A very nice Honda CR-V, seen parked on the pavement in my old compound in east Beijing. The good old Honda was in a very fine shape, painted in silver and fitted with an after-market bull and side bars. The 京H·G8585 license plate adds some extra cool.
The second generation Honda CR-V was manufactured from 2001 until 2006 with a late facelift in 2005. Production in China started in 2004. It was in fact the very first Honda produced by the then-new Dongfeng-Honda joint venture. However, the early cars were more assembled than produced, with the majority of parts being shipped in from abroad. Therefore, the early ‘China-made’ CR-V’s have some unique features, like a dash-mounted shifter for the automatic gearbox and a lack of Dongfeng badges.
The Dongfeng-Honda CR-V was available with two four-cylinder ‘i-VTEC’ petrol engines: a 2.0 with 150 hp and 190 Nm and a 2.4 with 160 hp and 220 Nm. The 2.0 was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic, the 2.4 to a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic. Price in China in 2004 started at 220.800 yuan.
The interior had five comfortable seats in a unusual beige color scheme. We can’t really see that here because of the seat covers but you can have a look at this period factory photo. The CR-V with automatic gearbox had the shifter mounted on the dashboard, next to the instrument panel. The handbrake was located on the dashboard too, sitting on the left side of the center stack. It had some sweet goodies on board, including power windows and a radio/cassette/CD-player with a 6-dics CD changer.
Like the front bar, the rear bumper bar was a popular after market extra in the early 2000’s. The roof rack and spare wheel cover were factory standard.
These very early Dongfeng-Honda CR-V SUV’s are very rare in China. Local production only started in earnest with the third generation CR-V, which arrived in 2007.
The Honda totally blocked the sidewalk, but at least I could still seat on the freshly painted public bench, made of iron bard and wood, which was subtly set in concrete.