More Appealing Than They Say
by David Finlay (03 Feb 05)

Honda took a long time to join the diesel party. The company's global policy involved developing its petrol-electric hybrid IMA technology as a preliminary step towards the introduction of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which it regards as the true way forward. It will be some time before we see if this is astute forward-thinking or a reckless gamble, but in any case the more urgent point is that diesel is increasingly important to European buyers, and Honda's continuing success in Europe largely depended on being able to provide diesel models.

Hence the eventual introduction of the diesel Accord, and now also of the CR-V i-CTDi, a car which finally corrects the problem of Honda selling an SUV which was available only with petrol engines. Honda acknowledges that of the 25,000 CR-Vs it expects to sell in the UK this year, just over half will be i-CTDi models, even though the car does not actually go on sale here until March.

But the reluctance to embrace diesel philosophy lingers. There is no automatic option, for example, even though this would almost certainly improve sales still further. And Honda goes to unusual lengths to point out that, for many drivers, the petrol-engined version remains the better bet.

In each of its three trim levels - SE, Sport and Executive - the i-CTDi costs £1400 more than the equivalent manual petrol model, and Honda says that a retail customer would have to clock up at least 20,000 miles annually to recoup the difference (the figure drops to 11,000 miles for company car drivers on the 22% tax rate).

I get the slight feeling here that if I wanted to buy a CR-V diesel, someone from Honda would take me to one side and say, "look, are you absolutely sure about this? The petrol car is very nice, you know. Why don't you try that instead?"

In fact something like this is almost happening already. Honda emphasises that the petrol CR-V is not only cheaper to buy but has lower whole-life costs (assuming the mileages quoted above), and that its engine is both more powerful and more refined than the diesel.

That's all fine and dandy, but it neglects the possibility that some people may prefer the characteristics of a good diesel engine. And a good diesel engine is, no two ways about it, what the CR-V has. It's the 2.2-litre unit first seen in the Accord (and due to appear in the next-generation Civic), mechanically unchanged except that it's bolted to a six-speed gearbox rather than the five-speed in the Accord.

We've discussed this engine more than enough elsewhere in the magazine, but here's a quick summary. The i-CTDi is a sturdy performer, perhaps one you need to rev slightly more than rival units but nonetheless pleasant to use. And although Honda's dissing tactics about its power output are correct as far as they go - there's 140bhp available here, 10bhp less than the petrol provides - this car is actually a shade quicker than even the manual petrol car (114mph top speed and 10.6 seconds 0-62mph compared with 110 and 10.8) and will leave the automatic standing in a straight line.

More . . .

Back to Honda Launch index
Back to main Launch index