Four-wheel drive for the masses

Look at the ads, well, at least the local ads, and you’ll know it’s not about conquering the Rubicon or terrorizing the local trails. It’s not about finding your own road or about getting chicks who get turned on by four-wheeled sex machines. Heck, no. It’s about being comfortable. You know, get in, play some tunes, and then wonder a few days later where exactly you went because your brain tuned off the moment you put it in Drive. That sort of thing. Exciting? No. But does it do the job? Yes, and it’s easy to understand why the car-based CR-V is one of the most popular SUVs ever.

Now in its second generation, the CR-V continues to offer an unpretentious package of on-road comfort and utility, and a little off-road capability as well. While the RAV4, Subaru Forester, and Mitsubishi Outlander have full-time all-wheel drivetrains (all four wheels are constantly being torqued by the engine), the CR-V’s system is more like an automatic, part-time arrangement. In normal driving — the kind where you plan your working day, suffer self-indulgent DJs, and fire off text messages at the same time — the CR-V is as front-wheel drive as the Civic. Hit a set of curves and it’s still a front-wheel drive vehicle. Head for the trails and it’s still a front-wheel drive vehicle. That is, until the front wheels aren’t up to the task of pulling you anymore, which is when the Realtime system finally reports for work. Quoting from the brochure, "If either of the front wheels begins to lose traction, oil pressure causes [a] multi-plate clutch to mesh and transit torque to the rear wheels".

It’s simple, automatic, mindless, four-wheel driving for the great majority of drivers who will spend but a few hours of total off-road time in all their years of owning an SUV. In those few moments of four-wheel driving, Realtime is a transparent system that needs no button-pushing, lever-pulling, or manual-reading on the part of the driver. And it’s not lost on manufacturers that there’s quite a market for two-wheel drive SUVs either, populated by folks who realistically foresee that they’ll never need four-wheel drive. But this Realtime is for that "just-in-case" factor. Like an insurance policy, you just forget about it. If you ever need it, it’ll do the job and (hopefully) get you out of a jam.

A 5-seater, 4x2 CR-V with the automatic transmission is currently P1.009M (1.049 by next month). How many people, we wonder, would spend an additional P209,000 for this "insurance policy"? The additional investment, of course, buys you extra goodies such as leather upholstery, ABS, foglamps, and "4x4" stickers that set you apart from the more frugal 4x2 buyer.

To be totally honest with you, the only off-road adventure we did with the 4x4 during its weeklong stay with me was to drive it onto a dirt parking lot nearest to the Gonuts Donuts. There it sat alongside numerous other CR-Vs, the owners of which were in queue with me for several dozen Amazing Glazes. Barring the occasional unpaved road in the countryside, I suspect CR-V people hardly ever go where there are no boundaries, where there is no need to shift the future. Just to say that I did use the Realtime, I floored the gas on the dirt. Minor torque steer ensued until the system kicked in and all was well once again.

It is in this light that the CR-V capitalizes. It’s not so much an off-roader as it is a tall, 5-passenger wagon with some extra traction in its back pocket. For example, the front passenger seat has a fold-down tray that’s big enough to hold a medium-sized pizza — with cupholders for the requisite drinks. Fold it and you can squeeeezzze through and access the rear bench, which is itself a novel design. You can roll it forward, backward, fold down the seatbacks (they’re split 40:60), or flip the split design forward to maximize the cargo space. A high ceiling, wide girth, and fairly vertical walls ensure that balikbayan boxes, golf bags, bikes, hairy Hobbits, and big dogs will all fit with a minimum of fuss and head-scratching. It’s a matter of function prevailing over form. What the CR-V lacks in sexy curves compared to the RAV4 or Outlander, it makes up for in space-efficiency.

That said, it wouldn’t hurt at all to have a little chutzpah inside. Cockpit ergonomics and convenience are prioritized to the point that it’s quite a cheerless cabin. You’ve got cupholders, trays, shelves, and pockets everywhere, but not a trace of emotion in the dashboard curves, contours, and textures. The column-mounted shifter and dashboard-integrated handbrake are clever space-savers, but even ASIMO — Honda’s poster-boy robot — might wish for a less somber cabin. But let’s all thank the good Lord for the absence of fake wood. ASIMO would, however, propose marriage to the flashy 2-DIN Pioneer stereo, its umpteen million and one functions, and cryptic menus.

If you like to drive, weenie complaints about interior design are forgotten the moment you bury the gas pedal. True to its heritage, the 150-horsepower i-VTEC motor pulls the CR-V from point to point with gusto. It’s a vroom-vroomy nature that makes quick work of stoplight drag races and Skyway fly-bys, accompanied by a growling engine note. The column-mounted shifter discourages manual shifting and it’s a little too close to the wiper stalk, which means you’ll inadvertently hit the wipers when you meant to tap the Overdrive button on the shifter. Well, everybody likes having a clean windshield anyway.

The ride is somewhere between the zippy, slightly choppy nature of the RAV4 and the supple smoothness of the Outlander. The steering feels a little coarse, but it tracks straight even at high speed. Like, ohhh, 170 kph. Brake feel is also excellent. The view out is also great, yet another factor that makes the CR-V a fast, confidence-inspiring drive. The CR-V is the Mr. Goody Two-shoes of small SUVs. It’s fast, it’s competent, and it does everything important rather well. It doesn’t have sex appeal, but it’s a well-built machine that never puts a foot wrong — and we guess that’s good enough for a lot of people.