What’s the Most Economical Honda SUV to Meet Your Needs?
Honda vehicles are well known for delivering a sporty performance that’s fun to drive, has reliable engineering, and comes at a great starting price. This makes Honda SUVs a very budget-friendly and economical option, but there are still some differences between models. If you’re looking at SUVs for sale with an eye toward saving the most money possible, you owe it to yourself to take a good look at the Honda HR-V and CR-V. Both of these models have a lot to offer, and they can save you a lot of money; however, there are some important differences between them.
Ultimately, you’ll have to decide which of these models best meets your needs and fits within your budget. At Ryan Honda of Williston, we’re here to help you figure out all of this, and we’ll take you through some of the most budget-friendly features of these two models to see what they offer. By the end of this, if you’re still unsure which one is right for you, we welcome you to give us a call or come into our dealership, and we’ll help you get everything figured out.
The Honda HR-V and CR-V
We’ve chosen the Honda HR-V and CR-V for a couple of reasons, most of which we’ll get into below as we look at both models. These are the two Honda SUVs with the lowest starting costs, making them two great options to meet a wide range of needs. The HR-V is a subcompact model, while the CR-V is a small crossover that’s slightly larger. These are both very popular options, but it’s worth noting that the CR-V has a hybrid model with a hybrid engine, which you won’t find on the HR-V.
The Honda HR-V by the Numbers
Starting Price
When looking at the cost of an SUV, there’s no better place to start than with its starting retail price, since this will represent your biggest upfront cost. The actual price of an HR-V will depend on the Honda dealer you visit. To keep things simple, we’ll go with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) on both of these vehicles. This will be for their starting trim and baseline features, without any additional options, because that makes things a lot more complicated. The 2023 Honda HR-V starts at $23,650, which is an excellent starting price for a subcompact model like this.[a]
Fuel Economy
Beyond the starting price of a vehicle, you need to consider a wide range of ongoing costs that will impact just how economical it is for you. One of the biggest expenses you’ll need to consider with any vehicle is how much it will cost to keep it running in terms of gas. That comes down to the price of gas, which you can’t control, and the fuel economy of the vehicle you buy; while you can’t control this, you can pick the most efficient SUV possible.
The Honda HR-V, with standard front-Wheel Drive (FWD), gets an EPA-estimated 26 MPG in the city, 32 MPG on the highway, and 28 MPG of combined fuel efficiency.[b] According to the US Department of Energy, the expected annual fuel cost for driving a 2023 HR-V is $2,000. If you choose a model with all-wheel drive (AWD), you lose a bit of efficiency and get an EPA-estimated 25 MPG in the city, 30 MPG on the highway, and 27 MPG combined efficiency, gives you an estimated annual fuel cost of $2,050.[b]
Price to Insure
This is a tricky thing to consider because a tremendous number of factors will impact the cost of insuring your vehicle: where you live, your age, your driving record, and more. That said, we can come up with some simple averages to get a baseline for comparison. In this instance, we’ll use an estimate based on a sample driver who is a 40-year-old male looking for 100/300/100 liability insurance. With this in mind, insurance costs for the Honda HR-V can vary significantly from one provider to the next, being as low as $921 per year at the low end and up to $1,450 per year for the most expensive option. This gives us a median annual insurance cost of about $1,185; remember, it could be quite different for you in reality.
Honda CR-V by the Numbers
Starting Price
Now let’s talk about the Honda CR-V and how much it will cost you. The 2023 CR-V has a starting price of $31,110 for its basic model, which isn’t that much more than the HR-V.[a] If you’re interested in a hybrid model to lower your gas costs, you’re looking at a starting price of $32,450.[a]
Fuel Economy
This is where things get trickier, and one way that the CR-V can be a very economical option is if you can get a model with the available hybrid engine. The 2023 Honda CR-V, with FWD, gets an EPA-estimated 28 MPG in the city, 34 MPG on the highway, and 30 MPG of combined fuel economy, which is superior to the HR-V.[c] According to the US Department of Energy, this gets you an estimated annual fuel cost of $1,850.
If you go with the hybrid model, the CR-V gets an EPA-estimated 43 MPG in the city, 36 MPG on the highway, and 37 MPG of combined fuel economy.[d] This gets you an estimated annual fuel cost of just $1,450 and a longer range from a full tank of gas. It’s important to note that this is much better if you do a lot of city driving, but only slightly better on the highway, so your lifestyle will greatly impact just how much of a benefit it is.
Price to Insure
Once again, this is tricky to know for sure, but we’ll use the same sample driver we used when looking at the HR-V before. On the low end, a CR-V might cost just $900 per year to insure, while a more-expensive provider would charge the same sample driver $1,361 for annual insurance. This gives us a median yearly insurance cost of about $1,130; we can use this to compare to what the HR-V would cost, giving you a rough idea of how much it would cost to insure it.
Experience These Two Great Money-Saving Honda SUVs for Yourself
According to these numbers, the CR-V can potentially save you money in insurance rates and gas costs, which is great news for consumers looking to spend less time at the pumps and keep more money in their wallets. With the HR-V starting at a lower price, we’d say it’s the most economical Honda SUV on the market, but the differences between these two aren’t huge. You’ll get a great deal with either of them, and the long-term savings of the CR-V, especially with a hybrid engine, could be well worth it.
At Ryan Honda of Williston, we invite you to contact us or come down to our dealership to experience their two exceptional fuel efficient models for yourself. Our friendly and knowledgeable sales team would be more than happy to show you everything these two SUVs have to offer and can answer any questions you may have to help you find the perfect model that meets your unique driving needs. Come in today and see why these Honda SUVs are great choices for drivers looking to get behind the wheel of an economical and reliable SUV.
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