2017 Mazda CX-5 vs Honda CR-V

What's the difference?

The Mazda CX-5 was a genuine phenomenon. It pretty much came out of nowhere and knocked off a few cars we previously thought had an unassailable grasp on the Australian SUV budget.

Even more extraordinary was the fact the stylish CX-5 came from a company that had given us a fairly bland decade of cars, after a flourish in the late '90s descended into a series of dull boxes (although the 3 did signal a revival).

I drove a first-gen CX-5 late in its life and found it hard to believe it needed replacing. But in 2017 that's exactly what Mazda did. Fresh sheetmetal, lots of detail work, and a new interior were all dropped on to a lightly updated chassis to give us the second-generation CX-5.

And a lot faces ended up buried in hands at other car companies because it turns out Mazda did a smashing job second time around.

Honda’s once-ground breaking medium sized SUV enters its fifth generation, and will be a pivotal car for the venerable but vulnerable carmaker that’s slowly but surely lagging behind its key Japanese and Korean rivals - and the Chinese are coming, as well.

The fifth generation CR-V has come along way since its humble origins back in 1997. It does, however, have to line-up against a vastly wider arrange of contenders in an incredibly competitive space that not only includes its old arch rival, the Toyota RAV4, but category leaders like Mazda's CX-5, and new players like the Peugeot 5008 and the Haval H7.

Amidst its line-up of five-seaters is the sole seven-seat offering, known as the VTi-L, which sits just one place shy of the top spot in the CR-V pecking order. Does the updated CR-V in seven-seat mode tick all the boxes? Let's find out.