I drove Honda’s $43,000 CR-V Hybrid. It’s one of the finest compact SUVs money can buy.

Much like its recently restyled big brother, the Pilot SUV, the CR-V benefits from Honda’s new upright, athletic styling theme, which eschewed the previous generation’s rounded bread loaf looks for a boxier aesthetic.

The vertical tail lamps, which are now LEDs, date back to the original first-generation CR-V and are paired with incandescent turn signals.

The rear bumper features a pair of large chrome exhaust tips, only the right one housing an actual exhaust outlet.

The CR-V is powered by an updated version of the Honda’s trick two-motor hybrid-electric system.

Honda’s hybrid system features an 181 horsepower electric traction motor and a 161 horsepower electric generator motor mounted side-by-side in the engine compartment next to a 145 horsepower, 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine.

Total system output comes with the 204 horsepower and 247 lb.-ft. of torque.

In most instances, the CR-V Hybrid operates as a series hybrid, with the electric motors driving the wheels and the ICE engine focused on charging its small 1.06 kWh battery pack. However, the system can switch to parallel hybrid mode during highway cruising, with the ICE engine connecting to the front axle through a clutch.

The system sends power to the pavement through an E-CVT that’s designed to mimic the feel of a traditional automatic transmission.

My all-wheel-drive CR-V Hybrid Sport Touring boasts EPA fuel economy figures of 40 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, and 37 mpg combined. Front-wheel-drive hybrid models get about three additional mpg.

I was able to achieve roughly 36 mpg during my time behind the wheel.

Unlike many hybrids, which place an electric motor on the rear axle to create a virtual all-wheel-drive system, the CR-V Hybrid uses Honda’s Real Time AWD system with a physical linkage to the rear wheels.

Honda’s Real Time AWD system, available on all trim levels and standard on the Sport Touring, can send up to 50% of the engine’s power to the rear wheels when needed.

The CR-V’s cabin is comfortable and smartly organized, with exceptional build and material quality.

Despite its more than $40,000 price tag, the CR-V’s cabin looks closer to an economy car than a state-of-the-art family SUV.

It certainly gets the job done, but it lacks the upscale feel and design presence of a Hyundai Tucson, which makes you feel a bit special.

While this isn’t a dealbreaker, it’s something I think about when evaluating the sea of compact SUV options in the marketplace right now.

The heated wheel boasts controls for the CR-V’s digital gauge cluster, multimedia, and driver assistance tech.

The CR-V comes standard with a smaller seven-inch display, with the nine-inch display available on higher trim. While acceptable in this segment, it falls short of the larger 10 or 11-inch display found in other offerings.

The screen run Honda’s corporate infotainment system, which has been around for more than half a decade now. It works well, is fairly easy to navigate, but the interface is beginning to look a bit dated now.

Like in other Honda products, I give the company kudos for keeping the physical home, volume, and back buttons, which is increasingly rare nowadays.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come standard on the CR-V.

However, it is not available with a surround-view camera that’s become commonplace among its competitors like the Rogue and Tucson.

The CR-V is not available with a larger panoramic glass room found on some of its rivals.

Available only on the Sport Touring trim, the hands-free power tailgate automatically opens when you kick your foot under the rear bumper when in possession of the key fob.

That figure beats the Tucson Hybrid by two cubic feet and the RAV4 Hybrid by a whopping 6.7 cubic feet.

Unfortunately, the CR-V Hybrid’s rear seats do not fold flat into the floor. As a result, there is a pronounced hump that prevents larger items from laying flat.

The CR-V comes standard with the Honda Sensing suite of safety tech that includes collision mitigation braking, road departure mitigation, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, traffic sign recognition, traffic jam assist, blind spot awareness, cross traffic monitor, driver attention monitor, and auto high-beam headlights.

As the heart of Honda’s product lineup, it can be argued that the CR-V today is as important to the Japanese automaker’s fortunes as the Civic or Accord was during their heyday.

This means it was absolutely imperative to nail it with the sixth-generation CR-V.

And it has.

The CR-V’s smooth and efficient hybrid drive system, isolating cabin, comfortable ride, and extensive standard safety tech are exactly what most compact SUV shoppers are looking for.

While it may not have the fancy design and luxury flourishes of some rivals, the CR-V excels at the meat and potatoes of what an SUV needs to do on an everyday basis.

For me, it’s one of the finest compact SUVs money can buy.