Fourth-Gen CRV Debuts with New Design, Increased Power, Better Economy

Honda has been just premiered the fourth generation CR-V at the LA Auto Show with a little more power, better fuel economy and an evolutionary design change. 

The major change to the CR-V for 2012 is its all new styling. It is clearly based on the design of the previous CR-V and evolving on it. The whole design is more curvaceous than the previous generation and incorporates modern Honda touches like the horizontal grill. 

The CR-V keeps the same 2.4 liter, four-cylinder engine in the previous model, but it has been tweaked to make 185hp, a 5hp improvement over the previous version, and use 23 miles per gallon in the city and 31mpg on the highway for the front-wheel drive model, which is about 2mpg better than the previous generation. The four-wheel drive model gets equal improvements in fuel economy. 

Honda knows that the CR-V is popular among young families and made improvements that would affect this group. It has simplified the mechanism for lowering the rear seats and added a number of features like: standard Bluetooth, a standard multi-information display, rear view camera, and a feature that reads text messages out loud to the driver. 

The 2012 CR-V will hit showrooms in the Spring of 2012 in three trim levels LX, EX, and EX-L. The LX is the base car, but gives buyers everything they would really need like Bluetooth, air conditioning, cruise control and the new multi-function display. EX cars get bigger 17in wheels, a six-speaker audio system and a sunroof. EX-L vehicles get power seats, a seven-speaker audio system, navigation with FM traffic and DVD rear entertainment