Rocky - There is no viable solution in the thread you linked to. It most certainly would not work on my '07. For folks not physically able to climb around inside a car and be acrobats, anyway. Even if there is nothing packed in there, as there would be on a road trip. So, no. The solution mentioned there is not a workable one. Which is unacceptable. Such a situation would be comically ridiculous in my case especially, since that's where I keep not only my jumper cables, but also my tool kit and other emergency and breakdown supplies. I think this leaves Honda legally liable for death or detriment to any Honda driver who is killed or who dies due to being unable to access things kept in that part of the vehicle. The cargo area is where almost everyone keeps such emergency and survival items as fire extinguishers, water, food, blankets, tools, triangles or flares, jumper cables or box, inclement weather gear, etc. There isn't really anywhere else in a CR-V to put most of those things.
By the way, there is nothing in my owner's manual or the factory service manual (that I can find) that gives an emergency procedure to open the tailgate when there is no power. Nor have I found a solution in the intergalactic webinatorial reference data searchamatical engine.
I think I will do some research and see if I can come up with either an alternate way to power the latch or a secret emergency cable release or something. It could be a lifesaver in a bizarre situation. At the very least Honda should have provided a key lock. It might be possible to retrofit one. Heck. For that matter, it should be an NHTSA Federal requirement that a backup method be provided, since it could easily mean the difference between life and death for someone. Just sayin.' There are probably a lot of vehicles out there with the same problem.
I had a 6th grade teacher who died in the desert when his small sports car broke down. It only took them 4 days to find him, but he had neglected to have any extra water with him. This was in the early '60s, before cell phones or interstate highways. It was very sad. He was young, too - under 30. Such a situation would only be made worse if you had water but could not get to it.
Of course, you could say this is pretty far out there on the edge of extreme paranoia, and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. But I will say this: As a retired truck driver who, over my lifetime, have been in many bizarre, unlikely, unusual stranding situations, and have helped other folks out of same, I can say that many times those situations were severely exacerbated by the fact that I (or the person I stopped to aid) lacked just one minor simple thing that would have either gotten me out of it, or saved me, or made the whole event much less serious. Like a screwdriver, or a pair of pliers, or a jug of water, or … there have been many different things. Which is why I do carry as much stuff as I do, because I learned the hard way. People look at what I carry and laugh, but - as we all know, he who laughs last, laughs best. And you have to be alive and happy to laugh.
