Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £19,725 to £26,210
Comfortable and well equipped, with superb ride quality.
Not quick and not pretty.
Terrific family transport, but now so on-road orientated that it may as well be a proper car.
From £19,000 to £25,000. On sale in the UK from January 2007.
Honda's third-generation CR-V, arriving a decade after the first, is another careful evolution of a successful formula. One of the defining 'softroaders' is now even softer: more refined, with better ride, improved comfort and more equipment. It retains the high seating position and ruggedness of an SUV, and a new version of Honda's part-time four-wheel drive system, but the changes have all been concerned with making it better on-road rather than off. The vast majority of buyers never willingly leave the tarmac.
Responding to often ill-informed criticism from the anti-urban 4x4 lobby, Honda is keen to emphasise that the new CR-V is about the same size as a Ford Mondeo estate, that most of the time it runs in front-wheel drive mode, and that it uses less fuel and produces lower carbon dioxide emissions than plenty of regular cars. Honda's going so far as to issue all buyers with a 'Not all 4x4s are the same' sticker and a letter providing them with ammo to counter hostile arguments at the school gates.
Its key rivals are the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan X-Trail, and the more expensive BMW X3 and new Land Rover Freelander 2. CR-Vs for the European market are built at Honda's thriving plant in Swindon, where it's fitted with two engines. There's the previous CR-V's 2.2-litre diesel, available with a six-speed manual gearbox, and a 2.0-litre evolution of Honda's familiar 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol four, offered with a five-speed automatic and six-speed manual gearbox. There are three trim levels.
