2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid First Impressions - The BEST CR-V to date

The Honda CR-V Hybrid first arrived on the scene for the 2020 model year, along with a mid-cycle refresh. The whole CR-V lineup is brand-new for 2023 as the 6th generation launches. It's bigger, it's got new looks, and it gets a major paradigm shift. There are just four trims for 2023—EX, Sport, EX-L, and Sport Touring. Here's the interesting thing. EX and EX-L are only available with a turbocharged, gas-powered engine, while Sport and Sport Touring are only available with a hybrid powertrain. Now, a lot of people would associate the word Sport with the turbocharged engine, but Honda thinks differently, and we're going to see why that makes a lot of sense. First, please subscribe to this YouTube channel, and quick reminder that you can now sell your car 100% online with CarGurus. Just plug in a little bit of information, get an offer, get your car picked up, and get paid. Now, let's check out the CR-V Hybrid. In terms of looks, the 6th-generation CR-V, to me, represents the biggest departure so far from the ones that came before, where previous CR-Vs were a little bit mild-mannered, almost retiring. This one leans forward. It's assertive. It's tougher. It almost gives you kind of truck vibes from the front end now. The 2023 CR-V is about 2.5 inches longer and a half an inch wider than the outgoing model, and you can really see the longer wheelbase and the wider front and rear tracks in its stance. We're talking about the CR-V Hybrid today, which of course means Sport or Sport Touring trims, and they both get some extra-special exterior styling because they're sporty. You've got black mirrors, black roof rails, black wheels. This is Sport Touring, so we have 19-inch black wheels. 18-inch wheels are standard across the CR-V lineup, so the Sport trim is going to have black 18-inch wheels, and they both also get dual-chrome exhaust finishers. We still have the classic D-pillar CR-V taillights, but they've evolved a little bit in terms of design, and all headlights and taillights across the CR-V lineup are now LED. The larger exterior also translates to more volume. The 2023 CR-V Hybrid has 36.3 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, and 76.5 with them folded, up three cubic feet overall from 2022. Sport Touring also gets a hands-free power liftgate. Now, all of the new CR-Vs get this rear door that opens really wide, making it ideal for getting something like a bulky, heavy car seat into the back. There's plenty of legroom back here, too. We got a demo last night of two people who are both over six feet tall sitting tandem, one in the front and one in the back. Both had plenty of room, and they were perfectly comfortable. These reclining rear seats have eight positions, and that makes it a little easier to get some extra headroom back here if you're on the taller side. The interior really feels like good quality. I like this contrast stitching that we've got in the Sport Touring model. You'll recognize the honeycomb grille that we've also seen on the new Civic and the new HR-V. We do have more of a sort of standard center console here, as opposed to the more sculptural take that the HR-V has. All 2023 CR-Vs get heated front seats and a 10-way power-adjustable driver's seat. We also have leather seats, and we have seat memory because we're in the Sport Touring model, plus a four-way power passenger seat and a heated steering wheel. All 2023 Honda CR-Vs have dual-zone climate control and this power moonroof. We're driving the 2023 CR-V Hybrid in the Sport Touring trim, which is the top trim for the entire CR-V lineup for 2023. The Hybrid takes a two-liter, four-cylinder engine, and it's as part of a two-motor hybrid powertrain. They've managed to get more horsepower out of it this year and more torque, which makes for a fun driving experience, hence the reason that the Sport models are the hybrids this year. The Hybrid makes 204 horsepower compared to 190 from the gas-only model, a significant boost. It's also increased over the 2022 CR-V Hybrid. You might be wondering about that if you recall the 2022 CR-V Hybrid made 212 horsepower, but that was before they updated the horsepower ratings for gas-powered and electric-powered vehicles. So this actually is a boost of 3 horsepower versus last year. Some kind of increase. What's maybe a more compelling statistic is that the torque has been increased significantly. We've got 15 more pound-feet of torque for 2023, and that really gives it a lot more get-up-and-go. It makes things like merging into traffic a lot easier when you're, you know, you're getting on the highway and you need to catch up with the people who are already on there. This car really just, it goes. The brakes I found to be a little touchy at slow speeds, but right now I'm driving on the highway on Route 101 in Santa Barbara, and everything feels great. Very intuitive. I'm not sure that I'm totally loving how the e-CVT sounds. You know, it's not actually shifting. It's kind of making these noises as though it is, and sometimes I want it to shift a little sooner. The car feels very nicely planted. I'm confident in it. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of body roll or like it might lose control. We're on some kind of twisty, turny back roads right now, and we had some nice curves on the highway a little while ago, and I never felt like I didn't trust the vehicle. I always felt like I have a lot of confidence in its ability to just stay right on the road. There are now four drive modes for the 2023 CR-V Hybrid. So we've got normal, econ, and sport, as we did before, and we have a new snow mode, which I'm not getting to try out today in Santa Barbara, but it smooths the accelerator input, which is better for driving in slippery conditions. Sport mode I have gotten a chance to play with. That makes the accelerator more responsive, and it also gives you some more of that auditory input from the e-CVT, which is not actually shifting, but you get to hear more of that sense of changing gears. Honda says that they've updated the e-CVT for 2023, as well as the real-time all-wheel drive system. Part of that change is that where it used to be 60-40, it now can send up to 50% of the torque to the rear wheels, which improves the traction and handling. This is also now the first time that you can get the CR-V Hybrid with front-wheel drive. So as you may know, having all-wheel drive generally dings your gas mileage by at least a few MPGs. If what you're really in it for is the fuel economy, you may want to go for the front-wheel drive hybrid. That also has the added benefit of making it so that you don't have to replace all four tires anytime you get a flat. So there's a new B mode. You can shift back from D into B, and that gives you a little bit closer to a one-pedal driving experience. B is for braking, so it turns up your regenerative braking, where you're actually sending some power back into the battery. So this is very similar to the experience you might have in an electric vehicle. If you've ever hopped into an electric vehicle on the spur of the moment, you might have found that they can be very different to drive. That one-pedal driving experience really can make it kind of...it's an adjustment. It makes it a little jerky at first if you're not used to it. So this is a really nice opportunity to kind of ease into that experience if you're EV curious, which is part of what Honda is going for. They're providing a baby step on the way from traditional gas engines up to EVs. We've got this great middle ground right now. The flappy paddles here are not for shifting as they might be in some other vehicles. They're actually for your regenerative braking, so they'll let you kind of turn that up and down. And you can slow the vehicle using the paddles. You just can't really come to a complete stop. It's not a true one-pedal driving experience, but it's a great opportunity to try that out. A 7-inch touchscreen display with physical volume and tuning knobs is standard on Sport. In this model, Sport Touring, we have a 9-inch touchscreen display. It does have a physical volume knob, but no physical tuning knob. What it does have is Honda's NAV system plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as opposed to wired, and SiriusXM, HD radio, a wireless charging pad, and Wi-Fi capability. Sport Touring also gets a 12-speaker Bose premium audio system, which is not even available on any other trim. And both hybrid models get two USB-A and two USB-C charging ports. Sport Touring packs in more premium features like rain-sensing windshield wipers and front and rear parking sensors. But you don't have to go all the way up to the Sport Touring trim to get plenty of advanced driver assistance systems because the Honda's fencing suite of safety features is standard across the CR-V lineup. This includes adaptive cruise control. And for 2023, it also includes standard traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition, and blind spot information system. The new rear seat reminder and rear seatbelt reminder are standard for all 2023 CR-Vs. The 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid starts at $33,695, including the destination fee. That's for the Sport trim with front-wheel drive. So tack on an extra $1,500 if you're thinking about all-wheel drive, or consider the Sport Touring trim, which only comes with all-wheel drive. That starts at $39,845. There are a lot of compact SUVs out there, but they don't all have hybrid options. So the CR-V's competitors are not necessarily the CR-V Hybrid's competitors. The interesting thing with what Honda's done with trims with this new generation is that they've positioned the CR-V as pretty premium. They cut the base trim, so you just can't get a bare-bone CR-V anymore. They're all pretty well-equipped. And they've positioned the CR-V Hybrid as the sporty option with all those extra fun goodies. So if you're looking for a compact SUV that's hybrid and fairly inexpensive, you might want to consider something like the Kia Sportage, the Hyundai Tucson, or the Toyota RAV4. Just keep in mind that all of those models have several more trim options. So if you're looking for something that's actually very comparable to the features we've seen today, you're going to be looking more around $37,000 or $38,000 anyway. For more information on the 2023 Honda CR-V and the 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid, check out our full written reviews on CarGurus.com. Please subscribe to this channel, and remember to check back soon. We'll be driving something else next week.