WHEN you build and, more importantly, sell the world's most popular SUV it's important you stay ahead of the game.

That means impressing potential owners enough to dig deep into their pockets to keep the production line whirring at Swindon, where Honda's CR-V is made.

The trick (and every successful car maker on the planet has the same aim) is to crank up the bits that tempt on two levels - practical and emotional.

Honda has usually been good at practical stuff, like designing engines that produce lots of power, or surprising economy - sometimes at the same time.

So the latest version of its big SUV gains the option of a new, smaller diesel engine that both produces more power than the 2.2-litre unit it replaces and is more economical too.

Choose an automatic version and it comes with no fewer than nine forward speeds to help the engine turn over at its most frugal, although you'll pay £1,625 more than the DIY manual gearbox and still use a little more fuel.

If ultimate economy in this spacious, nicely built car is what counts most you should go instead for a CR-V with a less powerful version of the diesel unit in today's test car and mated to a manual gearbox - I recorded 58mpg over many hundreds of miles in an earlier test.

This time, with extra horses under the bonnet, that figure fell to a still respectable 50mpg. Pulling it down a bit was the standard fit four-wheel drive on this top model; the lesser diesel drives the front wheels only.

Whichever diesel CR-V you go for should not disappoint in the economy department and may surprise (in a good way) in other areas.

Current CR-V owners - I have a contented one living next door - will spot a new look to the face of this latest model, with more chrome and wider lights to give a stretched out feel.

The rear end has had the wider-look treatment too and a pretend skid plate added for a more rugged feel - or 'it's got a nappy' as next door exclaimed.

Inside, there are tiny touches to give a plusher feel to the dash, where you will find a new big touchscreen devoted to things like controlling the sound and satellite navigation systems.

The latter works nicely most of the time and stays clear of clutter, but went crazy with hopeless alternative routes round a stop-start section of M25, to the point the 'helpful' detours were ignored.

A £600 optional driver assistance safety pack includes speed limit sign recognition (with a dash readout), a blind spot warning of vehicles overtaking closely and an alert if you reverse as something is approaching from the side.

Hidden away with this latest revamp of the CR-V are small but important changes to the suspension; the sort of thing keen engineers spend weeks on but scarcely ever reap the recognition they deserve.

So well done all round. The car is considerably smoother to drive, with a more relaxed feel on bumps and sharper steering.

Thicker door seals and upgraded carpets (that's attention to detail) have made the interior quieter than before, while the rear seats now fold flat with a single lever pull, producing the sort of loadspace that makes the CR-V a natural choice for owners with lots of stuff to shift.