Despite the current generation's controversial styling, the Honda CR-V remains one of the strongest-selling compact crossovers in its class, and needless to say, there's a great deal of anticipation for the 2012 model, the "concept" version of which was shown recently at the Orange County Auto Show in Anaheim. It's believed the concept is fairly close to the production model save for a few details. The final production version is expected to debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
The covered-up CR-V was caught undergoing what we think may be the final stages in testing, as its big debut and scheduled on-sale-date in December gets closer. Even the vinyl wraps can't hide the many resemblances its front side has to the concept: the three-bar horizontal grille, sweeping headlamps, and foglight housings. The five-spoke wheel design seems to be a little different than the concept.
Honda did a good job of covering up the CR-V's rear windows, so we can't really tell if the pointed rear window is anything like what we've already seen, but if you look closely, the slightly angular D-pillar might be a dead giveaway. The cute ute's body lines are heavily camouflaged, but closely mirror those of the concept. As for the rear, the vertical Volvo-esqe taillights look to be the same, and if you really peer into the rear window, you can try to count how many headrests there are to figure out whether a third row will make its way into the 4th generation CR-V. Like many near production-ready "concepts," the CR-V shown in Anaheim looks to be a fairly accurate preview of what we'll see in showrooms in a few months.
Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think.