Honda toughens up

By Eric Blair
HONDA CRV was first sold in Australia in October 1997 and almost immediately went to the top of the best seller list.
It was upgraded in 2002 with a larger, more powerful engine, new features and improved interior space and greater refinement.
Honda’s welldeserved reputation for excellent engineering played no small part in the CRV’s success though, it has to be said, the engineering of the 4WD system has led to a lot of complaints from those who actually want to go fourwheel driving.
The biggest problem was that it wasn’t normally a frontwheel drive, the rear wheels only coming into play when the fronts started to slip.
There then can be a delay in the back wheels starting to work and this can give the front wheels time to bog down.
For its 2005 upgrade Honda finally gave Australia the CRV that the purists had always craved, turning it into a true 4WD not just a pretty suburban runabout with some extra traction for safety on slippery roads.
The upgrade consists of a oneway ball cam and pilot clutch that minimise the amount of time the front wheels spin before some power is sent back to the rear wheels. Up to 40 percent can be sent rearwards.
And it works. The CRV now has genuine offroad ability approaching that of dedicated offroad 4WDs.
Traction that lets it climb slippery dirt slopes, then creep down steep inclines, means the CRV is now likely to ‘outbrave’ its owners by a huge margin. And that’s before we even discuss things like its ability to crawl through rough streams.
We haven’t been able to test the CRV on a beach, but the way it handled soft dirt suggests that it will be equally competent there.
In its latest format, the CRV has a fivespeed automatic transmission sitting beside its 2.4litre engine.
This should improve fuel consumption slightly and make for quieter running at high speeds.
Of course, Honda’s CRV isn’t a supertough Jeep Wrangler or a Land Rover Defender.
Ground clearance is likely to be the CRV’s limiting factor and the body, though squeak and rattle free during our brief initial testing, would probably object to spending weeks at a time in the rugged bush.
Then again, given the crook ride and rough finish of these aforementioned tough 4WDs, the Honda would be far superior to them in normal daily transport.
In the Japanese manner, the Honda CRV comes very well specified.
The base model comes with air conditioning, ABS brakes, dual airbags, remote central locking, power mirrors and windows, cruise control, single CD player and an engine immobiliser.
The CRV Sport adds side airbags, sunroof, alloy wheels, foglights and a sixstack CD player with MP3 capacity.
All CRVs are fivedoor station wagons with seating for five, though the width of the seat is more suited to two adults than three.
There’s good legroom in the back thanks to the tall styling. A clever feature is the use of a completely flat floor in the cabin so it’s possible to walk through between the front seats to get to the rear seat.
The load area is good and can be extended folding the split rear seat. The spare wheel cover can be used as a picnic table. .