Another in a series of my reviews that appeared in the online version of African Americans On Wheels, a now defunct automotive magazine that was included as an insert in the Sunday newspapers of major cities.
I think one can successfully argue that the ur CR-V and Toyota RAV4 spawned roughly 75% of all new vehicles currently being sold in the U.S. Walk into any showroom, and most of what you’ll see are sport-utility bodies sitting on transverse-engined, front-wheel drive platforms. Many of those platforms are also shared either currently or formerly with traditional cars. That includes Jeep and Land Rover, too.
My wife and I drove the CR-V to Manhattan, and I have to say I did appreciate how it soaked up the potholes and road imperfections. The small size also made it easy to dart in, out, and around traffic. Driving a five-speed manual in Manhattan – not as much fun.
The following review was written on May 9, 1999.
Although the CR-V is a response to the current SUV rage, Honda DID try this concept once before, over a decade ago. The 1984 Civic wagon was a “tall” station wagon that had plenty of head and cargo room as well as virtually the same “real time” all-wheel drive system used on the CR-V. It didn’t look like Mom’s Country Squire, nor did it look like anything else on the road. Honda kept it around through two generations, but the public really wasn’t interested and you don’t see many around outside the Pacific Northwest. The CR-V, now in its third season, wraps a rugged-looking SUV shell with neat C-pillar tail lamps around the platform of the latest Civic, and the resulting vehicle has been a hit from day one.
Fortunately, this time around it doesn’t have to share an engine with the Civic. The CR-V has its own 146-horsepower, 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. While up 20 horsepower from last year, it still has a hard time pulling around the 3,100+ pound vehicle, and acceleration is leisurely even with the five-speed manual. The lighter two-wheel drive LX would definitely feel quicker, but it is only available with the four-speed automatic that is optional in the LX AWD and EX. Thanks to its Civic platform, ride and handling are far more tolerable than the truck-like Suzuki Grand Vitara and Kia Sportage. However, they can go places off-road the CR-V can’t. Even if you could, would you?
The interior is typical, no-nonsense Honda, with easy-to-read gauges and a high level of fit and finish. The only real complaint is the steering-wheel, which, even in its lowest position, sits at a bus-like angle and feels like it came right out of the Odyssey minivan. Front and rear seat room is impressive for a compact SUV, with an abundance of storage bins and cupholders. Open up the split tailgate, fold down the split-rear seat, and there’s over 67 square feet of cargo volume. Lift up the carpet, take out the plastic cargo panel, and use it as a small picnic table thanks to its folding legs.
Good looks, versatility, Honda reliability, and a relatively low price. The hardest part is thinking of a reason NOT to buy one.
For more information contact 1-800-33-HONDA ext. 737
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Five-Door Sport-Utility Vehicle
Engine: 146-horsepower, 2.0-liter inline-4
Transmission: Five-speed Manual
EPA Mileage: 22 city/25 highway
Tested Price: $20,865
Very nice cars and a good review. I’m surprised you didn’t mention how wound out the 5spds are on the highway.
I miss how utilitarian and handsome these Gen 1 cars are inside and out. The newer CRVs do absolutely nothing for me, even though in terms of daily driving performance they blow these gen 1s out of the water.
Thanks! I probably didn’t mention it because I don’t think I’ve ever driven or ridden in a small Honda that didn’t have a short top gear.
It is sad that the current CR-V combines a small displacement turbocharged engine with a belt-variator CVT, because these were about the toughest cars you could buy up until 2014. The Civic and the CR-V used to own the top of Consumer Reports’ list of cars likely to make it to 200,000 miles, and I’ve seen evidence they belonged there.
I had a friend who is rather self-defeating. She’s got a PHD in a profession where she should make six figures for getting out of bed, but she ‘makes bad choices,’ although addiction and insanity could be other explanations. When I came back to the east from California a few years ago, she had ruined her life for the second time that I know of. Fortunately, having such a valuable degree in such an in-demand field, she had an opportunity to get back on track. She also had no money and no car. I had the best possible connection for that sort of situation, running a reputable shop that found-money types often give cars to when they need an expensive repair. I could have gotten her a 200,000 mile Civic for the price of a timing belt service.
Before her abusive professional athlete/drug addict ex-boyfriend ruined her financially, she had been driving a newish CR-V that she loved. She wanted another CR-V or similar, wasn’t going to settle for a Civic. I didn’t happen to have a CR-V or similar available to me for the cost of a bar-tab, so I had to look places like Craigslist. The least terrifying one I could find was a 220,000 mile, no known history, 1999 red AWD automatic in the hills of central Virginia. I went to look at it prepared to be robbed. It checked out well enough for the teens of hundreds of dollars that it cost, and I helped her buy it. I wasn’t worried about ever getting the money back, and I was happy to help her in the hope that she could start her new life in a new town without debt and with a car that could take her to work for up to a year while she saved money to buy a new or newer car.
That was 2017. She still has the 1999 CR-V, although she doesn’t have the high-paying job or what was her new place to live. It was pretty beat when I last saw it a few months ago, but it takes her all over the three cities where she leads her frantic existence. I helped her get it inspected earlier this year, but I’m done. She’s even taken loans against the car that I helped her buy without ever asking a follow up to her reassurances that she’d pay me back. Too bad little blond sorority girls aren’t as reliable as CR-Vs as they age.
I totaled a 1998 LX. Then bought a 2000 LX. I logged 200,000 miles on the 2000 and wish I could have gotten more. (Never changed the timing belt.). All in all I drove CRV’s for 12 years. The rear axle/differential was the only thing that kept giving me problems. Loved that vehicle. Didn’t baby it, but loved it in a sense that it would take anything I threw at it. Never got stuck in the snow. Beat it to death. Could drive it with my eyes closed.
Curious what vehicle replaced your last CR-V. What replaced it, and why?
My dad had a ’01 CR-V for many years. It is the car on which I finally learned to drive a manual, and in spite of that, the little crossover still made it to at least 320K miles before he traded it in a few years ago for…a new CR-V. Your comments in the review are pretty much as I remember.
“Even if you could, would you?” Not long after my Dad purchased the ’01 CR-V, he foolishly let my brother and I borrow it to go hike up Snowmass Peak, which in order to do the climb in one day involves a drive up the road to Crystal, Colorado…not a CUV-friendly road. Travelers of this road are warned by multiple smashed trucks sitting at the bottom of the ravine below the road. We expected to have to tell him upon return, “you know how you had a CR-V?” But the CR-V survived this and many other trips, and still ran fine when it was traded in.
I remember a family friend of ours buying a brand-new one of these 1st-gen CR-Vs. It might have been a 1998 or a 1999. It was around the same time my mother bought her 1990 Honda Accord EX. These two cars were really my first exposure to Japanese cars, as my family had, up to that point, exclusively purchased Ford and GM cars of varying (but often poor) build quality.
I thought the CR-V was cool. Of course, being so young, I couldn’t explain or understand the nuances of a longitude ladder-frame construction versus a transverse unibody one, but I knew there was something “different” about it. It also makes sense that Honda would be the ones to pioneer an SUV built like that, because that was their bread and butter. Their only ladder-frame, RWD-based SUVs (the Honda Passport and Acura SLX) were outsourced to Isuzu.
My favorite CRV. There’s still a very significant number of them around here.
How is it possible that Pontiac and Buick saw this and still went ahead and green-lit the Aztec and Rendezvous?
All they had to do was “borrow” the Isuzu Axiom and add Buick/Chevy/GMC badges.
Wasn’t the Axiom still a truck-based SUV?
Yes it was. It was based on the Rodeo but designed to look like a crossover.
It was another case of the “We know what buyers really want” syndrome that produced the Lumina APV and its badge-engineered brothers, to site one of many examples.
I bought a 2000 CR-V new and drove it daily for over 18 years. To date, it’s the best car I have ever owned. We sold it when we bought my wife’s new 2018 CR-V and I inherited her 2009 CR-V.
I searched out and bought a 2001 (last year of Gen1) last year.
Amazing car.
There’s a baby blue FWD version parked at the building next to mine. Only one in that color I recall seeing.
IIRC, these had a low-compression (8.0:1) engine that responded well to forced induction. There was an aftermarket supercharger for these according to my memory.
Other than that, they were well designed and built for the market they were aiming for.
I have a 2006 (second-gen) CR-V with a five-speed manual. My wife will not part with it until the engine explodes and the bumpers fall off. It’s got 130K on the clock; I expect my daughter (who is 12) will get this for her first car.
I am on my second 1999 CRV the first was at 289,000 miles and ran beautifully – problem was the underside was too rusted due to Ohio weather that no one would replace my brake lines when they went. Found a second one with 189,000 miles and it is the same color and runs perfect! I love this car!!!