This Is Honda: The 2020 Honda CR-V Touring

The 2020 Honda CR-V Touring.

About the headline.  Yes, Honda makes several cars.  All of them very, very good cars.  But the CR-V is Honda in the sense that it is the best-selling vehicle Honda makes and it embodies pretty much every virtue that has made Honda what it is for the past 40-plus years.

More Show, More Go: The 2020 Honda Civic Si

The 2020 Honda Civic Si.

Let's just state a basic fact here:  The Honda Civic is a fine compact car, and except for a lost period in the early aughts through the middle of the last decade, would usually be my choice if I were playing with my own money.

But what if you want just a little more---pizazz?  Just a bit more flash and a bit more go power?  If you buy the base LX or the one-step-up Sport, you get 158 horsepower.  EX, EXL and Touring models get you 174.

Sure, there's the fire-breathing Civic Type R with 306 horsepower, but that's crazy and $36,995.

Pilot, Black: The 2020 Honda Pilot Black Edition

The 2020 Honda Pilot Black Edition.

Have you noticed how many cars have started going dark? As in black trim, black wheels---everything black? It's as if Darth Vader had joined the design studios of several automakers at once.

This past summer, we tested the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Limited S, which followed this formula, and now Honda brings us the Honda Pilot Black Edition.

Goldilocks' Own Honda: The 2020 Honda Insight Touring

The 2020 Honda Insight Touring.

If I say "Honda", you might say "Civic". Or "Accord". Or "CR-V". Odds are, you won't say "Insight". You might not even know there is such a car as the Honda Insight. And if you do, you probably have the wrong impression of it.

21 years ago, the first Honda Insight came along---a hybrid, to do battle with the Toyota Prius. It was funny looking (even compared to the Prius) and only a two-seater, which made it impractical for families. It flopped and was pulled from the market after seven years.

11 years ago, the second Honda Insight appeared. Also a hybrid, it had seating for five and looked like someone laid a sheet of tracing paper over a picture of a Prius and then blurred the details a bit so the lawyers could relax. It cost less than a Prius. But it was smaller inside than the Toyota, was slower than the Prius and still got worse gas mileage. It was dead and gone in five years. Strike two.

Last year, Honda brought back the Insight name but applied it to a new four-door sedan. It's a hybrid again, this time with an EPA fuel economy estimate of 51 miles per gallon highway and 45 city.

And it's darn near perfect.

Beginnings: The 2019 Honda HR-V AWD Touring

The 2019 Honda HR-V AWD Touring.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, there was a perfect car for young people starting out on their own---the compact hatchback. Everybody made 'em. Everybody bought 'em. And with good reason---they were Corollas and Civics and whatever Datsun/Nissan was calling its small car that year, but instead of a trunk, the whole back end opened up, the rear seats folded flat and you could carry stuff without driving a station wagon.

Somewhere along the line, the word "hatchback" became as uncool as the term "station wagon"---but they're actually back. They're now the smallest of the small crossover sport-utility vehicles---the Nissan Kicks, the Toyota C-HR and the Honda HR-V.

Third Time's A Charm: The 2019 Honda Insight Touring

The 2019 Honda Insight Touring.

Honda, the carmaker that very rarely gets it wrong, has done so at least twice---ten years apart.

In 1999, Honda decided to be the first with a hybrid in North America.  The first-generation Insight beat the original Toyota Prius to showrooms by seven months.  The head start was of little help.  In seven years, just as the second-gen Prius was setting sales records, Honda pulled the plug on the Insight.  It was funny-looking (even compared to the Prius) and impractical, as it had only two seats.

Honda regrouped and in 2009, came back with an Insight that looked like it was meant to compete head-to-head with the Prius.  Seating for five, styling that looked like someone had pretty much put a sheet of tracing paper over a Prius brochure and then made some adjustments to keep the lawyers happy.

It died in five years.  It might have looked better than the first and been a couple of thousand dollars less than a Prius, but it wasn't nearly as good as a Prius.

Well, here we are, living in a year ending with a "9", and here comes Honda again---with the third Insight.

And it's just plain tremendous.

That Certain Something: The 2019 Honda Passport AWD Elite

The 2019 Honda Passport AWD Elite.

One of the things that I love about cars is their ability to start conversations.  Driving one or more shiny new cars every week for 22 years is not a job for introverts.  Fortunately, I'm not one.  The interesting thing is that you can never quite tell which car will cause total strangers to walk up to you and start asking questions, offering opinions and the like.

I would not have guessed the 2019 Honda Passport AWD Elite would be one of those cars, but it is.

Third Time's A Charm: The 2019 Honda Insight

2019 Honda Insight.

Honda, the carmaker that very rarely gets it wrong, has done so at least twice---ten years apart. 

In 1999, Honda decided to be the first with a hybrid in North America.  The first-generation Insight beat the original Toyota Prius to showrooms by seven months.  The head start was of little help.  In seven years, just as the second-gen Prius was setting sales records, Honda pulled the plug on the Insight.  It was funny-looking (even compared to the Prius) and impractical, as it had only two seats.

Honda regrouped and in 2009, came back with an Insight that looked like it was meant to compete head-to-head with the Prius.  Seating for five, styling that looked like someone had pretty much put a sheet of tracing paper over a Prius brochure and then made some adjustments to keep the lawyers happy. 

It died in five years.  It might have looked better than the first and been a couple of thousand dollars less than a Prius, but it wasn't nearly as good as a Prius---a point that I drove home in a June, 2009 review.

Well, here we are, living in a year ending with a "9", and here comes Honda again---with the third Insight.

And it's just plain tremendous. 

One of Three: The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In

The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.

After a year of being a California-only, fuel cell-only vehicle, Honda has expanded the Clarity model lineup to include a pure electric and a plug-in hybrid. 

The fuel cell model, running on hydrogen with a range of 366 miles, is of limited use even in the state of California, since once outside the metropolitan Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento areas, hydrogen filling stations are few and far between.  The pure electric is limited by a range of just 89 miles.  This, at a time when the Tesla Model 3 can break 300, properly equipped, the Hyundai Kona EV is good for 258 and the Chevy Bolt 238.  The latest generation of the Nissan Leaf now boasts a range of 150 miles. 

The Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is, then, the one of the most usefulness to the greatest number of people, since it can be bought outright (the fuel cell and pure electric are available through lease only) and boasts a combined range of 340 miles.

Keeper: The 2018 Honda Accord 2.0T Touring

The 2018 Honda Accord 2.0T Touring.

Confession:  It's pretty cool writing about cars.  Every Wednesday, someone takes away the old and delivers the new. There's no time to get bored with any one machine.  Heck, rarely enough time for the car to get dirty enough that you might consider a run to the car wash.

And then there are the ones that you wish for more time with.  The ones that have you saying, "If the testers stopped tomorrow, I could live with this car from here on out."  They are few and far between, these cars.  But the 2018 Honda Accord 2.0T Touring is absolutely one of them.

Vehicular Fitness: The 2018 Honda Fit Sport

The 2018 Honda Fit Sport.

When you want to offer a "sport" version of a car, but can't offer a more powerful engine, it's time for paint, trim pieces, black wheels and a six-speed manual.

That, in a nutshell, is the formula for the 2018 Honda Fit Sport.

Battle Wagon: The 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite

The 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite.

About that headline...

For all the talk about how the hottest segment of the market is in small crossovers (which is true), the tightest battle in the biz is between minivans.  Only a few thousand copies a year separate the Chrysler Pacifica, Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey.  The Pacifica being the newest design and an excellent interpretation of what a contemporary minivan should be, it's gained a slight advantage over the Sienna and Odyssey, which haven't seen a re-design since 2011.

Until now, that is.  The Sienna is still awaiting an update...but the new Odyssey is here now.  And it's more than ready for battle.

Niche No More: The 2017 Honda CR-V AWD Touring

The 2017 Honda CR-V AWD Touring.

Nine years ago, when I was launching TireKicker, small SUVs were just starting to catch on.  They had a nickname: "Cute-Utes".  And, if that sounds somewhat dismissive, well, I guess it was.  It suggested that they weren't really up to the task that, in those days, we assigned to Ford Explorers and Chevy Tahoes.

What a difference nine-tenths of a decade makes.  The landscape has changed so much that not only is the Honda CR-V outselling Explorers and Tahoes, it is, for the year so far, the fifth-best selling vehicle in the USA.

The Truck With a Trunk...and Tricks: The 2017 Honda Ridgeline

The 2017 Honda Ridgeline AWD Black Edition.

There was talk that the Honda Ridgeline (at the time ten years into its first and only generation) would leave us about mid-decade.  Honda instead gives us an all-new one, just in time for the boom in mid-size pickup trucks.  And the good news is that this Ridgeline is still weird.

Economize Accordingly: The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring

The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring.

The Honda Accord is what the late David E. Davis, Junior, the man who more than any other, made me want to write about cars, would have called "A G--damn paragon of virtue".  Few cars can equal it in terms of value, fuel economy and overall excellence.

But what if the EPA-estimated 27 miles per gallon in the city and 37 miles per gallon in the highway provided by the four-cylinder Honda Accord is just not enough?

Mojo Restoration In Progress: The 2016 Honda Civic 1.5T 2-Door Touring

The 2016 Honda Civic 1.5T 2-Door Touring.

Most of this decade has been spent by professional TireKickers like myself lamenting how Honda in general and the Civic in particular had lost its mojo.  Once the hippest of the hip, the car company that could do no wrong in the eighties and nineties---the company that, I maintain, WAS Apple in that it produced beautiful, simple things that worked and that people were willing to line up and pay more for.

The turnaround began in earnest a couple of years ago.  And we're seeing the fruits of it in the 2016 Honda Civic 1.5T 2-door Touring.

The Prodigal Returns: The 2016 Honda Civic EX

The 2016 Honda Civic EX.

32 years ago, on this very planet, Honda leap-frogged itself and the competition.  The car was the 1984 Civic, and Car and Driver's rave review, written by the not-yet-legendary Jean Lindamood, ended with the phrase "Damn, she's a fine one.  Our orders are in."  That, and a comparison drive of a Civic and then a Corolla, caused me to put my order in as well.

What's In A Name? The 2016 Honda Accord Sport

The 2016 Honda Accord Sport.

You could be excused for thinking the phrase "Honda Accord Sport" is an oxymoron.  Some of you might think the words "Honda Accord" and "Sport" would act like magnets that push each other apart.

As with most things in life, and especially in automobiles, the word "Sport" here is relative.

What's New?: The 2016 Honda Fit EX-L with Navigation

The 2016 Honda Fit.

What's new with the 2016 Honda Fit? Apart from a $265 price increase, nothing.

And that's a good thing.

Changes: The 2016 Honda Pilot AWD Elite

The 2016 Honda Pilot AWD Elite.

With nearly 300 different nameplates on the market, there's no way to drive them all in 52 weeks unless you're a major outlet with a large staff (Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Road & Track, Automobile). TireKicker aspires to that, but we're not there yet.  With two writers, one in Arizona and myself in Northern California, we manage to drive and review a shade over 100 vehicles each year.

If we're not in a certain car one year, we'll probably see it the next.  Worst case, the year after that.  So how is it possible that our last review of the Honda Pilot was seven years ago this week?   So much has changed since that review....most of all, the Honda Pilot itself.