes too bouncy for comfort. While the dampers do have a firmer sport setting, it’s still not enough to match the composure of the lighter e:HEV CR-V on its passive suspension.

The other noticeable difference in the way the two cars drive is in the amount of time you can spend using electric power. With a battery range of up to 50 miles, the e:PHEV will spend an awful lot of its time in serene EV mode. And even when the petrol engine does kick in, it doesn’t need to work as hard, making it slightly quieter.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

Honda has done away with any notion of there being an entry-level version of the CR-V. The Elegance model that kicks off the range is fully loaded with equipment that includes electrically adjustable heated leather seats, a heated steering wheel, a panoramic sunroof, dual-zone climate control, a wireless phone charger and more.

Move up to Advance trim and you also get heated rear seats, a head-up display and a 12-speaker Bose sound system. The top-spec Advance Tech trim is reserved for the plug-in hybrid, with the main specification change being the larger battery. Other details include the wheelarches and lower bumpers being body-coloured, rather than black.

All CR-Vs feature the same infotainment setup, which consists of a 9.0-inch screen with wired Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay. It’s identical to the one you’ll find in the Civic, and is at once a vast improvement on Honda’s previous infotainment yet still not as good as the best in class. Frustrations include a slight lag when selecting functions, and some very convoluted menus to work through. The CR-V’s dials are displayed on a 10.2-inch screen, which is clear and easy to read, although there’s not much in the way of configurability.

Overall, we’d still rate the infotainment and digital dial setup in the best-selling Kia Sportage as being a step above Honda in terms of appearance and user-friendliness.

Honda CR-V running costs

With its EV range of up to 50 miles, the CR-V e:PHEV is the one to go for if you drive around towns or cities regularly. You’ll also be able to drive for much of the time in near-silence. The e:PHEV makes sense if you are a company car driver, too: CO2 emissions of just 18g/km mean significant savings in BIK tax compared to the standard hybrid.

The CR-V e:PHEV has an official WLTP fuel economy figure of 353mpg. Admittedly you’d need to plug in an awful lot to realise anything close to that figure, but the generous EV-only range means anybody with a home charger can do a lot of their driving on (cheaper) electric energy.

The full hybrid CR-V has a WLTP-tested economy figure of 42.2mpg and CO2 emissions of 151g/km. In motorway driving, its fuel consumption will dip below 40mpg, but it picks up again once you reach slower roads. As such, drivers who complete the majority of the driving on the motorway will likely be better off with one of the CR-V’s diesel-powered rivals. For mixed driving, however, the Honda is about as efficient as anything else in this class. Over several hundred miles that included towns and motorways, we averaged a respectable 42mpg.

Honda CR-V reliability

Honda as a brand is known for building some of the most reliable cars around, a reputation that was partly built on the durability of the CR-V. The good news is Honda places first out of 30 manufacturers in the most recent What Car? Reliability Survey, beating competitors such as Vauxhall in fifth, Kia in eighth, Peugeot in 11th, Hyundai in 14th and Skoda in 16th.

This latest CR-V is too new for there to be any reliability data, but its predecessor finished 4th out of the 24 cars in the large SUV class in the 2023 What Car? Reliability Index. In the family SUV class in 2024, it claimed 19th place, which sounds poor but really isn’t; the class was packed with 76 vehicles.

Where you might feel let down is with Honda’s warranty, which only lasts for three years or 90,000 miles. Compare that to Hyundai and Kia, who offer five- and seven-year warranties respectively. Another of Honda’s biggest rivals, Toyota, will warrant its cars up to 10 years and 100,000 miles provided they are serviced annually within its dealer network. It’s still more than the warranty you get with an Audi Q5 or Skoda Kodiaq (both three years and 60,000 miles), however.