And it’s an automatic.
Honda has announced a new base-level variant of its commodious CR-V family wagon, lowering the entry price into the range with the new VI. Armed with a 2.0-litre atmo petrol mill and a CVT, the CR-V VI aims to offer maximum practicality and usability without too high an outlay, and has specced up the model generously despite its relatively-affordable $28,290 sticker price.
“The CR-V’s strength is it just does so many things so very well. Whether it’s carrying kids and their stuff for the school run, or a trip home from Ikea with a boot-load of flat-packs, or driving confidently down a winding country road, the Honda CR-V does it all.” — Stephen Collins, Director, Honda Australia
The sixth variant in the range undercuts the previous entry grade, the VTi, by a cool $2400. On the surface, you don’t appear to miss much: There’s polished 17-inch alloys, projector halogen headlights, LED daytime running lights, LED taillights, a reversing camera, tyre-pressure monitoring, electric parking brake, hill-hold assist, and even a full-size spare wheel.
The most notable feature unique to the CR-V VI is the 5.0-inch infotainment screen, which does without smartphone mirroring or sat-nav, differing from the 7.0inch systems available in the rest of the range. And from behind the wheel, there’s no getting away from the fact that the VI is the only CR-V offered with a non-turbo engine; The 2.0L donk here puts out 113kW and 189Nm( mated to a CVT automatic sending drive to the front wheels), a far cry from the 140kW/240Nm offered by the 1.5-litre VTEC-Turbo models.
At least it’ll do 7.6L/100km. And it’s covered by Honda’s 5-year/unlimited-mileage warranty, too.
The range, as mentioned earlier, now encompasses six variants including the new VI:
| Honda CR-V Vi | 5-Seat | 2WD | $28,290 |
| Honda CR-V VTi | 5-Seat | 2WD | $30,690 |
| Honda CR-V VTi-S | 5-Seat | 2WD | $33,290 |
| Honda CR-V VTi-S | 5-Seat | AWD | $35,490 |
| Honda CR-V VTi-L | 7-Seat | AWD | $33,990 |
| Honda CR-V VTi-LX | 5-Seat | AWD | $44,290 |
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