Review of Quintessential CR-V

 

Honda debuts its quintessential CR-V starting Rs 19.95 lakh 

The vehicle will have two variants powered by 2 litre and 2.4 litre petrol engines priced between Rs 19.95 lakh and Rs 23.85 lakh.

 It once ruled the Indian sporty utility market, but being pushed into oblivion by its sprightlier diesel rivals, Honda's launch its quintessential CR-V in a new avatar and at Rs 3-lakh cheaper for the Indian customers.

The fourth generation of the CR-V comes at the price band of Rs 19.95 to Rs 23.85 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) against the outgoing model that was available at price range of Rs 22.91 lakh to Rs. 25.15 lakh (website listed) and was imported directly from Japan. The new CR-V will be assembled at Honda's Greater Noida facility in India.

"With the launch of the new CR-V, we have again affirm our commitment to bring the latest from the global Honda portfolio to our customers. Over the past few years Honda has been working on developing new products for the Indian market. Some of these new models will come to the Indian market in the next few years starting with the new CR-V that offers more value to Indian customers," said, Honda Car India President & CEO H Kanayama.

The CR-V still lacks the all important diesel option for India, but Honda aims to compensate it by its aggressive new price that came from lower tax allowed on local manufacturing. The new CR-V is now a shade lower than segment leader Toyota's Fortuner that sells at Rs 21.36 lakh to Rs 22.93 lakh (ex-showroom) in Delhi and is available in diesel fuel option.







Honda however has ruled out any diesel plans for the CR-V. "We have no plans to bring diesel in the Indian variant of the CR-V. The option of diesel available in the overseas markets is a different vehicle from the one launched for the Indian domestic market," Mr Kanayama added.

Honda has sold 13,739 units of the CR-V in India so far, but sales have started decelerating in past few years. From the high of 200 CR-V's sold ever month in India, Honda sold just 216 CR-V for the first 10 months of the fiscal. While many of the late entrants like Toyota sold 12,992 units of Fortuner and Ford sold 1,284 units of Endeavour in the same period.







Honda has retained both the 2.0 and 2.4-litre petrol engines from the outgoing car, but with some minor tweaking to produce more power and deliver higher mileage. The 2.0 litre engine churns out 156PS (higher than the earlier 143PS) and has twin 5-speed auto and a 6-speed manual options and delivers a mileage of 13.7km/litre. While the 2.4 litre engine delivers a higher 190PS (from the 161PS of the outgoing vehicle) and has 5-speed automatic transmission with a fuel efficiency of 12km/litre.