We have talked quite a bit about the 2012 CR-V. In the
first post, we explained that Honda wasn't copying anyone in the CR-V's design, but the logical reasons behind the CR-V's similarlity with the silhouette of a Volvo XC60.
Subsequent post was about whether Honda is debuting a 7-seater version of the CR-V. A few days after that, we learned that the heavily camouflaged validation prototype CR-V was involved in a serious accident with 3 other vehicles on the Pacific Coast Highway in California. As if it was not bad enough for a highly confidential heavily camouflaged vehicle to be involved in an accident, one of the cars hit by the CR-V, a Toyota Highlander, belongs to Jean Aw, a high profile blogger of
Notcot.com, a creative design site. To make things worse, excluding the CR-V, 2 out the other 3 cars involved are Toyota SUVs - a Toyota Highlander and a Lexus RX. We don't know much details, but the pictures are not doing Honda any favour. It appears that the CR-V made a sharp left turn, hitting the blogger's Toyota Highlander, pushing it towards oncoming traffic, at which point it was hit by a Lexus RX. Did the heavy camo at the rear blocked out the driver's view? Probably. There was no mention of the identity of the third car involved. The blogger claims that the CR-V made a sudden sharp left turn into her. Remember that USA is a left hand drive country, so they drive on the right side of the road and traffic merging is towards the left.
The Lexus RX involved.
Familiar looking guy? This appears to be the same guy from another picture in the
earlier post - with the other CR-V prototype, the one with no roof rack.
Even before the 2012 CR-V is launched, Toyota already scored a couple of +1 from this incident. Netizens are giving the Highlander thumbs up for keeping the passenger cell in tact. Plus the blogger's own thumbs up for her Toyota.
On other thoughts, I wonder just what is the probability of hitting 2 Toyota SUVs in a row in California. Pretty high it seems.
On a more serious note - we are glad that the crew from Honda are safe. Remember that last month was the first anniversary of Toyota's star test and racing driver Hiromu Naruse's passing, who was killed while testing a prototype Lexus LF-A.
Just a few months before Naruse's fatal accident, a Mercedes-Benz's test driver was seriously injured when his protoype 2012 Mercedes ML struck another car that had broken down at the road side, causing the Mercedes to flip.
More on those in another post
here. The job of test driving or as OEMs call it - on road validation, is not as fun as it sounds. Driving long distance, across extreme weather, and poor roads over long periods of time can wear you down.
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