Two dogs, a Honda CRV and empty country roads

As a child I had always been fascinated with cars — I blame that on my late dad, who loved cars.  In the house where we used to live, the wall in the hallway had built-in shelves where my dad displayed the scale model cars he loved and one day wished he would own.  So, from the day I was born until I was in my mid-20s, it was these cars that greeted me as I opened the door of my room each morning.

My father died in 1995. The following year I got my first job offer at a newspaper; I was 33 years old at the time. The job offered was to write about cars.  It was a happy and sad time for me, happy because I knew my dad would approve and sad because he would never see what I had gotten into. And we would never have the lengthy conversations we did about which car was the best at the moment and which cars we would like to own.

This explains my love for cars, SUVs, APVs, and test drives. There is nothing more thrilling for me than sitting behind the wheel and taking a long journey to wherever.  The length of the journey is the reward — the destination, always a bonus.

So, when I got the opportunity to test drive the 2014 Honda CR-V recently, I wasted no time in scouring for the best destination. 

“Let’s take this trip to Pangasinan,” I whispered to Vodka the Bichon and Yuri the Schnoodle. I was up to bringing the two doggies with me because I know Yuri loves car rides as much as Vodka does.

It was early Saturday morning, 2.30 a.m. to be exact, that I finally made the decision about the road trip.  As soon as we were all settled in the 2014 Honda CR-V, I made sure that both Vodka and Yuri were seated well and comfortably.  For a four-hour drive, comfort comes first.

Let the drive begin

The CR-V’s powerful 2.4-liter engine seemed to be having an easy time as I maneuvered the CR-V from Pasig out to the NLEX. 

Once I hit the NLEX it was green and go as traffic was light and I loved the freedom. Because it was almost 3 a.m., the trucks seemed to be headed into Manila.

The Honda CR-V is really a comfortable runabout vehicle. A four-door, five-passenger crossover, the Honda CR-V comes with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and five-speed automatic transmission.

I was recently told that the 2014 Honda CR-V is the fourth generation of Honda’s popular and widely acclaimed compact SUV.

It comes loaded with technology, including Bluetooth-enabled hands-free phone capability and streaming audio. The rearview camera has a multi-angle system that lets the driver choose between a top view and either a 130-degree or a 180-degree view.

There’s a lot of power under the hood for this baby. The CR-V’s 2.4-liter engine delivers 185 horsepower and 163 pound-feet of torque.

Convenience features include hill-start assist, which applies the brakes when the car is stopped on an incline and releases them when the driver touches the accelerator. The clutch that sends power to the rear wheels on the AWD models has a pre-load function that prevents any initial slippage when moving off from a stop.

Even as the CR-V muscles its way through the roads, inside it is all about comfort and relaxation.  The pleasantly styled panels and trim pieces complement each other and show a consistent theme. The screen on the navigation system is large and easy to read. 

Safety features include electronic stability control, Brake Assist, side-curtain airbags with rollover sensing, and front-side airbags. The multi-angle rearview camera displays its image on the intelligent Multi-Information Display, or on the navigation system’s screen.

Seats are comfortable, with adequate thigh support. The door armrests are padded. Door-mounted map pockets are molded to hold a beverage can or water bottle.

The center console extends forward all the way under the pod holding the shift lever, creating usable storage space in the form of a long, deep, covered storage bin, which can conceal a medium-sized handbag or other valuables. Small trays are tucked into each side of the lower part of that extended console. The lower portion of the dashboard curves outward from the shift lever pod in graceful arcs toward the doors, which themselves repeat the arc cues.

On each side of the large circular speedometer that dominates the instrument cluster is a thin light strip that glows green to signal when the engine is optimizing fuel economy. It’s attractive, and adds color to what can sometimes be a boring speedometer. Mostly intuitive knobs, buttons and rocker switches on the dash and steering wheel manage audio and climate-control functions. 

Ride quality is well controlled from the driver’s seat I hardly noticed the bumps on the pavement even at speeds that activated the electronic stability control system. Honda credits this, in part, to its Motion-Adaptive Electric Power Steering, a system shared with the Honda Civic. This system complements the electronic stability control by helping stabilize the CR-V during heavy braking.  An Econ mode, which drivers can select by pressing a green button emblazoned with a leaf, imposes a more restrained shift pattern on the transmission and a less aggressive acceleration mode. 

Because the drive is so smooth inside the CR-V I almost didn’t notice that we had been on the road for four hours and were closing in on Dagupan.

By the time we reached Dagupan the sun had started to rise. Vodka and Yuri were slowly opening their eyes and I looked out for a place we could stop for a break.  One of my favorite times of the day is sunrise.

Somehow the signal of a new day always brings a smile to my lips and an extra happy beat to my heart.

I parked the CR-V in a spacious parking area and let Vodka and Yuri join me as I stretched my legs.

I got off and admired this machine of beauty — and everything seemed right with the world.