News / 9 February 2024 / Michael Taylor

New Honda CR-V officially goes on sale in South Africa – With a R350,000 price increase

Honda has officially launched the new CR-V in South Africa – its flagship SUV series.

Now in its sixth generation, the brand’s most popular SUV has seen a massive overhaul with a modern new body, a more spacious interior, additional features, and another two seats.

This has resulted in a sizeable bump to the Honda’s price tag, as it now goes for a minimum of R959,900, compared to the outgoing generation’s R609,900.

Design and features

The new CR-V is 115mm longer and 10mm wider than before, and has been crafted to look sportier thanks to a sleek new roofline and an extended hood.

The windshield pillars have been moved 120mm rearward, 70mm outward, and 35mm lower, which along with new door-mounted side mirrors and a bigger rear window, help to improve driver visibility while accentuating the dynamic elements of the design.

LED head and taillights along with 18-inch alloy wheels are included as standard, and the range-topping Exclusive boasts a new gloss-black mesh grille, front and rear sport bumpers, bigger 19-inch alloys, a stainless steel exhaust, and a panoramic sunroof.

Customers can choose from seven different colours, including Brilliant Sporty Blue Metallic, Coffee Cherry Red Metallic, Crystal Black Pearl, Lunar Silver Metallic, Meteoroid Grey Metallic, and Platinum White Pearl.

The interior of the new Honda is more spacious than before with an extra 15mm of rear legroom, and the back seats can now recline in eight different directions instead of two, at a max angle of 10.5 degrees.

The cabin is also quieter thanks to new sound-absorbing, non-woven fabric front and rear fender liners and front floor undercovers, a sound-insulating roof cover, and a spray-type urethane foam improving noise reduction in the body gap at the base of the pillars.

Adding to this is an improved Active Noise Control system with added speakers with a broader volume and frequency range to cancel out exterior sounds intruding on the cabin.

There is a metallic finish on components like the climate control knobs, and the instrument and door panels now incorporate a honeycomb-embossed pattern that helps to hide fingerprints and scratches.

Like the Honda Civic and Civic Type R, a metal honeycomb mesh stretches across the dashboard, which blends in with the air vents and creates a visual divide between the upper and lower consoles.

The front row features Body Stabilizing Seats which provide better support across the whole body, thereby improving comfort and reducing fatigue on long journeys. They also have an inner frame on the seat bottom that helps to stablizise the user’s hips to prevent posture changes as a result of G-forces.

These seats are wrapped in leather, bring heating functions, and boast electronic adjustability with eight directions for the driver and four for the passenger.

Storage has been made more practical throughout the vehicle with a standard hands-free tailgate, a large 9-litre storage bin in the centre console, and a new tray in the front that can fit two phones side by side.

The Executive model then comes with a 7.0-inch colour TFT instrument display, while the Exclusive is upgraded to a 10.2-inch digital cluster (with an accompanying heads-up display) that can scroll through music playlists, navigation directions, and Honda Sensing functions through the multifunction steering wheel.

Both grades are equipped with an HD reverse camera, a wireless charger, and a 9.0-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and six programmable shortcut buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Also included are Honda’s Sensing safety functions, which comprise a collision mitigation braking system, forward-collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, road-departure mitigation, lane-departure warning, a driver-attention monitor, seatbelt reminders for all three rows, and a total of eight airbags.

Engine

The CR-V retains the 1.5-litre, turbocharged petrol engine found on the previous range-topping models, giving it a power cap of 140kW and 240Nm.

The powerplant has been updated with VTEC variable valve timing on the exhaust side of the twin-cam head, which improves exhaust efficiency and optimizes valve overlap for better fuel efficiency, said Honda.

The turbocharger now routes exhaust gas diagonally to the turbine wheel, helping it to generate pressure in a wider range of engine speeds and more efficiently.

This drivetrain is linked to the front wheels via a continuously variable transmission (CVT) which features Step Shift programming to simulate gear changes at full throttle.

The wheelbase is 40mm longer to reach 2,700mm, and the chassis includes MacPherson struts in front with stiffer multilink suspension in the rear for better stability and sportier handling.

A new motor control unit works with the electronic steering for more accurate movements, and the front wheels are fitted with large ventilated brake discs and low-friction calipers to reduce brake drag.