The Honda CR-V defines its class and has been the top-selling vehicle to private owners in this important family vehicle segment for the past quarter of a century. For the 2023 model year, Honda’s CR-V enters its sixth generation. Notable changes in 2023 include an all-new infotainment system, a new 4th-generation hybrid powertrain we think is segment-best, and a bold new look with an elongated hood to give the CR-V a more wagon-like appearance. Honda has also started to refer to the CR-V as “Midsized,” which is absolutely right.

Honda’s CR-V has always been a Car Talk favorite, but for the new model year, it clearly sets the bar for its segment. The hybrid powertrain is very important for this new model year. Honda plans to build fully half of its CR-Vs as hybrids going into this new generation, and based on our testing, the hybrid will be the powertrain best suited to most shoppers’ needs.

The CR-V has been one of the largest crossover SUVs in its segment for many years, and in 2023 that remains the case. Cargo volume is expansive and easy to put to good use. The interior is less Spartan than in past generations. We found the infotainment system in our 2023 Hybrid Sport to be the single best system we have tested this year. It is as good as it gets in terms of usability, reliability, and ease of use.

With all of the factual objective aspects of the CR-V set aside, this is a vehicle we found to be extremely satisfying to drive. Its refinement and smooth, silent operation sets it apart from its peers, most notably the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Honda has created a vehicle with no plug that feels like an EV when driven, with an outstanding low cost per mile for energy.

If you are reading this review hoping to confirm your purchase decision to get a 2023 CR-V, we won’t hold you up - Go buy one; just be sure you try one of the two trims.

Honda is being a little cheeky by calling its top trim the “Hybrid Sport Touring.” We drove it. We loved it. We didn’t find it very sporty. If you really do want a sporty crossover in this segment under $40K, the Mazda CX-5 Turbo is the one to try. It offers meaningfully more torque, handling you will enjoy on twisty back roads, and it is also a very stylish and handsome vehicle. The CX-5 turbo is the one to check out if you truly want a sporty crossover.

Toyota’s RAV4 Hybrid trim outsells most brands' full line of crossovers of this size. The RAV4 Hybrid offers better fuel economy than the Honda CR-V Hybrid, and if you want a spare tire, every RAV4 has one, and every Honda CR-V Hybrid lacks one. Toyota will also sell you a RAV4 Hybrid Woodland Edition with all-terrain tires. There are a couple of downsides to the RAV4 Hybrid. First, you hear the gas engine way too much. It doesn't feel as refined as the Honda. Second, when we tested a Toyota with the new infotainment system recently, it showed us an advertisement for its built-in nav system when we started it. Who the heck wants built-in nav in the age of free Google Maps? And an advert on your infotainment screen? Puh-leese.

If you plan to go off pavement in your crossover SUV, or if you plan to drive in wicked wintah weathah, Subaru has gone completely bonkers with its Forester Wilderness. You can get one with 9.3” of ground clearance, all-terrain winter-rated tires, skid plates, recovery points, 4-off-road and snow modes, a full-size spare, and much, much more right from the factory. We’ve tested it in all of its targeted driving scenarios, and the only off-roady-ish crossover SUV that can rival it is the Ford Bronco Sport Badlands.

We wish to point out that Kia, Hyundai, Ford, Toyota, and Mitsubishi all offer plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) versions of their models that compete with the Honda CR-V Hybrid. Honda doesn’t offer any plug-in hybrids or battery-electric vehicles in America.

Honda’s CR-V 2WD LX starts at $29,705, including Honda’s Destination and Delivery fee, but not including dealer documentation fees, dealer-added content, or dealer market price adjustments. At this price, you get the turbocharged engine and front-wheel drive. The top-trim non-hybrid EX-L AWD with the driver assist package, and AWD has a sticker price of $37,055. We tested a fully-equipped Hybrid AWD Sport Touring trim with a sticker price of $39,845. We feel the vehicle is a steal at this price. As you likely know from the news on your TikTok feed, “$40K is the new $30K.”

Honda’s CR-V enters its new generation, having built up a great reputation. There is nothing small about the new CR-V. It has the same interior volume as any midsize sedan and triple the cargo capacity of one. We are hoping the automotive media and rating agencies will drop the “compact” moniker for this segment now since using it in 2023 is truly ridiculous.

The look is great to our eyes and is a departure from the “egg-shaped” CR-Vs we have seen in the past couple of generations. The long hood and the new grill make the CR-V look tougher and more wagon-like. It sure looks like a “real” SUV now.

The infotainment system is perfected for 2023. Yes, there is a volume knob. Yes, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are wireless, and yes, they worked seamlessly in our testing. Better yet, Honda kept the HVAC controls as buttons and knobs, which is the best way to operate this set of controls. We are not joking when we say this is the very best system in the industry today.

Although there was a CR-V Hybrid for a couple of years in the last generation, Honda didn’t seem to have focused on it the way they are in 2023. Two of the five trim steps for 2023 are Hybrids, with the Sport Touring Hybrid now the ruler of the roost. Honda’s powertrains mostly carry over from the prior generation but have been tweaked and poked to be just a smidge better.

The interior now follows the new generation Honda theme, and we feel it works well for the CR-V. It is luxurious but leaves room for the Acura RDX to be a skosh better. The seats are leather, and the steering wheel is heated on the very top trim. Honda still uses a moonroof design, which we like a lot more than a silly massive glass panel on an SUV.

The new top-trim 2023 CR-V Hybrid Sport Touring we tested knocked our socks off. Not because its 0-60 MPH time is the quickest, or because it “handles like it’s on rails,” or that sort of imaginary stuff the folks at Road and Driver like to spout off about. Rather, it just felt fantastic in normal everyday use.

What you notice most is the smooth, refined way the CR-V goes about its business. The newly updated 4th-gen hybrid powertrain acts like an EV, feels like an EV, and offers a cost per mile for energy competitive with EVs in many parts of America. The secret is simple; Honda’s CR-V Hybrid is almost always operating as an EV. Meaning it is not using its gas engine to directly turn the wheels. Instead, the wheels are being driven by electric motors. Only in limited highway situations is the gas engine directly helping to propel the CR-V.

You may want to sit down for this next statement - The CR-V Hybrid doesn’t have a transmission. No CVT. No gears. No DSG. Instead, it relies on the electric motors to move the vehicle along. So your sensations behind the wheel are almost the same as if you are driving a Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Kona EV, or any other battery-electric vehicle. If you love the way EVs drive, and who doesn’t, but don’t want the high cost and charging hassles, this is your vehicle.

When you drive the Hybrid like a grown up, the engine barely runs, and its operation is so quiet you figure it is too good to be true. It’s not. Honda added a secondary balancer to the engine’s crankshaft to reduce vibration. A Honda-first urethane engine cover is fitted as soundproofing. Next, Honda applied new lightweight fiber-foam insulators to the engine in three places which are designed to dampen vibration. The result is a much quieter and more peaceful ride overall.

So how does the new CR-V get up and go? Quite well. Off the line, the 247 lb-ft of torque feels great. You will never feel like you need more passing power or more power to merge onto a crowded highway. Give the CR-V Hybrid the boot, and it gets the job done. We have driven past CR-Vs with the 1.5-liter turbocharged gas engine and CVT. It’s also great. Having tried both, we’d get the hybrid, hands down.

Handling is good for the segment. The new CR-V, and also the outgoing one for that matter, never feels tippy. It handles like a good crossover should. Is it a canyon carver? Not really. If you want that, Honda and Acura have a long list of great vehicles. Brakes feel totally normal with no noticeable weirdness as the electric motors recapture braking energy.

As much as we are trying to tell you how great the CR-V feels to drive, we also have to report that adult passengers we had in the vehicle also commented on the smooth, quiet ride. It’s that good.

The 2023 Honda CR-V has been fully tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and earned the highest possible score, Top Safety Pick Plus. The CR-V was tested using the new, tougher side impact crash test protocol and scored Good.

During our week with the CR-V, we found the driver-assist technology to be outstanding, including the lane-centering and lane-keeping aspects of the adaptive cruise control. We didn’t experience any false positives for the collision prevention system. Some safety features are not standard and are instead part of packages.

We’d give you the NHTSA safety ratings, but the government agency that tests vehicles hasn’t found time to test the top-selling automobile in the largest segment in the United States yet. We’re sure they will get around to it eventually.

In its 2023 Durability Study, J.D. Power ranks Honda mid-pack as a brand. Honda finished above Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Audi. For the new 2023 generation, Consumer Reports predicts a ⅘ reliability rating for the CR-V. This is the seven-year average for the model. All of these ratings are based on owner-reported data.

When Honda first switched to the new small turbo engine, some owners reported engine oil dilution with gasoline. The problem seems to have occurred mostly for just a model year or two. We looked back over the past three years and found very little evidence the problem is widespread in newer model years.

At the risk of overstating an important opinion, let us say that we feel the hybrid trims of the CR-V are the way to go. We also feel that AWD makes sense in any SUV. That adds $1,500 to the price. Since we prefer cloth seats to leather, the CR-V Sport Hybrid would be a pick we would favor. We would opt in for the safety package, which adds blind spot monitoring and cross-traffic alert. It is priced at $550. A CR-V equipped this way ends up with a sticker price of $35,745. One plus of this trim is that it has 18-inch wheels instead of the larger 19-inch, with lower-profile tires. Higher-profile tires on smaller rims are better in the real world. Following our purchase, we would find a compact spare tire that fits the CR-V and strap it into our cargo area. If you opt for a turbo version of the CR-V, you get the spare included with the vehicle from Honda.

Honda offers one of the shortest warranties in the auto industry. Its new car warranty has a duration of 3 years or 36,000 miles, and the powertrain warranty is 5 years or 60,000 miles. Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, and all of the premium brands have warranties we feel are better. Honda recently began adding two years of included maintenance in its purchase price.

Car Complaints owner-reported problem data concerns us. Engine issues reported by owners of the 2015 and 2017 model year CR-Vs earned the model a “Beware of the clunker” stamp at that site. The security of a powertrain warranty seems like a smart bet with the CR-V. There was a driveshaft recall for the CR-V hybrid in 2021. If you opt to buy a used CR-V, ensure any recall work has been completed and check prior maintenance visit receipts for any mention of oil dilution. Buying a Certified Pre-Owned CR-V or adding a Honda-banded extended warranty would add some security.

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