The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Big interior
- Great feature set
- 40-mpg hybrid
- Plush ride
- So much space
Dislikes
- Limited lineup
- Can tow just 1,000 pounds
- Exterior's derivative
- Turbo’s slower than the hybrid
- Average warranty
Buying tip
features & specs
The 2024 Honda CR-V serves up a compelling feature set and the allure of 40 mpg driving, all wrapped up in a spacious package.
What kind of vehicle is the 2024 Honda CR-V? What does it compare to?
The 2024 Honda CR-V is a five-seat compact crossover SUV. Shop it against the segment’s stalwarts: the Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, and Nissan Rogue.
Is the 2024 Honda CR-V a good SUV?
An excellent choice, the 2024 CR-V is highly satisfying with good standard tech and a big, spacious cabin. It’s a solid 7.0 out of 10 on the TCC scale. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2024 Honda CR-V?
After a revamp last year, the 2024 CR-V sails into 2024 with minor tweaks.
The CR-V comes in a single body: a boxy, tall-roof SUV that makes fantastic use of its garage-ready dimensions. It’s remarkably spacious inside.
Styling-wise, the CR-V’s lines are clean and efficient, with a low grille and narrow headlights. It’s light on side-profile adornment, too. Don’t look for a particularly rugged version, though Honda may eventually offer a Trailsport trim level with chunkier looks. The interior is just as clean, but it’s more remarkable for its space utilization than its lines. It’s plenty roomy for five.
The base 1.5-liter turbo-4 doles out 190 hp through a CVT, sent either to the front wheels or, optionally, to all four. Power comes on smoothly, though the CR-V never feels particularly quick. The Sport Hybrid puts out a more satisfying 204 hp for quicker, if still not blistering, response. Simulated internal-combustion engine noise hints at a sporty nature when the CR-V’s drive-mode selector is put in Sport mode, though this small SUV never comes across as particularly, well, sporty. With fuel economy as high as 40 mpg combined, though, the CR-V fulfills its gas-saving mission just fine.
Comfy front seats offer power adjustment on most trims. Rear-seat riders enter via big door openings to a second row with spectacular stretch-out space. A tiered cargo area grows from just shy of 40 to more than 75 cubic feet with the second-row seatbacks flopped down. Nearly as impressive is the CR-V’s small-item storage.
Aside from blind-spot monitors (the LX doesn’t have them), the CR-V comes standard with the expected array of crash-avoidance tech including adaptive cruise control, active lane control, and automatic emergency braking.
How much does the 2024 Honda CR-V cost?
The 2024 CR-V costs $30,795, including a $1,295 destination fee, in its base LX trim level. The better-equipped EX adds alloy wheels, blind-spot monitors, heated front seats, a sunroof, and a few other niceties that make its $2,500 extra-spend worthwhile.
Where is the 2024 Honda CR-V made?
Honda splits CR-V production between assembly plants in Indiana, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada.
2024 Honda CR-V Styling
The CR-V serves up sporty casual good looks; it’s more memorable inside.
Is the Honda CR-V a good-looking car?
We think so, but the highlights come inside, not outside. We give it an extra point for the cabin, to land at a 6 for styling.
Bigger overall than in its last generation, the latest CR-V strikes a more authoritative pose, but squanders it with a wagon-back body that could have come from the VW Tiguan family as easily as from a Honda design studio. Where it succeeds, in front, the CR-V draws a finely detailed grille with razor-thin LED running lights that hang from the hoodline. The front end rests on a foundation with snappy angled air intakes. From there back it’s business as usual, with a slight inset at the sills and a VW-like kick to the roof pillar. The Sport versions pop better with black wheels and trim.
You’ll grok the Civic influence quickly inside, where the CR-V’s thin front pillars and low dash get stamped with a dark mesh strip of metallic trim. Studded with joystick controllers for the air vents, and capped by a touchscreen ranging from 7.0 to 9.0 inches, the dash could not be more straightforward—or more handsome, we think. While Honda touches base here too with VW and other Euro SUVs, it’s in the application of metallic trim, all done in a way to highlight its own design ideas, not crib from others. It’s interesting, inviting, and more to the point, calm. A distraction-free visual environment that still applies tasteful details wins the day over the chaotic cabins sketched into otherwise ordinary crossover SUVs.
2024 Honda CR-V Performance
The CR-V has cruising in mind, not bruising.
The latest CR-V sports turbochargers and hybrid systems to augment its small 4-cylinder engine, but the powertrain isn't the performance star. The CR-V rides better than many of its rivals, and puts its technology to use to generate great gas mileage. We give it a 6, with a point above average for its above-average ride comfort.
Is the Honda CR-V 4WD?
Almost all models start out as front-wheel-drive crossovers. Honda fits all-wheel drive to any version for $1,500. The Sport Touring hybrid edition gets AWD standard.
How fast is the Honda CR-V?
Quick enough to resolve any qualms you might have about hybrid performance. The Sport hybrid’s the quicker CR-V, in fact, thanks to a tech-savvy powertrain. Neither CR-V is truly quick, but the hybrid can scoot to 60 mph in under eight seconds thanks to a combination of a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder and a pair of electric motors. With a total output of 204 hp and 247 lb-ft of torque, the CR-V leans heavily into its 1.4-kwh battery pack and taps its power to smooth out launches and feed in torque when it doesn’t truly need the engine’s help.
The hybrid system does its chores without much fuss, and tweaking its drive modes—Eco, Normal, Sport among them—might be the only way you hear the crossover switch from electric to gas power. The CVT even offers simulated gear changes. Honda does pump some simulated engine sounds into the vehicle in Sport mode, and like so many of those fake noise generators, we wish we could turn it off.
Without the hybrid, the CR-V’s slower. The 1.5-liter turbo-4 kicks out 190 hp and 179 lb-ft, and offers three drive modes—Econ, Normal, and Snow—but none of them trigger the kind of acceleration that charms the Toyota RAV4 Prime or even a Ford Escape with the 2.0-liter turbo-4. The CR-V’s simply responsive, moderately gaining pace as the pedal’s mashed, and mostly quiet in terms of wind and road noise; it’s the thrash of the engine you’ll hear as its CVT passes through an infinite number of ratios, without much eagerness and without much reluctance, as if to answer the call for power with a simple, “fine.”
Thanks to a longer and wider and stiffer body, the latest CR-V has more ways to damp out road harshness. The suspension continues to pair front struts and a multilink rear suspension, but has stiffer subframes that let Honda give it more relaxed spring rates and damping. It leans like most crossovers, but resolves its ride motions with more maturity than, say, a Bronco Sport. The tires have plenty of sidewall, the steering has good on-center feel without much weight as it moves away from the middle, and the CR-V’s shocks know when to let it hang loose. It’s smoother but also more responsive, a magical combination that the CR-V just nails while rivals wander out on the ride-and-handling margins.
2024 Honda CR-V Comfort & Quality
It’s nearly big enough to be perfect.
Comfort and quality are where the CR-V shines. Its seats have great long-distance comfort, it has plenty of cargo space and small-item storage, and it’s nearly big enough to tote five large passengers in comfort. We give it a 9: it only misses a point for that fifth passenger, who must scrunch in between the outboard riders in back.
Versus the last CR-V, Honda stretched the wheelbase 1.5 inches and the vehicle in all by 2.7 inches. It’s nearly mid-sized now, so the CR-V makes a roomy impression. It’s so easy to get into the CR-V—while some electric vehicles compress vertical space thanks to batteries and aerodynamics, the CR-V’s tall cabin and doors welcome even very tall front passengers. They get power seats at the EX grade and above, and leather seats on the EX-L. The range of adjustment puts almost all drivers at ease behind the wheel, and the seats have lots of side and bottom bolstering—they’re heated on most trims, too.
Between front passengers, the CR-V fits a vast console and brackets them with deep door pockets. The CR-V surrounds them with a lovely band of dark metallic mesh trim across the dash, with joystick controls for vents and big knobs for essential controls.
With a flat floor and 41.0 inches of rear legroom, the back seat’s hardly a place of dishonor. Four 6-footers fit easily, and the fifth won’t lack headroom or legroom; it’s shoulder room that tightens up when three people slide in.
Rear seatbacks in the CR-V recline for ride comfort, and fold down to boost cargo space from 39.3 to 76.5 cubic feet—simply enormous for this class. Hybrids lose a couple of cubic feet to their battery pack, and the CR-V’s available tiered cargo floor trims a couple of cubes when it's not in its lowest position.
2024 Honda CR-V Safety
Things look promising for the CR-V.
We give the latest CR-V a 7 for safety—so far. Not all crash tests have been completed.
How safe is the Honda CR-V?
Not all of the crash-test data is in, but the CR-V has earned an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award, thanks to “Good” LED headlights and crash test results. The NHTSA hasn’t finished its evaluations, but the latest CR-V is on their list for testing.
The CR-V misses out on a point for rearward vision—its roof pillars are thick and block some of the view—and safety options don’t include a surround-view camera system.
The CR-V has standard blind-spot monitors, active lane control, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control that works down to a stop, a driver-attention monitor, and traffic sign recognition. Traffic-jam assist offers limited hands-free driving below 45 mph.
2024 Honda CR-V Features
For the best value, pick the CR-V Sport Hybrid.
Honda’s compact to mid-size crossover scores points with us for its standard features, its value, and its touchscreen infotainment system, for an 8 here. It leaves points on the table for options—they’re mostly bundled in trims and packages—and an average 3-year/36,000-mile warranty.
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For $30,975, the CR-V LX has a 7.0-inch touchscreen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, keyless start, a 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster, 17-inch wheels, and LED headlights. All-wheel drive costs $1,500 here, and on every other CR-V.
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The CR-V EX gains a power driver seat, heated front seats, a sunroof, 18-inch wheels, blind-spot monitors, and dual-zone climate control.
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A $35,955 EX-L, the top non-hybrid version, gets eight-speaker audio, wireless smartphone charging, and a 9.0-inch touchscreen.
Which Honda CR-V should I buy?
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Take the CR-V Sport Hybrid, for $34,645. It gets black-painted 18-inch wheels and blackout trim to go with its basic EX equipment package.
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A new Sport-L grade costs $37,645 and gains a power front passenger seat, a power tailgate, leather upholstery, and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to go with a larger 9.0-inch touchscreen.
How much is a fully loaded Honda CR-V?
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The $40,975 Sport Touring Hybrid gains all-wheel drive, Bose audio, 19-inch wheels, and navigation.
2024 Honda CR-V Fuel Economy
Even with hybrid power, the CR-V gets eclipsed by colleagues.
Is the Honda CR-V good on gas?
It is with hybrid power on tap. The EPA rates that version, when equipped with front-wheel drive, at 43 mpg city, 36 highway, 40 combined. With all-wheel drive, it’s 40/34/37 mpg. And since Honda sells more than half of CR-Vs with hybrid power, it gets the nod for our rating of 6 here.
A RAV4 or Escape hybrid will outscore the CR-V Hybrid, for what it’s worth—and both come in plug-in versions, while the Honda does not.
With the stock turbo-4, the front-drive CR-V checks in at 28/34/30 mpg. With all-wheel drive, it’s one mile per gallon less on the combined score.
