And we’re off with another test drive. This time it’s with the stylish and very urban-looking Honda CR-V Touring.

The Specs:

• Model: Honda CR-V
• MSRP: From CAN$39,090
• Towing capacity: 680 kg
• Fuel economy: 8 L/100 km combined (8.7 city, 7.2 highway)
• Engine: 1.5 L 4-cylinder
• Horsepower: 190 hp
• Payload: 513 kg

First impressions

It looks sophisticated and spacious, but without the “I’m huge, you’d better move” feeling of larger SUVs or a working truck.

The inside is nicely laid out and has touches of walnut and plenty of display area for both the electronic dash behind the steering wheel and on the entertainment panel.

The outside looks solid and is more angular than the Honda Pilot I drove earlier in the year. I think this gives it much more of a go-getting vehicle feel rather than a family adventure-mobile. While this is totally suitable for weekend trips, it feels like it’s ready for everyday life from taking the kids to school or driving around some professional colleagues. You know, like on the TV ads where they all get in and seem surprised and start touching the upholstery. It’s that kind of car.

Driving Feel

It’s smooth and the driving position is nice and high off the road. It’s awesome to be able to see over the car in front and know what’s coming or who’s just slammed on the breaks ahead.

The Eco-Mode makes city driving more economical though you can feel the resistance when trying to accelerate around someone taking their sweet time, cruising at 20 kph under the limit.

It hugged the road and had no trouble at all going up and over the Coquihalla on the way to Merrit, BC. The driver’s seat is comfortable as expected and, very importantly there are plenty of cup holders for the many coffees (and DQ stops for a Blizzard or two) it takes to get there.

Can you take it camping?

The ultimate test here in BC is if the vehicle can hold all your camping gear, extra clothes, and the buckets of every type of plastic toy the kids might just play with for five minutes so you can sit down between putting up the tent and carrying eight towels and a broken sun umbrella down to the campsite beach.

Let’s start by loading it up. Oh, and if bringing one child camping wasn’t hard enough, we’re bringing her cousin who comes with even more toys. Fortunately, we managed to negotiate her out of bringing an entire princess castle dollhouse but we still have an entire suitcase of LOL Dolls and all their tiny accoutrements.

It’s a four-five hour journey to the campsite, so we needed to bring plenty of entertainment and sadly they’re not happy listening to the Comedy Central channel on the in-car Sirius Radio like I am, so I connected the audio to my phone’s Spotify account and we listened to Disney Princess songs and the Mamma Mia soundtrack AGAIN. Stupidly, I pre-downloaded the tracks so even going through the mountains couldn’t stop Dancing Queen playing through the excellent speakers over and over and over.

The Touring model has 1065 cubic litres of luggage space with the seats up and 2146 with them down. Here’s a photo to show you what I mean:

To be honest, I felt like the Pilot was more suitable for long trips or for people who just love to over-pack. The CR-V was a struggle for 4 people’s camping gear, food, clothes, and toys. This was a very comfortable drive but the kids in the back were surrounded by their blankets and toys.

As an everyday vehicle that can also cope with taking your family on trips, it’s great. However, I would prefer more space so it really shines when you need to bring more things with you. I guess the CR-V Touring leans more to the city/suburban commute and regular family life. The Passport is also a great option as an in between option. It’s bigger than the CR-V but not as bulky as the Pilot. I haven’t driven it yet so can’t give more info, but from the looks of the one in my local dealership, it looks like it might provide a great balance.

When I drive this around town I feel like a success. It feels like I’ve just been given a promotion and I’m showing off a bit. Not enough to be ostentatious but enough to answer every compliment with “oh this, yeah it was a little gift to myself” as if I’m not secretly in love with it and haven’t just changed my phone wallpaper to a selfie of me and Bob. Bob the car. That’s fine, right?

Disclaimer: Honda Canada kindly let me loan the CR-V Touring for an honest review. All the words are my own. As if they’d pay me to write about how I named it Bob. Now I have to give Bob back to them and I’m a bit sad. Bye, Bob.