Test Drive: 2013 Honda Crosstour EX-L 2WD

2013 Honda Crosstour. Click image to enlarge

Review and photos by Simon Hill

While Honda’s Crosstour can hardly be considered a new model, you’d be forgiven if you thought it was: Honda has only sold about 3,000 examples of this unusual-looking crosshatchagon since it was introduced to Canadians back in 2010, so despite the passage of time there remain precious few examples on the road and likely only a handful outside of major metropolitan areas.

Honda apparently believes the lack of uptake results from confusion among potential buyers, with American Honda’s assistant Vice President of Product Planning Vicki Poponi admitting that “People weren’t exactly sure what it was [because] it was a tweener.” Meaning it sits between segments, known commodities like crossovers, hatchbacks and wagons.

Note the past tense, because Honda has apparently fixed the problem: It has revised the styling so that the Crosstour looks… umm… almost exactly the same as it did before, and it has added a four-cylinder front-wheel-drive powertrain to the lineup, giving the crosshatchagon (which is what I think you should call vehicles in this micro-segment) a new lower price.

The changes don’t stop there, either: six-cylinder all-wheel-drive models get more power and a new six-speed automatic with paddle-shifters (there’s no front-drive V6 option anymore), and there are improved interior materials for all models, available push-button start and forward collision warning, available blind-spot display and lane-departure warning, a new Kona Coffee colour, plus a few other changes.

I wasn’t able to try out the improved six-cylinder power because my test car had the newly available four-cylinder engine. Suffice to say that the 3.5L V6 now makes an additional 7 horsepower for a total of 278 hp and 252 lb-ft of torque. That should certainly be plenty enough power because my four-cylinder test car already had enough power for comfortable daily driving thanks to its familiar 2.4L i-VTEC inline four, which in this application produces 192 hp and 162 lb-ft of torque, comes mated to a five-speed automatic, and will push the 1,631 kg Crosstour from 0–100 km/h in about 10.5 seconds.

2013 Honda Crosstour. Click image to enlarge

I also wasn’t able to really see the styling changes without digging up photos of the outgoing 2012 model for some side-by-side comparisons. Honda says the Crosstour has “a more rugged, active, and premium look.” Certainly it has new contrasting lower cladding, SUV-like bumper underguards and a chunkier, more deeply sculpted front fascia with bigger fog light surrounds, but what still strikes me most about the Crosstour, and pulls my attention away from any minor styling details, are the vehicle’s unique and unusual proportions.

My neighbours, who are perennially in the market for a new car (just as soon as their old car stops refusing to die) thought the Crosstour looked kind of cool and useful, and asked me all about price and performance. Personally, I think it looks rather bulbous and heavy at the rear end, but the styling didn’t bother me any from behind the wheel, so there you go.

Space-wise the Crosstour’s sloping rear end means it isn’t as big inside as a typical crossover, but it does offer a lot more usable interior space than a typical mid-size sedan, with 728 L of cargo space when the rear seats are up and 1,453 L with the seats folded (although you’ll need to load around the rear wheel wells, which intrude rather deeply into the cargo area just aft of the rear seats). The cargo area is easily accessed thanks to the big hatch, and there’s a useful and appropriately sized removable bin hidden under the cargo area floor, and reversible floor panels in case you have messy cargo.

2013 Honda Crosstour. Click image to enlarge

Outside, the Crosstour’s footprint is comparable to a crossover (it’s slightly longer and narrower than the Honda Pilot) but it is substantially lower and as a result has car-like handling with a comfortable ride, fairly crisp reflexes, and limited body roll – so if that’s more important to you than the ultimate in interior space then the Crosstour might make sense for you.

2013 Honda Crosstour. Click image to enlarge

Without a 2012 model to compare against I found it difficult to pinpoint exactly where the interior materials have been upgraded, but I did note that there are soft-touch materials on all the door uppers and centre panels, while most of the rest of the interior (including the dash) is built of rigid plastic. My test car’s EX-L trim included heated leather power seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel, dark woodgrain dash accents and a nice-sounding 360-watt seven-speaker sound system, among other features.

The interior design is basically identical to the previous-generation Accord sedan on which the Crosstour is based, which given that the sedan’s interior has since been redesigned does at least mean that the Crosstour’s interior is now distinct in appearance. It’s still a pretty good-looking setup, although I found some of the controls a little cumbersome (the phone’s dial-by-number interface was particularly unwieldy). The gauges have eye-catching blue-illuminated pointers and hubs that garnered praise from everyone.

On the whole, I guess it speaks well of the Crosstour’s generally refined interior that I kept finding myself searching for the map button and being surprised to find the car didn’t have navigation. That actually brings up a bit of a complaint, which is that navigation, as well as push-button start and proximity entry, are only available on the V6 models. I suppose the reasoning here is that there’s a limit to how finely Honda can parse its markets and the Crosstour is, after all, already a niche product.

Happily a whole bunch of other new features are available with the four-cylinder EX-L trim, so my test car had Bluetooth streaming audio, text and email capability, HondaLink with audio touchscreen, plus the lane departure warning, forward collision alert, LaneWatch blind spot display (which is like a back-up camera for the passenger’s side blind spot, actuated by the signal lever) and the previously mentioned woodgrain dash accents.

2013 Honda Crosstour. Click image to enlarge

Overall, I found the Crosstour easy to live with, if a bit odd-looking. It drives much like an Accord, which is a good thing. It offers comfortable seating for both front and rear occupants (my six-foot teenage son fit in the back with no complaints). It’s quiet, and it has plenty of cargo space for most day-to-day and road trip needs. It’s also reasonably good on gas provided you aren’t doing a lot of short-hop driving: Rated city/highway numbers for the four-cylinder Crosstour are 9.4 / 6.4 L/100 km, and I got close to this with a best around-town reading of 10.7 L/100 km once the Crosstour was fully warmed up, but I found it took a solid five kilometres of driving before the average trip economy dropped below the mid-teens. On the highway, however, the Crosstour’s car-like front profile makes it easy to achieve good numbers.

The four-cylinder Crosstour EX starts at $30,630, while the four-cylinder EX-L (as tested) goes for $34,230 and the top-of-the-line V6 EX-L Navi is $40,930 (all prices including destination fees). With the new base sticker, this means the Crosstour can now go head-to-head on price with Toyota’s base four-cylinder Venza, which starts at $30,380 and Subaru Outback at $30,090 are the most direct competitors out there. Given the Venza has outsold the Crosstour more than 10:1 over the past couple of years it’s a savvy move on Honda’s part, and should help put the Crosstour on the radar for at least a few new cross-segment shoppers.

Pricing: 2013 Honda Crosstour EX-L 2WD
Base Price: $28,990
Base Price (EX-L 2WD Trim): $32,590
Options: None
Freight: $1,640
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $34,330

Competitors:
Subaru Outback
Toyota Venza