2022 Honda CR-V VTi L All-Wheel Drive Review 

You may not know it, but one of the forebears of the whole SUV market was the Honda CR-V. Released internationally way back in 1995, the CR-V’s rugged capability, comfort, affordability and car-like size and dynamics made way for over 10 million sales to date. Now in its fifth generation (with the sixth generation model having just been revealed), the CR-V is easily the most popular Honda sold worldwide. Are those sales justified? We tested the 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD to find out.

The CR-V really was one of the products to start the whole SUV movement globally and its existence has given birth to many rivals: the Subaru Forester, Hyundai Tucson, Renault Koleos, Nissan X-Trail, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander and Volkswagen Tiguan – only the Kia Sportage and Toyota RAV4 beat it to market, and not by long either. 

Price & Equipment: 7/10

While the CR-V range starts at $35,200 drive away, we tested the second-from-top (in the five-seat range) VTi L AWD, which is priced at $46,000 drive away nationally, under Honda’s new fixed-price agency sales model. Unlike many rivals, the CR-V can also be had with seven seats and the equivalent seven-seat CR-V to the model we tested (the VTi L7) is priced at $49,200 drive away. 

Standard equipment on the VTi L includes 18-inch wheels, automatic halogen headlights with LED daytime running lights, LED tailights, dual-zone climate control, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, leather seating, an an eight-way electric driver’s seat with memory functionality, heated front seats, a 7.0-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, digital radio, an eight-speaker sound system, four USB-A ports, keyless entry and start, a hands-free tailgate, electric-folding mirrors that dip when reversing and a full-size alloy spare wheel. 

Safety kit includes six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning with active lane keep assist, road departure mitigation, adaptive cruise control, a speed limiter, auto high beam, a ‘LaneWatch’ passenger-side blind-spot camera, tyre pressure monitoring, driver attention monitoring, front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera. 

Colour options are all no-cost and include ‘Ignite Red’, ‘Cosmic Blue’, ‘Lunar Silver’, ‘Meteoroid Grey’, ‘Crystal Black, ‘Platinum White Pearlescent’ and our test car’s ‘Brilliant Sporty Blue’. The sole interior trim option for the VTi L is black leather. 

Competitors for the CR-V VTi L include the Mazda CX-5 Touring (around $47,500 drive away), the Hyundai Tucson Elite (around $48,000 drive away) and the Subaru Forester 2.5i Premium (around $48,000 drive away). In this company, the CR-V VTi L looks like reasonably good value for money thanks to its lower pricing than rivals, standard leather upholstery with heated front seats and long list of safety equipment. 

However, rivals have features like automatic wipers, LED headlights and more safety equipment like blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and in the case of the CX-5, auto rear braking and even a heads-up display. Are such features worth an extra $2,000 spend? We think so, and those are features that the whole CR-V range should have, and even more so at the price point of the VTi L.

Performance & Economy: 7/10

Under the bonnet of the 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD is a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that makes 140kW (at 5,600rpm) of power and 240Nm (between 2,000rpm and 5,000rpm) of torque. It’s mated to a CVT automatic transmission as standard, and while two-wheel drive models are available, our test car was all-wheel drive.

The engine itself is a good companion in the CR-V. It’s by no means the quickest car in the world, but it does an admirable job of getting the car up to speed. Having the full 240Nm of torque hitting at just 2,000rpm helps refinement as it doesn’t need to be revved to get up to speed. At higher revs, the engine can be quite noisy – a trait not helped by the transmission – and it doesn’t really offer much engagement by way of fun for keener drivers.

The only available transmission in the CR-V is a CVT automatic, which does its best to keep revs low and fuel consumption at bay. While newer Honda models like the HR-V have a stepped ratio CVT to make them feel more like a regular torque converter transmission, the CR-V does not, and any prod of the throttle flares the revs. But it’s far more predictable and pleasurable to use than the cumbersome dual-clutch automatic transmission in the Hyundai Tucson, though the Tucson’s push button selector is faster to use than the clunky lever in the CR-V. 

Honda claims that the CR-V AWD will use 7.4L/100km on a combined cycle, and we recorded 9.6L/100km in our mixed testing, which isn’t too great, but it could have been worse. The CR-V will happily use 91RON regular unleaded and it has a 57-litre fuel tank. 

Ride & Handling: 8/10

Based on Honda’s ‘CCA’ platform that also underpinned other Honda models like the Civic and Accord, the 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD is what we’d call pleasant to drive. It’s not sporty like a CX-5, but it’s very comfortable, reasonably quiet and for a lot of mid-size SUV buyers, we think it’s well tuned. The urban ride quality is well judged, and the body control is pretty good as well. Some larger bumps can be felt through the cabin, but it’s otherwise quite a comfortable driving experience.

Dynamically, the CR-V doesn’t disappoint with well weighted and surprisingly quick steering, while its all-wheel drive system reacts quickly to slippage. Its road noise levels are pleasingly low as well, and we think it’s a pretty good option for families that go on a lot of road trips. Having said that, while the left-hand blind spot camera is useful in poor weather, we wish it had a full blind-spot monitoring system with rear cross-traffic alert, as well as LED headlights, as the standard halogen units don’t offer the greatest light range. 

Interior & Practicality: 8/10

Without a doubt, the interior of the 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD is one of the most practical cabins in the mid-size SUV segment. There’s plenty of storage space, the back seat is quite spacious, the rear doors open 90-degrees and the boot is low, big and practical. 

While the CR-V’s front cabin does feel a touch dated, the material quality is solid with soft touch materials on the tops of the front doors and dashboard. Our test car was free of rattles and felt very well put together. The quality of the leather was pretty good, while the front seats were comfortable with a good range of electric adjustment for the driver. Visibility is also excellent with large windows all around, as well as large mirrors. 

Centre of the CR-V’s cabin is a 7.0-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio and satellite navigation. It wasn’t a bad system when the current generation CR-V (and last-generation Civic as well) was released, but it feels cumbersome to use now and the screen quality isn’t great – especially against the great infotainment on offer in the new HR-V (which will likely appear in the new CR-V that’s due within a few years). But still, it’s easy to use, and there’s reasonable sound quality from the eight-speaker sound system. 

Storage space in the new CR-V is excellent, with cubbies everywhere, including large door bins, a huge (and configurable) centre armrest box, deep cup holders, a large glovebox and even a handy tray below the gear lever that becomes a wireless charger in the VTi L7 and VTi LX models that sit above the VTi L that we tested.

The rear seat in the CR-V is great. It’s spacious, comfortable and reasonably well featured with big door bins, air vents, a flat floor, a centre arm rest with cup holders, two USB-A charging ports and two map pockets. More importantly, even for six footers, there is vast leg- and headroom on offer, as well as large windows. There’s certainly a lot more room in the back of a CR-V than a CX-5, though it is comparable to the Tucson.

The boot of the CR-V measures 522-litres with the seats up, and a huge 1,717L with the rear seats folded – a full 377L larger than a CX-5. The boot lip is nice and low, so it’s easy to lift luggage into, while the floor is flat as well. There’s some side storage and tabs to pull to lower the rear seats, but the addition of hooks and nets would help the practicality of the space. We also found the hands-free tailgate quite slow to operate. On the plus side, there’s a full-size alloy spare wheel.

Service & Warranty: 9/10

Like other Honda models, the CR-V VTi L AWD has a five-year/unlimited km warranty with five years of roadside assistance. The first five services are priced at just $125 ($625 in total), though the CR-V does have shorter-than-average 10,000km (or once yearly, whichever comes first) service intervals. 

Competitors offer similar five-year/unlimited km warranties with five years of roadside assistance as well (Mazda), or up to five years if serviced at a dealer (Hyundai) or only 12 months (Subaru). No car here has great service intervals either – the CR-V’s 10,000km distance interval is shared with Hyundai and Mazda, while the Subaru can only travel 2,500km more at 12,500km between services. Over the same five year period, the CX-5 2.5L AWD costs $2,037 ($407 per service), the Tucson costs $1,595 ($319 per service) and the Forester costs $2,422.38 ($484.48 per service) to service, making the CR-V’s servicing costs good value for money.

The 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD DiscoverAuto Rating: 7.8/10

If you’re looking for a quiet, comfortable, spacious, practical, reasonably well equipped and safe mid-size SUV, the 2022 Honda CR-V VTi L AWD is certainly a good option. Despite a new model being not too far off, the current CR-V’s core strengths are easy to see in a market dominated by choice. In particular, its practicality shines through – the rear seat and boot are big, while there’s plenty of storage space in the front cabin as well. 

It’s a good all-rounder and while its interior technology is a bit dated, it should have more equipment at this price point and it’s not the most exciting car to drive, it’s still a good option for buyers. We think that it’s easy to see why the CR-V has sold so strongly in its lifetime. So, while it’s not the newest kid on the block, we think it’s still worth consideration if you’re after a mid-size SUV.