2024 Honda CR-V Sport Hybrid

Test Drive Notes Library

Pros
Does everything well. It’s hard to find fault with the 2024 CR-V hybrid. No, literally. We have an entire section below dedicated to “Dislikes," and we’re having a tough time finding anything of significance to put in it. Room, comfort, fuel economy, handling, acceleration, ergonomics, quality, reliability, even styling go into the “Likes” list. Honda didn’t leave many nits for us to pick.
Drives really well. The CR-V strikes an excellent balance between comfort and very good handling. The CR-V just feels solid on the road. It feels well-made and substantial. The ride is not luxurious, but it’s really quite comfortable. Handling is secure and agile, and even surprisingly sporty and flat in corners for a mid market crossover. The Honda engineers did a great job with the suspension.
Fuel economy. We saw 35.8 mpg overall, with no real effort to economize. At the same time, the hybrid powertrain was largely unnoticeable in day to day driving, switching in the background between the 2.0L four cylinder gasoline engine and battery power, producing a combined 204 hp. It’s hard to understand why you would get the non-hybrid version of the CR-V. The car features three driving modes, Economy, Normal, and Sport. Economy made acceleration a tad more gentle, but didn’t feel like a sacrifice to us. Normal was a good operating mode all around. And Sport made the CR-V feel downright quick.
Interior. There’s a “well thought out” vibe inside the CR-V. Interestingly, that actually feels like a luxury feature. The controls are where you need them, there's no whiz-bang confusing shifter or capacitive touch switches. It’s made for normal humans to use easily. Honda sensibly maintained individual, physical controls for climate settings. Good sized knobs let you set the dual temperature controls, and other, equally easy switches are right in front of you at all times for all other climate functions. The modest sized (in 2024) screen is mostly for entertainment, and features wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s not cluttered inside. If you enjoy good engineering and well thought out design, you’ll feel pleasantly smug in your CR-V.
Comfort. Honda has been selling the CR-V for going on three decades now. And once or twice a decade, they make it better. They’ve never changed its essence. No need. But they just keep making improvements. One notable improvement in this latest redesign is that the CR-V is far more comfortable. Where you once got a pretty stiff, economy car ride, now the ride is very comfortable, substantial, and settled. There’s a solidity that wasn’t there even a few years ago. It’s like they moved it up a grade on the luxury ladder.
Good driving position. Upright, high enough to offer some visibility, but not high enough to be hard to enter or exit the vehicle. The mostly upright windows provide what counts as good visibility in 2024, making the CR-V a comfortable, safe feeling car to drive.
Practical. The essence of the CR-V has always been practicality. It’s always been a vehicle that does a lot of things well, and serves many purposes. That hasn’t changed. There’s good interior room, rear seatbacks still adjust fore and aft (letting you decide whether you want more recline, or you want to cede that extra luxury to the dog in the cargo area). It seats four in comfort, and five when necessary. It’s all wheel drive for inclement weather or a trip to the trail head. And it gets 36 miles to the gallon, and sells for less than $40,000. What’s it missing?
Looks. The CR-V has never been a looker. It, let’s say, advertised its practicality. It’s always been a sensible shoe. We think Honda has taken it up a notch in the current edition. It’s not that it attracts attention or is flashy. They’ve simply designed the remaining awkwardness out of it. We like the design. It looks clean, handsome, and upscale to us.

Cons
OK, the one nit we can pick is that the interior is not quite as quiet as some of its competitors. But it’s still better than older CR-Vs. When the hybrid system runs the gasoline engine for short periods, such as when you start up the car, or stop at a traffic light, it’s noticeable. But like we said, we had to look for something to complain about. The truth is we applaud this vehicle, and when you add all its attributes to Honda’s reputation for reliability, we have no reason to think you’d have any complaints if you bought it either.