New Car Preview: 2023 Honda CR-V

The Honda CR-V remains to be one of the most successful compact crossovers around since its conception in 1995 only to be outdone by the Toyota RAV4 in sales. Keeping the momentum going, Honda redesigns the CR-V for the 2023 model year and the 6th generation brings us a bigger and more refined vehicle that still fits the proper mold for exactly what the masses want in a mainstream compact crossover.

Borrowing some of what we’ve seen in the new award-winning Honda Civic, the new 2023 CR-V gets the new design language of the brand that follows much of its larger siblings in the Passport and Pilot SUVs. The new 2023 CR-V has more of a sporty appeal now with the 2-motor hybrid setup simply being two Sport trim levels instead of a separate model.

Apart from the looks, the new Honda CR-V gets a new level of refinement and many welcomed updates that come from the new Civic on the inside starting with a standard 7-inch touchscreen and a larger 9-inch unit found in the upper EX-L and Sport Touring trims. There are new seats that tout the ability to help prevent fatigue on long drives and new digital instrumentation that departs from analog gauges on all trim levels.

There’s a bit more space to work with in the 2023 Honda CR-V thanks to a 1.6-inch longer wheelbase and a half-inch more width. The cargo area is increased, too, now having 36 cubic feet with the rear seats up and 76.5 cubic feet when you fold them flat. The extra cargo space is welcomed especially with the tow rating for the hybrid powertrain limited to 1,000 pounds.

Honda revised the suspension and steering and offers the same 190 horsepower and 179 lb-ft of torque 1.5-liter turbocharged engine mated to a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). Now, the hybrid CR-V is the performance version of the vehicle found in the Sport and Sport Touring trims with a hybrid setup good for 204 horsepower and 247 lb-ft of torque.

There’s a bevy of active safety features, as expected, in the new CR-V including a new Honda Sensing suite where Blind spot information is now standard across the board and a new forward camera gets a 90-degree field of view. The latest radar for adaptive cruise and forward collision/monitoring now gets a 120-degree field of view for better detection and recognition of objects, and along with the new camera, the system improves upon detection of vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, road signs, and curbs. There’s also a driver attention monitor, rear seat reminder, and rear seatbelt reminder.

2023 CR-V Key Specifications and Features

The ground-up redesign of the new 2023 Honda CR-V will surely win over return buyers and a slew of newcomers to the brand. The new Honda CR-V is set to arrive in showrooms this summer with the Sport and Sport Touring hybrid trims to arrive just after, but before the end of 2022 with pricing expected to be not much more than the outgoing model.