The Honda CR-V is the proof that off-road vehicles don’t necessarily need to go off-road to sell well. With just over 35,000 sales in the UK last year, Honda’s school-run companion and multi-storey car park-filler is about to become a lot more ubiquitous on British roads with a mild facelift and, much more importantly, the introduction of the lauded 2.2-litre i-CTDi diesel engine as seen in the Accord saloon.

A fat 251lb ft of torque, un-diesel like refinement, a six-speed manual transmission and 39.8mpg on the combined cycle are just a few of the reasons to wait until next May for the oil-burning CR-V. But until then we’ll have to make do with the familiar dohc i-VTEC petrol version, tested here, which cranks out 148bhp and 141lb ft of torque from its 1998cc.

Squint all you like, but you still probably won’t be able to pick out the slight differences between the front and rear bumpers of pre- and post-facelift CR-Vs. New front foglights, projector-style headlamps and a slightly larger grille with more prominent horizontal chrome slats round off the front-end retool. At the other end the indicators get clear lens-covers, the reversing lights are larger and the spare tyre cover is now hard plastic instead of the previous PVC zip-up job.

Inside, there’s a noticeable improvement in materials quality, especially in the range-topping Executive trim featured here, which includes soft leather as standard for the seats, wheel and gearshift. Cabin architecture remains familiar, the console-mounted handbrake and centrally stacked sat-nav screen/heater control panel being unaltered. The interior ambience has been lifted slightly by the colourful computer screen and new backlit dials, but if you’ve ever been in an old CR-V you may feel disappointed at Honda’s limited effort to brighten up what remains a rather drab place to be.