It wasn’t long ago Canadians did away with station wagons in lieu of small- and medium-sized SUVs despite the fact many SUVs have the same, if not less, cargo space than your traditional wagon. Manufacturers began to return to the wagon’s roots with the introduction of crossover vehicles like the Toyota Matrix and Ford Edge but it’s the Toyota Venza, Subaru Outback and Honda Crosstour that have re-established the original soccer mom category.
Not that the Crosstour is a soccer mom car. Its form is too aggressive and its similarity to the Honda Accord – which it shares its platform and guts with – keeps it from being in the same grouping with the function-over-form vehicles often used to transport kids from swimming lessons to soccer practice on Saturday afternoons.
Billed by Honda as a premium vehicle, the Crosstour feels just at home caravanning the neighbourhood Cub Scout pack to shopping malls to sell apples as it does on an elegant night out on the town. It’s a rare vehicle that can still make you feel cool when you’ve got two baby seats in the back and enough wipes in the cargo area to disinfect the whole of Vaughan Mills.
There’s only one engine option in the Crosstour: a V6 that puts out 271-hp and 254 lb-ft of torque. Those are pretty big numbers but since this modern day wagon weighs in at just less than one tonne, it doesn’t feel over-the-top powerful but still does the job when you stomp on the go pedal.
Even the GTA’s horribly kept roads couldn’t dissuade the Crosstour from riding like a knife through warm butter. It doesn’t float and roll the way big sedans want to do but it’s a very comfortable ride.
The back seats have a ridiculous amount of room. In fact, it’s one of the few vehicles available today that don’t end in ‘van’ that can sit five adults comfortably and all their luggage for a cottage weekend in the boot.
The high roof line that helps the Crosstour have so much room inside also means your view through the rear view mirror is dissected in half by the trunk lip, annoying all the time but something you grow accustomed to after a week of driving. Pricing is a touch prohibitive as well, although it has been described as an Accord wagon, it costs a touch more. The two-wheel drive version starts at $34,900 and $38,450 for the 4WD. Prices that are on par with higher-end Accord trim levels but nothing to speak of south of the $30,000 mark.
