For the new CR-V, Honda has changed little in the way of the interior's functionality, and made incremental improvements in style and passenger and cargo volume.

The manually adjusted seats are upholstered in an attractive cloth material which exhibits typical Honda quality. They provide reasonable support and comfort, but in the interest of easing ingress/egress, the bolsters are rather shallow. The rear seats feature a 60/40 split arrangement, which allows either seatback to be folded forward independently. If more cargo room is necessary, the seats can also slide fore and aft, and be tumbled forward.

The cargo area itself is reasonably large, considering the tiny shadow that the CR-V casts, but with the rear seats up, it's not particularly deep. There's quite a bit of vertical room, so you're better off loading most cargo in a vertical orientation. There are cargo tie down loops that provide secure mounting points for straps or bungee cords in order to secure any loose cargo. Just like the previous model, there's a picnic table hidden in the floor of the cargo area, but it's been made a little larger.

The dashboard sports several textured finishes (now commonplace in new Honda models) which help the plastic appear more expensive and interesting than it really is. The same textured theme continues to the steering wheel, which is reasonably comfortable to grip. Storage bins abound in the CR-V, and one of the most useful ones is right in the dashboard, directly beneath the double-height stereo (with in-dash 6CD Changer on the EX model). In other markets, this piece of real estate can be populated with Honda's excellent GPS Navigation system, but not in the U.S. I found this covered bin quite useful for stashing my wallet, cell phone, Altoids, and Orbit gum. Oddly (given its proximity to the CD PLAYER), it wasn't large enough to fit a standard CD case. Each of the front door features a huge map pocket, where you can stuff the latest issue of Rolling Stone and about as many maps as you own. The rear doors each have two pockets, which we found handy for stowing gameboys and other kid stuff.

The gauge layout is very straightforward, and legible, with a silvery gray "beauty ring" surrounding the 4 primary gauges. An LCD panel displays odometer and tripmeter information. An exterior temp readout within this display would be a nice (and relatively inexpensive) touch.