FACED with a massive drop in patronage last year, Honda wasn’t about to relinquish its healthy share of the compact SUV segment, so in comes a revised CR-V from Thailand, brandishing a minor facelift, improved refinement, more features and a $2000 price cut. But while many of the family-friendly features of the 2007 to 2009 model carryover unchanged, the class where the Honda operates in has moved on considerably, with both familiar and new names coming in to claim a stake in this ever-buoyant end of the market. It is against these, then, that we assess the 2010 CR-V Luxury flagship.

CR-V RE Series 1
Released: February 2007
Ended: January 2010
Family Tree: CR-VA MASSIVE improvement over the rather coarse second-generation CR-V, the RE series abolished the 4x4-like side-opening tailgate and exposed spare wheel for a roomier and more refined wagon body with five adequate seats, more safety and improved driveability. Now made in Thailand rather than in Japan, three models were offered in Standard, Sport and Luxury guises. All were powered by a 125kW/218Nm, 2.4-litre, twin-cam, i-VTEC four-cylinder petrol engine, driving the front wheels (unless slippage was detected whereby torque was sent to the rear ones using Honda’s Real Time 4WD system) via a six-speed manual gearbox or a five-speed automatic. Sales were strong initially, but the CR-V was soon joined by newer-gen compact SUVs such as the Nissan X-Trail Mk2, Subaru G3 Forester and the Volkswagen Tiguan.
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