We often give the 1994 Toyota RAV4 big ups for pioneering the “crossover SUV” as we know it today: 4x4 ride height and styling, but with a road-car platform underneath.
However, you could argue Honda deserves equal billing for its first-generation CR-V. The RAV4 was a three-door to begin with, remember, and the five-door didn’t come along until 1995: the same year the original CR-V (below) was launched.
Toyota still got there first – March compared with October for the Honda – but the CR-V did the lifestyle thing more successfully.
It was properly spacious and boasted a bunch of surprise-and-delight features, including a boot platform that could be removed and used as a picnic table, a flat cabin floor with a stowaway table between the front seats so you could walk through to the back, a 4x4-style side-hinged tailgate with separate-opening glass window… even an optional portable shower attachment for those big days out.
The AWD system was innovative at the time, too: a mechanical “dual pump” system that only sent drive to the back when the front wheels started to spin.
Honda was pretty cautious about the potential of the CR-V in the early days. It was intended mainly for the Japanese domestic market and only sold through select dealerships. But then, this whole crossover/SUV thing really took off, and the rest is history.
New Zealand was one of the first export markets have it: launched here in 1996, a year ahead of Europe and the US. The picnic table survived into the second generation model (2001, pictured top of page), but was gone for the next version in 2006. There’s an all-new CR-V coming this year: it’s not too late to make changes, Honda.