And there is no mention on what the tires on the 2012 were. Original tires with X miles of wear or even new tires could make a difference.
Having test drove many CUV’s in the class and having owned the previous gen (2011) CRV, I have a hard time believing they newer gen with a CVT would be quieter.
Also, why only compare only to the Escape.
It’s not an SUV, but, I had a chance to ride around all afternoon, on the interstate, dirt roads and around town in his 2017 Honda Ridgeline. It was very quite. Honda has somehow managed to make their version of a Truck very quiet. I would try out a Pilot for 2017 as a possibility.
The current generation weighs 100 pounds more than the outgoing edition, and a large percentage of that weight went to sound deadening to alleviate specific complaints about noise in the last generation.
CVT or not, the current edition shows a lower reading on a decibel meter at the same speed, on the same stretch of road.
Tires on the 2012 were Bridgestone Dueler H/P Sport AS 225/65R17, which got a 7.0 rating for noise (rated “Excellent” (6.6 - 8.5) in Tire Rack’s rating system). No data on how old they were at the time.
Looking back at a press photo from 2012, the OE tires were Continental CrossContact LX in the same size. Those received a marginally higher score of 8.0 (also in Tire Rack’s “Excellent” bracket) for noise.
We compared the Escape because we had access to it the very same day, and it was a comparison a reader asked us to perform. The Escape, with the wipers on and rain falling, was quieter than the CR-V was on dry pavement.
Hi @DesertRambler. John from BestRide and CarTalk here. I loved this question. I’ve driven all of the usual suspects in testing. Now, I don’t use sound meters in testing, but I do note which vehicles are quiet relative to one another. This year the one that stuck out in my mind was the RAV4 Hybrid. I suspect its unusually high weight and low engine noise (zero engine noise at times) help it. The quietest crossover of all to my ear is the Lexus RX 450H hybrid. Same reasons perhaps. I will also add this: On the highway, the two main contributors are wind noise and tires. No secret there. However, around town, I love the rare crossovers with “high” profile tires. In other words, not the large diameter rims shod with sports car tires. I feel the added sidewall makes the car more livable and quieter over rough roads. I hope that helps. Full disclosure, I don’t own either of the vehicles I mention above. I drive a low-mid trim 16 Forester. It is louder than most on the highway.
Any other comments on the Rav4 hybrid? I’ve been thing about getting one at some point.
Fantastic vehicle. The engine is more torquey than the rest of the affordable compact crossovers and the fuel economy I got was crazy-repeatable. It seemed to get about 33 MPG no matter what I did with it. The snow didn’t slow it down one bit either. It uses an electric AWD drive with the rear drive divorced from the front-drive system, and in normal driving in snow it is super. I found it more refined than the RAV4 Limited and XLE which I have also driven. The only negative for the RAV4 was it scored poorly on a special crash test IIHS conducted. They crashed it on the “other” side. Meaning passenger side. The test revealed it was a bit less well reinforced than its peers in the segment. That may be fixed for a coming model year, or may already have been for 2017. On the plus side for safety, my understanding is all RAV4s now have standard emergency auto-braking, which was a $1200 adder for my Forester (as part of a package).
Just about any other car is quieter. I turn the stereo off in our 2005 CR-V when going over 50MPH (same for our 2011 Corolla LE). I plan to “accidentally” drive onto an interstate the next time I shop for a car and check the noise level at 70 with the stereo pre-set to a conversational level.