Honda is finally readying an all-new 2023 CR-V. It’s such a distinct vehicle, and has carried its unique design cues that make it a CR-V from one generation to the next, to the point that we really don’t need to guess what it’ll look like. Nevertheless, Honda has been teasing us with CR-V images over the last few weeks, with images recently released of the front fascia and interior. It’s when I saw the interior, I noticed something: this is an all-new vehicle, but we’ve seen this interior before.

Take a close look at that dash and tell me it doesn’t look exactly like the interior of the Civic.

With the CR-V being an all-new vehicle, I had to wonder why Honda didn’t maybe try a bit harder to create a more unique-to-its design interior. I mean, if they can carry over something like the CR-V’s signature long tail lights to every generation, they could’ve given it a more CR-V-specific interior right? Wanting answers, I reached out to Honda to see what they had to say about it.

I was told that the interior of the CR-V isn’t based on the Civic or new HR-V but rather all three share design features. Honda calls its new interior design language “Simplicity and Something”, the main feature of which is the mesh, metal accent that runs across the dash on the Civic, CR-V, and HR-V. Some would say that that’s where the similarity comes from. I’d disagree and say it’s more than that. Everything is the same, right down to button placement. Rather than say it’s identical, Honda says the button placement is “familial” (Honda’s words). I mean, sure.

While it’s good to have a sense of familiarity between vehicles, seeing as this is an all-new model, they could have tried harder; it could have been more unique, or as quirky as the CR-V has been. Make no mistake though, none of this is to say that the design is bad. It’s not. I personally think these three interiors are some of the best Honda has ever made. I just don’t like to be sold on something as being new and unique when it appears to be a copy and paste job inside of a different vehicle.