Honda produces CR-Vs in the United Kingdom and Japan for worldwide markets, and as of 2007, North American CR-Vs are produced in East Liberty, Ohio. The CR-V is produced for the Chinese market by the Dongfeng Honda Automobile Company, a joint venture with Honda. Starting in fall 2007, North American CR-Vs will also be produced in Jalisco, Mexico in addition to the US, Japan, and Britain due to high demand. Honda executives considered making the CR-V as one of the first vehicles to be produced at Honda's new facility currently under construction in Greensburg, Indiana that will open in fall 2008; however, the facility will initially exclusively produce the Civic, which may free up space in East Liberty for CR-V production from the 2009 model year onward. Elsewhere, the CR-V is Honda's smallest SUV other than the related Element sold in the United States and Canada, and the HR-V sold in Europe. In size, the CR-V slots between the Element and Pilot.
Overview
Introduced in Japan in 1996, the CR-V was Honda's first in-house designed SUV and was originally intended only to be a niche vehicle. Honda was hesitant to market the vehicle since many felt the car did not have potential to sell alongside the Honda Passport and to take over the role of Honda's entry-level SUV. In the United States, it was displayed for the first time at the 1996 Chicago Auto Show. Citing strong sales from the comparable Toyota RAV4 upon its release, the model was then brought stateside in February 1997. Shortly afterwards, CR-V sales outpaced those of the smaller RAV4, and the compact SUV has maintained strong sales and gained accolades ever since.
A redesigned CR-V was launched for the 2007 model year. The redesigned CR-V made its auto show debut at the 2006 Paris Auto Show.
The third generation CR-V is powered by the latest version of Honda's standard K-series 2.4 L 4-cylinder engine, similar variants of which can also be found in the current-generation Honda Accord and Honda Element. A 2.4 L engine upgraded to 166 hp is used in the North American market. A 2.2 L i-CTDI diesel is offered in the European and Asian markets. The European market Honda CR-V offers a new R20A 2.0 L engine, based on the Honda R-series i-VTEC SOHC engine found in the Honda Civic, as opposed to the previous CR-V offering the K20A.
The 2007 CR-V features a rear liftgate, unlike previous models. There is no longer a spare wheel attached to the back door. The new CR-V is lower, wider and shorter than the previous models; the length decrease stems mostly from the fact that the spare wheel no longer adds length to the back of the vehicle. A lowering of the center of gravity is another benefit of the spare wheel being located underneath the rear floor. A feature unique amongst SUVs is the center rear seat pass-through.
Honda is also offering an integrated Navigation option on the EX-L model. The navigation unit is made for Honda by Alpine and includes voice activated control, XM radio, in dash CD player that can play MP3's and WMA's. It also has a 6 Disc CD changer in the center console and a PC Card (PCMCIA) slot in the Nav unit for flash memory MP3 or WMA files. A rear backup camera is also included.
An iPod adapter was to be an available option on US models, but is currently only available as an add-on accessory. Even so, all CR-V models still have the auxiliary audio input jack, which is either on the head unit itself (on the LX and EX) or inside the center console (all versions of the EX-L, with or without navigation).
In the United States, the Honda CR-V is on track to become the number-one selling SUV in the US for 2007, a title previously held for fifteen years (1991-2006) by the Ford Explorer. To meet the extremely high demand, Honda shifted some Civic production from East Liberty, Ohio to Alliston Plant #2 in Canada (where some Pilot, Ridgeline, and Odyssey production was located until production was consolidated at Honda's Lincoln, Alabama facility) to free up space for additional CR-V production. Currently, the East Liberty plant is building 180+ CR-Vs a day for the US and Canadian markets, and additional vehicles for both markets are also being imported from Japan and Mexico. Notably, the Mexican-built CR-Vs are assembled from CKD (complete knock-down) kits made in East Liberty.
