One of the bigger regrets I had with my Subaru Forester was that it was silver. This is not Subaru’s fault. This was my fault. I’d not given it much thought, to be honest, and thought it might end up looking more blue because that’s what the name implied (I think the color name is “Odin’s Bathwater”). It didn’t, and then I feel like everyone in my community bought the identical car, making it impossible to find in parking lots.
When it was time to replace the Subaru, I knew I wasn’t going to make this mistake. I was going to get a bold and exciting color. Since I eventually came around to buying a CR-V Hybrid, this left me with two good options: Radiant Red Metallic or Canyon River Blue Metallic.
I always try to be avant-garde, and I knew people with blue CR-Vs, but no one with a new red CR-V. This would be the solution to my parking lot woes! There was only one red CR-V in my neighborhood that I would regularly see, and there was no way people would confuse the two vehicles.
I have a deep respect for this first-generation CR-V, which has added every factory option imaginable to the little crossover and then created some that Honda never imagined possible. It’s a truly spectacular car with a level of CR-V love and attention to unnecessary detail I could never hope to attain with my own car.
The CR-V debuted around 1995 as the company’s attempt at building a crossover/SUV-type thing for an American market that all of a sudden was way more interested in boxier vehicles. This vehicle has now been around for 30 years and six generations, and it’s remarkable how good the first generation still looks. An AWD one of these with a manual has to be a great car if you can still find one in decent shape (it’s a Honda, so it’s possible). Also, you might get a bonus picnic table.
A CR-V expert might be able to tell you exactly which year CR-V this one is, but it is definitely a first-generation vehicle.
I sort of remember seeing these spare tire carriers when this vehicle debuted, though maybe only Japanese models? Either way, the color-matched color with the white Honda letters and black-outlined model name is spectacular. I sort of want a full-sized spare tire carrier for my own CR-V, as it doesn’t come with another tire due to the hybrid battery.
I’m guessing the mirror shade and the little wide-angle insert are not stock. Also, the CR-V feels roughly four feet long, so I’m not sure how helpful the insert is. The CR-V also has a giant greenhouse, so visibility is probably great (front nose visibility in my car is wanting, but it’s good in every other direction).
Those are definitely the stock five-spoke Honda wheels, but I can’t find any image of these with the red stud cover, red lugs, or anything else that’s going on here. I’d love to think of the Honda CR-V as being the progenitor of painted brakes, though you don’t see a lot of painted drums these days.
The front disc brakes are the correct color, but they have red calipers, which is hilarious. There’s also a bit of rocker protection that seems to be a Honda accessory piece that looks perfect here, filling in the gap between the wheels. The little pinstriping on the bumper is also pretty obviously aftermarket. The spoiler might be a JDM piece, but I don’t think it’s a USDM option.
Given that the taillights are baked into the D-pillar, the blacked-out treatment here works really well, I think.
Again, the sub-bumper protection looks like a real Honda CR-V accessory, albeit one that seems more popular with Japanese tuners.
The push bar, smoked headlights, and blacked-out grille feel very NOPI catalogue, which is appropriate for the era, if not 100% my taste. The addition of an LED light strip is the one big anachronism here, as this wasn’t a real option when this car debuted. Again, it’s not my car, so whatever the driver wants to do is his or her business.
I love it, though, and I’d have been happy to be the only two red CR-Vs in town. That didn’t happen. Sometimes you’re the avant-garde, and sometimes you’re just a dude who keeps buying the same car as everyone else because, in contrast to your self-image of being an iconoclast, you’re just a regular dad consumer like everyone else. They’re everywhere. My babysitter’s mom just bought an identical one. Do you remember my friend, the Grand Highlander-owning professor? The same day I finally caught this car sitting still, he texted me a photo of his mom’s new car.
It’s a red, AWD Sport-trim CR-V Hybrid, basically an identical car to mine. Maybe 100% identical. So perhaps my making light of his purchasing a Grand Highlander like everyone else is just projection on my part, since anyone who didn’t need the third row seems to have bought the red Honda.
Oh well, maybe when it’s out of warranty, I can discreetly start modifying it. These Hondas tend to last forever, so I’ve got time.
All photos by the Author
There are still 4 or 5 of these first-gen CR-Vs in my town – they must be absolute tanks!
We had ’98 for twenty years. Best car I’ve ever owned (not withstanding the Miata).
Green, auto, with AWD. My only regret was not getting the optional antilock brakes – had I known we were going to own it that long, I’d have sprung for the I want to say $800 option.
11/10 no notes
My parents have two red CR-Vs, of different model years.
That generation of CR-V has a fold-away armrest/tray between the front seats. Once folded away, you can actually walk between the front seats to the back. This walk-through feature is something they really need to bring back in new cars.
Define “walk”
You know you have cool taste in cars when you choose the same car as a college professor’s mom.
My neighbor still has one, in FWD/automatic, in a lovely baby blue.
My M&F I-L have a CRV, their third one. I’ve ridden in the back seat on several road trips down to Ladd for the best chicken in the world.
I’ve heard the tire noise, or roar is more like it. Are they all this loud in back?
Does it drive in the left lane going 10 under?
Headlights baked into the D-pillar huh?
red painted drums 🙁
Otherwise, I appreciate the effort. Now all it needs is a B18C swap 😉
I didn’t like them as much as the second gen. The fold back bed seats like a lot of japanese cars had in that era is interesting but they had some weird problems. I know specifically brakes were at least sometimes problematic. People I know that had the first gen parted with them. The 2nd gen is a cockroach of a vehicle. My sister still has one she bought new she just get a new one when many people say she drives an old Honda. I see many of them around still. The 2nd gen has that table too I’m not sure how many people used them but something weird. Brakes are great on those I think the only thing I ever had to do hers were pads once and cvs because the boots were tore.
I had a red Corrado that had plastic center caps on alloy wheels. The plastic didn’t make it to year 3, and looked like crap. I painted them red. This owner may not have had as much inspiration as I did, but it’s the cheesiest of their “upgrades.”
A very high effort CR-V to say the least.
I personally prefer the 2nd generation over the first, as those tend to be borderline indestructible. I know a number of people who claim that to be “the best car they’ve ever had”. Along with a couple who still have theirs 20 years on.
I like the first gen well enough though, even if it never reached the levels of rad that the first gen RAV4 did.