How much space is there?

The Honda CR-V is very spacious. The rear seat is wide enough for three adults (just) with plenty of legroom and reasonable headroom, even with the panoramic sunroof. All models get a sliding and reclining rear seat to boost practicality further.

Fitting child seats is reasonably straightforward, especially as the rear doors open to nearly 90 degrees. But we during our long-term test we discovered that the Isofix mountings can end up angled into the CR-V’s rear seat base. Fearing that this could damage the leather over time, we fitted seat protectors.

Boot space and storage

The CR-V’s boot is huge, and unusually the 617-litre capacity of the plug-in hybrid offers more luggage room than the 587 litres of the self-charging model (579 litres for the higher spec Advance version). This is because the e:HEV self-chargers have four-wheel drive that takes up space that’s available under the floor in the e:PHEV. Either way, it’s roomier than an equivalent Toyota RAV4, with a more upright tailgate providing greater space for tall items too.

57

Usefully, the rear seats can be moved forwards and backwards, as well as reclined. However, they do only split-fold 60:40, rather than the more useful 40:20:40 ratio offered by some rivals. There’s no loading lip, so you can sit on the edge of the boot to change your wellies, but there’s also nothing to hold the boot floor upright when rummaging beneath it for charging cables.

With the rear seats folded you can cram up to 1,710 litres into the e:PHEV (1,634-1,642 litres for the e:HEV). Just note that the load floor isn’t totally flat.

Is it easy to park?

The CR-V is one of the longer family-sized SUVs on sale in the UK, measuring just over 4.7m when many rivals are around 4.5m. Width wise, the CR-V is under 1.9m across the body and under 2.2m between the tips of the door mirrors, which is about the same as everything else. Height is under 1.7m, so car park restrictors won’t be a problem.

It’s a fairly squared off shape with a good forward visibility, so judging the length isn’t difficult even without the standard-fit front and rear parking sensors. The standard reversing camera takes care of the more limited view out of the back. The 360-degree surround view cameras available on higher-spec versions make life even easier, and the cameras can be accessed via the indicator and wiper stalks at other times, which is handy for checking blindspots.

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP rating for all UK CR-V models
• Ranked as one of the safest cars in the family SUV class
• Driver assistance systems generally perform well in the real world

The CR-V gets the full suite of Honda’s ‘Sensing 360’ tech and a lot of other safety kit as standard in the UK. Every model includes eight airbags, autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping aids and traffic jam assist, which can start, steer and stop you in congested conditions.

Sensing 360 elevates the Honda CR-V’s Euro NCAP rating to the full five stars – examples sold elsewhere in Europe without it are only eligible for a four-star score. Nothing for UK buyers to worry about, as with the Sensing 360 pack added, Euro NCAP says the CR-V is one of the safest cars in its class.

The lane keeping tech is a little on the fussy side, being quite keen to alert you whenever it feels you’re not doing things right. But having spent several months testing a CR-V, this quickly became something that never bothered us very much; the systems can be switched off, but you’ll need to do this each time you start the car.

Similarly, the approaching traffic alerts can seem a little over-sensitive when you’re waiting to pull out at a junction. We’d still rather have this technology than not, and unlike some rivals, we didn’t find the autonomous emergency braking to be over-reactive. As such, we feel the Honda strikes a good balance between reminders and practicality.