2023 Honda CR-V Base Model Reviewed!
Way more equipment than you'd expect!
Hey everybody, it's Peter and in this video I'm gonna review the 2023 Honda CR-V. But we're gonna do the base model. And this is not a video I was expecting to do, but you showed a lot of interest in the sport model of the 2023 CR-V that we did. So we're gonna bring back the base model. And I'm gonna be honest, I like reviewing base models mostly because nobody reviews them in review channels and the average modern day base model has a whole lot of features that even just a few years ago weren't standard on top trims. So base models are worth considering in this video. I'm gonna go through this vehicle in detail to make sure I show you a lot of things that the other videos aren't showing you, but I also want to thank Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals for giving me complete access to their vehicle lineup so that if you have questions I can come back to this vehicle and this line of vehicles and try to answer your questions again and again, both in the comments section and in future videos.
From here you can watch Peters Video by clicking YouTube or read his transcript... enjoy...
So let's get going with this review. So there's a few things that I wanna address about the base model. First thing, it is a front wheel drive model. It's not an all-wheel drive and I do think that a lot of people say that they want a Honda CR-V for all-wheel drive and I think that makes sense. Most people get the all-wheel drive model. I will say though, that sometimes people feel kind of confused like oh, it's front wheel drive. Not realizing that most all-wheel drive sedans that have come out severely underperform SUVs. And I think the reality is that most of us find that this body style works and we like having all-wheel drive, but the front wheel drive does a couple things for you. First of all, it's the same engine in here as in the other trim lines. But you do have a lighter weight vehicle with a less complex uh, drive train and that means you have a little bit better fuel efficiency.
So there's a reason to get front-wheel drive here. And again, if you want the all-wheel drive, this probably isn't the car for you, but this may allow you to move into a CR-V at a better price point, get all of the benefits of a CR-V and you just happen to not have all-wheel drive. Now when we talk about some of these things that this base model has that you know we may not expect, let's kind of come around the front here. First of all, I haven't got the lights on right now, but they are l e D headlights here again, cars from not a few years ago, even top line cars didn't always have those. The real surprise though is some of the features that you have out front here. This Honda logo is not just a Honda logo, this is a radar plate underneath here that gives you things like advanced cruise control, a more advanced auto autonomous emergency braking system.
There's a bunch of things that you have in here and Honda does this really well. A lot of other manufacturers put a sort of square looking plate down low in the vehicle where if you're driving through slushy roads that can get covered and you lose some of those safety functionality things here being up higher. It not only is more functional because it stays away from some of that slush, it's also better looking because it's behind a logo and that's not the only forward sensing technology on this car. There's a little camera right behind the mirror there. We won't show it to you here, but I'll sort of show you that area. When we get inside the car, that camera also looks forward. It does things like lane keeping assist. So this car's able to help you stay in the lane and see the lane marker for you.
So Honda Safety Sense technology makes their way into this model. And again, some of these features were not on the highest level Hondas from just a couple years ago, which means this base model is nowhere near a base model for most people. Let's go to the backend now and look at a couple features there and we'll work our way through into the driver's environment. So while the CRV is completely new for 2023, it's an all new platform, all new from the ground up. You still see some of that familiar CR-V language or styling language back here. Although from the side I think it looks less like a CRV than in the past. It is larger in uh, few dimensions but not so large that it's harder to drive. One of the things I like, again, even though this is the base model here, you'll see when I open the doors you can see the lighting here, it comes on very nicely and you have nice looking brake lights.
Those are L e D lights on the back and you used to only have L e D lights on the higher trims. Now you have it here on the base model as well. Moving up here, this is not a powered operated tailgate but you can see two fingers. It's super simple to do and I'm about six feet tall. It easily clears me. And then you have a very good size trunk here. A couple nice features in here. There's a little bit of a grocery hook, a 12 volt port, and you have l e D lights on both sides, which I like. The other nice feature here is you have a spare tire down here, a fairly large spare tire. Somebody asked me if you could fit a full size spare. I think you could if this is not. Um, but it looks, you know, larger than a typical small donut.
And the way it's set in is you have space inside the spare tire to use. Its under floor storage. Now the other thing you can do with the under floor is you can drop this down just a couple inches, not a whole lot. So it was level here with the back end. Now you can drop it down. That gives you a little bit more space again and let's show you the seats as we go up close. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna go around to the passenger side of the car and I'm gonna bring this seat to the furthest forward position. Obviously they do fold down like this and it's level when they fold, but there is that step up that you see right there. Now this is the furthest forward position on the right hand side. What that does is it allows you to put a square box in because it's a very upright, it's not comfortable for a passenger to sit there. (05:06)
Now you also have the ability to recline these seats as well. So we're gonna put this in the full back position. I'm gonna leave the seat on the right side where it is, uh, in the upright position. It won't be comfortable to seat. Uh, but what you can see here is when we get in, you know there's probably over a foot of space between this line here and this line there, which means you can create extra cargo space when you need it and you can create extra comfort in the rear seat when you need it as well. And that makes this vehicle really great for road trips because you can kind of adjust that seating position even in the rear seat and be really comfortable. So a couple of those things we're gonna show you, lemme just uh, zip to the side. I already mentioned them but lemme just show you them right now.
Alright, you're gonna see this little green spot right there. That's the camera lens. Interacting with that bright white L e D light might look a little bit yellow to you on screen here, but it is nice and white. This is something I really appreciate. A lot of cars have these and people don't realize what they are. This is just a little bit of a grocery hook. If you have a, you know, a grocery bag of say apples or something like that, you don't want them rolling around your entire trunk, you can just hook that up here and keep them there. And of course that 12 volt port there as well. Nice little features that come standard even in this base model. So now we're really gonna get into some of the things that the other videos aren't showing you. First of all, on a base model vehicle you have some advantages in these tires.
So a lot of the higher trim models are gonna have a larger diameter rim. So that's a larger diameter rim, which means a smaller sidewall. First of all, these tires are gonna be less expensive to buy and replace than the larger rim tires. Some people say the larger rims look nicer, but the other thing is having a little bit more sidewall can contribute to a little smoother ride. Maybe a slight difference in handling but it's a CR-V, you're not taking it to the racetrack. You'll probably never know the difference in handling cuz the tire wall flex is good for ride, bad for a sports car handling, but again, not a sports car. So tires are probably actually a good thing uh, for most of you, uh, buying this vehicle, especially given your intended use. The other thing is you benefit from some of the design features that are, you know, in higher end vehicles. (07:01)
So these doors have a plastic area here, which is good because all the paint chipping that happens on the bottom of cars happens right around here because you're shooting up gravel and uh, sharp areas. This is all plastic, not paint. This won't chip and the door wraps around as I open the door here you can kind of see that that piece wraps around and all of this will stay clean. That means when you're getting out of a little bit taller vehicle, when you rub your pant leg against here, this is not dirty, this is clean. You don't have a dirty pant leg when you go to work. The other thing we should show you here, I'll just come back and see the view through the camera. These doors are very, very large and they open 90 degrees. Let's talk about that as I jump in the back seat.
So let's talk about these doors opening 90 degrees. I've done car reviews for quite a long time now and I've yet to see a vehicle with doors that open 90 degrees. Now first of all, you can see the advantage of that if you had child seats in here. It's just nice to be able to work and carry things out and move things easier. But even if you don't have child seats, just the extra ability to get cargo in here to get people in here, people with mobility issues, they can easily get in here because you've got that extra space. Now of course if you're tighter for space you can always open them a little bit less narrow. They have de tens along the way, but this is really rare and it makes a big difference. It's something that doesn't show up on video but does show up in your everyday life to make it easy to get in and out.
So I can film from this angle straight on with me jumping in here. I'll just keep checking my watch cuz that's my viewfinder, but I can film from this angle because that door was 90 degrees. Now remember I set that door back. Well I am laying back here and even laying back I have tons of headroom. That's one thing you don't get in a lot of sedans or other vehicles that maybe this front wheel drive car is competing with. What's cool about when you recline these seats, and I've put it in a comfortable position now, is it's not just the back that reclines the hip point actually moves down when you move it forward, it moves it up. When you move it down, it goes. When you move it back, the hip point goes down. What that means is that my legs are still flush on the seat and they continue to recline the seat making this a great trip of great vehicle for road trips because even at six feet tall I'm comfortable and again, I'm sitting behind where I would have the seat for myself.
So there's a reason to get front-wheel drive here. And again, if you want the all-wheel drive, this probably isn't the car for you, but this may allow you to move into a CR-V at a better price point, get all of the benefits of a CR-V and you just happen to not have all-wheel drive. Now when we talk about some of these things that this base model has that you know we may not expect, let's kind of come around the front here. First of all, I haven't got the lights on right now, but they are l e D headlights here again, cars from not a few years ago, even top line cars didn't always have those. The real surprise though is some of the features that you have out front here. This Honda logo is not just a Honda logo, this is a radar plate underneath here that gives you things like advanced cruise control, a more advanced auto autonomous emergency braking system.
There's a bunch of things that you have in here and Honda does this really well. A lot of other manufacturers put a sort of square looking plate down low in the vehicle where if you're driving through slushy roads that can get covered and you lose some of those safety functionality things here being up higher. It not only is more functional because it stays away from some of that slush, it's also better looking because it's behind a logo and that's not the only forward sensing technology on this car. There's a little camera right behind the mirror there. We won't show it to you here, but I'll sort of show you that area. When we get inside the car, that camera also looks forward. It does things like lane keeping assist. So this car's able to help you stay in the lane and see the lane marker for you.
So Honda Safety Sense technology makes their way into this model. And again, some of these features were not on the highest level Hondas from just a couple years ago, which means this base model is nowhere near a base model for most people. Let's go to the backend now and look at a couple features there and we'll work our way through into the driver's environment. So while the CRV is completely new for 2023, it's an all new platform, all new from the ground up. You still see some of that familiar CR-V language or styling language back here. Although from the side I think it looks less like a CRV than in the past. It is larger in uh, few dimensions but not so large that it's harder to drive. One of the things I like, again, even though this is the base model here, you'll see when I open the doors you can see the lighting here, it comes on very nicely and you have nice looking brake lights.
Those are L e D lights on the back and you used to only have L e D lights on the higher trims. Now you have it here on the base model as well. Moving up here, this is not a powered operated tailgate but you can see two fingers. It's super simple to do and I'm about six feet tall. It easily clears me. And then you have a very good size trunk here. A couple nice features in here. There's a little bit of a grocery hook, a 12 volt port, and you have l e D lights on both sides, which I like. The other nice feature here is you have a spare tire down here, a fairly large spare tire. Somebody asked me if you could fit a full size spare. I think you could if this is not. Um, but it looks, you know, larger than a typical small donut.
And the way it's set in is you have space inside the spare tire to use. Its under floor storage. Now the other thing you can do with the under floor is you can drop this down just a couple inches, not a whole lot. So it was level here with the back end. Now you can drop it down. That gives you a little bit more space again and let's show you the seats as we go up close. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna go around to the passenger side of the car and I'm gonna bring this seat to the furthest forward position. Obviously they do fold down like this and it's level when they fold, but there is that step up that you see right there. Now this is the furthest forward position on the right hand side. What that does is it allows you to put a square box in because it's a very upright, it's not comfortable for a passenger to sit there. (05:06)
Now you also have the ability to recline these seats as well. So we're gonna put this in the full back position. I'm gonna leave the seat on the right side where it is, uh, in the upright position. It won't be comfortable to seat. Uh, but what you can see here is when we get in, you know there's probably over a foot of space between this line here and this line there, which means you can create extra cargo space when you need it and you can create extra comfort in the rear seat when you need it as well. And that makes this vehicle really great for road trips because you can kind of adjust that seating position even in the rear seat and be really comfortable. So a couple of those things we're gonna show you, lemme just uh, zip to the side. I already mentioned them but lemme just show you them right now.
Alright, you're gonna see this little green spot right there. That's the camera lens. Interacting with that bright white L e D light might look a little bit yellow to you on screen here, but it is nice and white. This is something I really appreciate. A lot of cars have these and people don't realize what they are. This is just a little bit of a grocery hook. If you have a, you know, a grocery bag of say apples or something like that, you don't want them rolling around your entire trunk, you can just hook that up here and keep them there. And of course that 12 volt port there as well. Nice little features that come standard even in this base model. So now we're really gonna get into some of the things that the other videos aren't showing you. First of all, on a base model vehicle you have some advantages in these tires.
So a lot of the higher trim models are gonna have a larger diameter rim. So that's a larger diameter rim, which means a smaller sidewall. First of all, these tires are gonna be less expensive to buy and replace than the larger rim tires. Some people say the larger rims look nicer, but the other thing is having a little bit more sidewall can contribute to a little smoother ride. Maybe a slight difference in handling but it's a CR-V, you're not taking it to the racetrack. You'll probably never know the difference in handling cuz the tire wall flex is good for ride, bad for a sports car handling, but again, not a sports car. So tires are probably actually a good thing uh, for most of you, uh, buying this vehicle, especially given your intended use. The other thing is you benefit from some of the design features that are, you know, in higher end vehicles. (07:01)
So these doors have a plastic area here, which is good because all the paint chipping that happens on the bottom of cars happens right around here because you're shooting up gravel and uh, sharp areas. This is all plastic, not paint. This won't chip and the door wraps around as I open the door here you can kind of see that that piece wraps around and all of this will stay clean. That means when you're getting out of a little bit taller vehicle, when you rub your pant leg against here, this is not dirty, this is clean. You don't have a dirty pant leg when you go to work. The other thing we should show you here, I'll just come back and see the view through the camera. These doors are very, very large and they open 90 degrees. Let's talk about that as I jump in the back seat.
So let's talk about these doors opening 90 degrees. I've done car reviews for quite a long time now and I've yet to see a vehicle with doors that open 90 degrees. Now first of all, you can see the advantage of that if you had child seats in here. It's just nice to be able to work and carry things out and move things easier. But even if you don't have child seats, just the extra ability to get cargo in here to get people in here, people with mobility issues, they can easily get in here because you've got that extra space. Now of course if you're tighter for space you can always open them a little bit less narrow. They have de tens along the way, but this is really rare and it makes a big difference. It's something that doesn't show up on video but does show up in your everyday life to make it easy to get in and out.
So I can film from this angle straight on with me jumping in here. I'll just keep checking my watch cuz that's my viewfinder, but I can film from this angle because that door was 90 degrees. Now remember I set that door back. Well I am laying back here and even laying back I have tons of headroom. That's one thing you don't get in a lot of sedans or other vehicles that maybe this front wheel drive car is competing with. What's cool about when you recline these seats, and I've put it in a comfortable position now, is it's not just the back that reclines the hip point actually moves down when you move it forward, it moves it up. When you move it down, it goes. When you move it back, the hip point goes down. What that means is that my legs are still flush on the seat and they continue to recline the seat making this a great trip of great vehicle for road trips because even at six feet tall I'm comfortable and again, I'm sitting behind where I would have the seat for myself.
So pretty good back here and excellent for a base model. Let's jump in the front seat now. So we're about to jump into the driver's seat. I just opened the door. You can see the driving lights, l e d lights up there and the headlights are down there. They look like they're flickering on camera or they did look like they were flickering on camera and that's just because the way they interacted with the camera. But the point is it's not just basic lights up here. You have those nice driving lights as well. Data, running lights, excuse me, I'm pulling up my sleeves. Sorry about that. All right, so let's take a look at this vehicle from the driver's perspective. And to do that you're gonna need the key to get inside. Now there is a little bit of misleading this. On this key you have lock, you have unlock, you have hold, which is the remote start and there's a trunk button that will not pop the trunk on this car because it's not a powered trunk, although I believe it does unlock the trunk. (10:33)
However, you really don't need to pull this fairly nice looking key outta your pocket, which is where I'm gonna put it right now because as you approach the vehicle, you have little de tens there that you can touch there to unlock the door. Very simple, which again, not very base model, like when you have a key like this, you also have a keyless start, which is a push button start. Now we saw on the higher trim levels you can get a powered seat. This one does not have powered seat, but it has plenty of adjustment with lots of little levers and everything else. And again, seating comfort is very good in here. So we're gonna go to the wide angle camera here, kind of skew things out a little bit. Why don't we just take a quick look at the controls here, nice looking controls the auto, uh, um, driver's window there.
Uh, let's look into the dash. No now because this actually surprised me a little bit. So jumping in here, look at that. That is a screen there. You can see it on camera more than I can see in person. It kinda looks just regularly black there as well. We're gonna turn the car to the on position but not start it. And I do have to fasten my seatbelt just to get rid of some of the area here. But what's pretty cool about this is, whoops, I hit my camera mount there. What's pretty cool about this is first of all, so you can see my green uh, area there that uh, shows me my seatbelt is done up, uh, in the driver's seat. If it was, if it senses a passenger and it's red, let me just zoom in a little further. If it senses a passenger and it's red, it will tell you that hey, that person is not buckled up. So of course I am buckled. So we're all good to go. We're gonna dismiss that.
What's cool about this though is this is a display screen and like I said, the camera picks up the screen better than my eyes do. Again, cameras don't film screens all that great, so they, they don't film true to life. Uh, oh, we're having trouble focusing there. Let's see if we can get that a little better. All right, so what you have in here is the left side, including the tachometer is a screen and the right side is actually a physical, uh, speedometer, which I kind of like. I think it, you know, you don't need the full screen so you probably save some money, but you get the same functionality here. There's a number of controls and, and uh, things in the screen here that we could show you. Um, but we're gonna show you that a little bit later. I wanna go through some of the other features that you really don't expect in a car like this.
So first of all, screens are in just about everything, but this is again leading to the fact that not every base model is exactly what you would assume anymore. Now again, the flickering that you see on camera is the camera interacting with this screen. It does not flicker at all in real life, but this is a nice quality screen here. Let's put in reverse for a second. Now, you don't have any better camera than this in the Honda CR-V some cars are gonna come with 360 cameras. This base model has the same cameras you would use in the higher end view. You do get some variety of views here. And again, I'm filming a screen, it does not film well, it's much clearer in person, but you can see that you have a wide angle view there. I can see all the way left and right.
Uh, you can even see like the license plate, uh, area there, but you get a very wide angle view. You go back to the standard view and then you get the top down view here as well. If you were to tow a trailer, I believe you can still tow a very light utility trailer, I think around 1500 pounds. I didn't check if the front wheel drive version can tow that 1500 pounds, but the regular CRV can. So I believe this is the same, uh, for that as well. So that's just putting in reverse, showing you the backup camera over here. Like I said, clear screen. Now you have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in here. It is wired on this uh, trim line. I believe it's wireless in the highest trim lines, but um, again, you still have it. So that means you're Android Auto apple CarPlay, your phone apps can come to the phone.
That also gives you navigation through things like Google maps, apple maps, really good screen in there coming down here. Let's just go wide angle, you know, we'll stay tight again, having a little bit of trouble getting the focus here. Let me see if I can adapt to that a little bit. There we go. You can see you have a dual zone climate control system here. Now that doesn't happen in many cars, even at higher trim levels. And here you are at the entry level trim, having that and you have heated seats. Now of course we're filming in Canada. I know some Americans may have different trim lines. Heated seats are a little bit less popular in the American cars in some manufacturers than in Canada. But heated seats here, duals zone temperature control, which means the driver of the passenger can have different temperatures, uh, set for them, which is kind of handy.
And then we'll come down here at the bottom here and oh boy, my camera's not auto focusing right now, but there we go. So you have a U S B, A U S B C port and a 12 volt port to make sure you got all the plugs you need. And this is a very usable space in here and you can see it's lighted. It's got an L e D light down there. So you've got good visibility of everything you have in there, which is very good. Couple other little things, drive modes, not always on the base models. You have them here. We're gonna cycle through there. Oh, let's just show you up on the screen. That's a little bit better. I didn't like that. I switched that. It made a funny noise. All right, trying to get in here. There we go. Let's just mess it.
Fit again. All right, normal is where we are right now. Nice display. Nice screen there. Again, doesn't film as nice as it is in real life. Let's just see if we can get it to focus. It is having trouble on that screen. Coming down here. We've got the economy mode and we've got the snow mode. Now economy mode. Let's just talk really briefly about that. This is the most economical version. It's a lighter weight version. It is front wheel drive. Economy mode does not automatically get you better economy. What it does is if you're driving efficiently anyways, it moves the shift points and it'll, you know, adjust the throttle usually, uh, to allow the car to work with you to get great fuel efficiency. And this car's capable of very good fuel efficiency. Couple other little things I like, which is becoming more and more standard on everything. (15:28)
Uh, you have your auto headlights here. Hondas especially used to have um, light up dashes in there that used to um, they used to kind of tell you, uh, that your head like hint like maybe your headlights were on. So now you've got the auto headlights in everything looking over here, let's just try to get this focus. My auto focus is not working with me today. Let's just zoom right in there. There we go. So right in there you can see you have a windshield wiper defroster area. So where your windshield wipers sit on the front of this car, you have a little like heated grid, a lot like the rear window. And what that does is it allows you to not have the wipers frozen to the windshield, which is really nice. Speaking of looking out the windshield, let's talk about a couple things there.
We've got this, remember since there's a camera looking out front, this is where it's mounted. It looked up front between that and the radar plate, you have things like what you see right here, which is an advanced uh, cruise control. Uh, so a smart cruise control as well as a lane keeping assist. This is all part of that safety sense because you've got sensors looking forward. You have that here. One thing I don't have here is I don't have a leather trim steering wheel, which means it's not a heated steering wheel. This actually feels perfectly fine, but if you got in this car, that's one hint that maybe this isn't a higher end trim than it actually is. Coming back over here we showed you the drive modes. Let's just come down a few other things here. You've got the auto stop start, which most people hate.
Um, but in theory it does help you with efficiency. It can turn itself off at a stop light or something like that and you can cancel that if you wanted to. You also have hill dissent control something that's not needed in a non off-road vehicle, but if you're camping you can hit this button and it can hold a slow speed descent without having to touch your brakes. It's kind of cool how that works. Automatic transmission here, easy to use. You've got cup holders in here and compared to the sport model, you still have the same glove box but you missed that tray that comes across here. So you have to make a deal with your salesperson to take that out of a higher trim level if that's what you really want. Over here you've got a couple nice things here. The great here, again, same as the higher trim levels.
It gives the illusion that this entire thing is event on the Hyundai Tucson. It actually can be events, but on this uh, Honda, um, Honda CR-V, you've got the events here, the events there, and then just the consistent look across there. But I will say this is all nice stuff. This is a softer rubber, it's not a hard plastic. Shutting the doors, feeling things, all of that feels like a much higher end trim and that's a good thing. Now let's take a look at me for one second before we wrap up inside. So taking a look at me in the driver's seat. Again, I'm six feet tall, I have immense headroom. Now if you are shorter and you wanna raise the seat, not a problem. You can do that. The sail are a little bit high, so you're gonna wanna raise the seat if you're a little bit shorter.
But um, you know, I think that's part of safety, it's part of styling. It's fine. It's not like you're super buried in this car or anything like that. Uh, but yeah, visibility is very good forward, especially a pretty good back. Uh, as well. You know, some SUVs are better than others. This one's uh, mid pack, certainly not bad. Uh, but yeah, driver's comfort is fantastic. These seats are very comfortable. You could definitely drive this for a long time. And with having these sort of lane keeping type functions, Honda Safety sense type functions, this is a very, very easy car to drive a long distance and it's very comfortable to do that. And again, the duals own climate control is just one of those little things you don't see in base models. You can keep your passengers comfort comfortable, uh, separate than you. So great road trip vehicle.
So first of all, screens are in just about everything, but this is again leading to the fact that not every base model is exactly what you would assume anymore. Now again, the flickering that you see on camera is the camera interacting with this screen. It does not flicker at all in real life, but this is a nice quality screen here. Let's put in reverse for a second. Now, you don't have any better camera than this in the Honda CR-V some cars are gonna come with 360 cameras. This base model has the same cameras you would use in the higher end view. You do get some variety of views here. And again, I'm filming a screen, it does not film well, it's much clearer in person, but you can see that you have a wide angle view there. I can see all the way left and right.
Uh, you can even see like the license plate, uh, area there, but you get a very wide angle view. You go back to the standard view and then you get the top down view here as well. If you were to tow a trailer, I believe you can still tow a very light utility trailer, I think around 1500 pounds. I didn't check if the front wheel drive version can tow that 1500 pounds, but the regular CRV can. So I believe this is the same, uh, for that as well. So that's just putting in reverse, showing you the backup camera over here. Like I said, clear screen. Now you have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in here. It is wired on this uh, trim line. I believe it's wireless in the highest trim lines, but um, again, you still have it. So that means you're Android Auto apple CarPlay, your phone apps can come to the phone.
That also gives you navigation through things like Google maps, apple maps, really good screen in there coming down here. Let's just go wide angle, you know, we'll stay tight again, having a little bit of trouble getting the focus here. Let me see if I can adapt to that a little bit. There we go. You can see you have a dual zone climate control system here. Now that doesn't happen in many cars, even at higher trim levels. And here you are at the entry level trim, having that and you have heated seats. Now of course we're filming in Canada. I know some Americans may have different trim lines. Heated seats are a little bit less popular in the American cars in some manufacturers than in Canada. But heated seats here, duals zone temperature control, which means the driver of the passenger can have different temperatures, uh, set for them, which is kind of handy.
And then we'll come down here at the bottom here and oh boy, my camera's not auto focusing right now, but there we go. So you have a U S B, A U S B C port and a 12 volt port to make sure you got all the plugs you need. And this is a very usable space in here and you can see it's lighted. It's got an L e D light down there. So you've got good visibility of everything you have in there, which is very good. Couple other little things, drive modes, not always on the base models. You have them here. We're gonna cycle through there. Oh, let's just show you up on the screen. That's a little bit better. I didn't like that. I switched that. It made a funny noise. All right, trying to get in here. There we go. Let's just mess it.
Fit again. All right, normal is where we are right now. Nice display. Nice screen there. Again, doesn't film as nice as it is in real life. Let's just see if we can get it to focus. It is having trouble on that screen. Coming down here. We've got the economy mode and we've got the snow mode. Now economy mode. Let's just talk really briefly about that. This is the most economical version. It's a lighter weight version. It is front wheel drive. Economy mode does not automatically get you better economy. What it does is if you're driving efficiently anyways, it moves the shift points and it'll, you know, adjust the throttle usually, uh, to allow the car to work with you to get great fuel efficiency. And this car's capable of very good fuel efficiency. Couple other little things I like, which is becoming more and more standard on everything. (15:28)
Uh, you have your auto headlights here. Hondas especially used to have um, light up dashes in there that used to um, they used to kind of tell you, uh, that your head like hint like maybe your headlights were on. So now you've got the auto headlights in everything looking over here, let's just try to get this focus. My auto focus is not working with me today. Let's just zoom right in there. There we go. So right in there you can see you have a windshield wiper defroster area. So where your windshield wipers sit on the front of this car, you have a little like heated grid, a lot like the rear window. And what that does is it allows you to not have the wipers frozen to the windshield, which is really nice. Speaking of looking out the windshield, let's talk about a couple things there.
We've got this, remember since there's a camera looking out front, this is where it's mounted. It looked up front between that and the radar plate, you have things like what you see right here, which is an advanced uh, cruise control. Uh, so a smart cruise control as well as a lane keeping assist. This is all part of that safety sense because you've got sensors looking forward. You have that here. One thing I don't have here is I don't have a leather trim steering wheel, which means it's not a heated steering wheel. This actually feels perfectly fine, but if you got in this car, that's one hint that maybe this isn't a higher end trim than it actually is. Coming back over here we showed you the drive modes. Let's just come down a few other things here. You've got the auto stop start, which most people hate.
Um, but in theory it does help you with efficiency. It can turn itself off at a stop light or something like that and you can cancel that if you wanted to. You also have hill dissent control something that's not needed in a non off-road vehicle, but if you're camping you can hit this button and it can hold a slow speed descent without having to touch your brakes. It's kind of cool how that works. Automatic transmission here, easy to use. You've got cup holders in here and compared to the sport model, you still have the same glove box but you missed that tray that comes across here. So you have to make a deal with your salesperson to take that out of a higher trim level if that's what you really want. Over here you've got a couple nice things here. The great here, again, same as the higher trim levels.
It gives the illusion that this entire thing is event on the Hyundai Tucson. It actually can be events, but on this uh, Honda, um, Honda CR-V, you've got the events here, the events there, and then just the consistent look across there. But I will say this is all nice stuff. This is a softer rubber, it's not a hard plastic. Shutting the doors, feeling things, all of that feels like a much higher end trim and that's a good thing. Now let's take a look at me for one second before we wrap up inside. So taking a look at me in the driver's seat. Again, I'm six feet tall, I have immense headroom. Now if you are shorter and you wanna raise the seat, not a problem. You can do that. The sail are a little bit high, so you're gonna wanna raise the seat if you're a little bit shorter.
But um, you know, I think that's part of safety, it's part of styling. It's fine. It's not like you're super buried in this car or anything like that. Uh, but yeah, visibility is very good forward, especially a pretty good back. Uh, as well. You know, some SUVs are better than others. This one's uh, mid pack, certainly not bad. Uh, but yeah, driver's comfort is fantastic. These seats are very comfortable. You could definitely drive this for a long time. And with having these sort of lane keeping type functions, Honda Safety sense type functions, this is a very, very easy car to drive a long distance and it's very comfortable to do that. And again, the duals own climate control is just one of those little things you don't see in base models. You can keep your passengers comfort comfortable, uh, separate than you. So great road trip vehicle.
So let's talk about who this car is for. Well first of all, if your crossover has to have all-wheel drive, this doesn't have it in this trim line and therefore it's not for you. It does have though a lot of safety features. If you're looking for a safe car this has that, it has not just good crash performance, I'm sure it has that, but a good, uh, crash avoidance things. And that's a big piece of modern day safety. Visibility's good comfort is excellent and you can go on a road trip without any issues. I really like that it has the duals zone, climate control and then rear seat stuff as well. If you're taking rear seat passengers for a compact crossover that has grown a little tiny bit, like I said, just a few inches, not enough to change the way it drives or parks, but enough to give you that extra little bit of space in the back.
Those 90 degree doors, not something that shows up great on video, but opening those rear doors 90 degrees really allows you to get stuff in and outta the back seat. It's got a big trunk, it's known for Honda Reliability. It's just a very, very good car. And not at all a base level car compared to what base level cars used to be. If I was to knock it. Honda continues to feel that this is a upper priced vehicle. Now on the base model, I don't really have a problem with that because although it's a base model with front wheel drive, you, they've equipped it with enough safety equipment, enough luxury features that I don't mind it. But the nice thing about being here at Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals is virtually all of this compe, the competitors to this car are right next to it.
You can compare the Nissan Rogue, you compare the Hyundai Kia, all those kinds of things. Everything you want to compare is pretty much right next to it Mazda as well. So you've got the option to see which one you like better. And this base model really impressed me. So let me know what you wanna know. Do you wanna know more about this Honda CRV, the 2023 model? Is there something that you want me to show you? Let me know when the comments below and if you have a 2023, let me know what you love about it. And uh, again, I'll try to answer your comments in those, answer your questions in the comments below and I'll also make future videos. Thanks for watching.
Full financing Available 0-Down Those 90 degree doors, not something that shows up great on video, but opening those rear doors 90 degrees really allows you to get stuff in and outta the back seat. It's got a big trunk, it's known for Honda Reliability. It's just a very, very good car. And not at all a base level car compared to what base level cars used to be. If I was to knock it. Honda continues to feel that this is a upper priced vehicle. Now on the base model, I don't really have a problem with that because although it's a base model with front wheel drive, you, they've equipped it with enough safety equipment, enough luxury features that I don't mind it. But the nice thing about being here at Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals is virtually all of this compe, the competitors to this car are right next to it.
You can compare the Nissan Rogue, you compare the Hyundai Kia, all those kinds of things. Everything you want to compare is pretty much right next to it Mazda as well. So you've got the option to see which one you like better. And this base model really impressed me. So let me know what you wanna know. Do you wanna know more about this Honda CRV, the 2023 model? Is there something that you want me to show you? Let me know when the comments below and if you have a 2023, let me know what you love about it. And uh, again, I'll try to answer your comments in those, answer your questions in the comments below and I'll also make future videos. Thanks for watching.