Two and a half years ago, more or less, I drove to Inverness along the A82, the main route north through the western part of Scotland, in a diesel-engined Honda CR-V. It's not a road I use often, and in fact I probably hadn't travelled through Fort Augustus, Invergarry, Drumnadrochit and all the rest more than a couple of times since then until the other day, when I found myself embarking on the same journey in another diesel CR-V.The road hasn't changed much, but the car has, and you can read the full details in our launch report. Briefly, the situation is that this is the most aggressive-looking CR-V yet, bearing absolutely no resemblance to the first-generation model which came on the scene in 1997, and it has a most splendid amount of space both for passengers and for a handsome amount of luggage. It's not at all beyond the bounds of reason that four full-grown adults could take a CR-V on holiday without feeling unduly cramped.The odd handbrake position of the previous model has been abandoned in favour of one that's much more sensible. Visibility, on the other hand, is almost exactly as bad as before, despite a radical change in the shape of the rear side windows.The 148bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine remains more or less unchanged. I don't think it's the best diesel in the world (though I still remember a Honda marketing person assuring me, before it went into production, that it would be) but it's powerful enough, and during this test, which involved an above-average amount of braking for tight corners and accelerating out of them, its fuel consumption stayed above 40mpg.Thanks to excellent soundproofing, the engine isn't at all noisy once it's up to normal operating temperature, though now and again you can still hear that familiar alternator drive whine which Honda, for some reason, seems to find it spectacularly difficult to eradicate.Altogether, this CR-V is roomy, practical, sufficiently quick and pleasantly economical. Not a bad set of qualities for an SUV, I'm sure you'll agree.But I did not enjoy driving it along the A82. As mentioned in the launch report, Honda calls the CR-V's road behaviour "car-like", which is true only up to a point. On very smooth tarmac, both the ride (helped in the case of the SE by 17" wheels rather than the 18s fitted to the more expensive SR and EX) and the handling are excellent.First sign of a bump, though, and the whole business turns to worms. When confronted with a less than ideal surface, the CR-V can't deal with its own weight. It bucks all over the place in a manner that is immediately uncomfortable and might, in extreme situations, become difficult to control. There was no sign of this with the last CR-V, and I don't see why it should be a problem now.Petrol-engined CR-Vs are much better in this respect, as well as being more than £2000 cheaper to buy. Running costs will, of course, be considerably higher, though as ever you would need to drive a long way each year for this diesel to become the more sensible option financially. That won't, however, be the case to the same extent with the more economical 1.6-litre diesel which is being introduced to the range. Engine 2199cc, 4 cylinders Power 148bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 50.4mpg / 149g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.7 seconds Top speed 118mph Price £26,570 Details correct at publication date
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