Honda CR-V help

[Nicsnick]

My husband and I are in the market for a new car and I am not sure where to start! I really like the look of the CRV and we know we only want a Honda or a Toyota (Rav-4). Does any one have a CRV?? What do you think of it? Milage, realiability, quality? New or certified used? Any help on CRV or car buying would be great! This is going to be our first new car that we have purchased so ANY information would be helpful! Thank you!

 

[Swimalie]

I have a 2000 CRV and so far the only thing that has gone wrong has been the differential fluid needing refilling and my husband did it himself. All other things have been routine maintenance. We love the car. It has 125,000 miles and we plan to drive it for about another year before we buy a new one (but probably a Subaru Forester to get something more sporty, which we need). My mother in law has the Rav-4 and she's had some small issues. None here with our CRV. I'd highly recommend it!

 

[*Flower*]

We have a 2002 CR-V which replaced a 1999 CR-V. When we traded in the '99, it had 99,970 miles on it.

In 3 years.....

The only things replaced on it were the tires and 1 lightbulb (other than routine maintenance).

We LOVE our CR-V!

 

[sjms71]

My inlaws just bought a 2010 CRV and love it. Now we have owned honda's since 1988. We have 3 in the driveway now. We have a 1995 Civic, which was my first brand new car and has 200,000 miles on it. Still runs great!! I have a 2005 Odyssey and DH drives a 2001 Acura MDX. We have had some Honda's in between too. My point is reliable, at least we have never had a problem.

 

[princessmom29]

I have a 2010 CRV. I was not sure about the look of it until I drove it. I love it!!! We were also looking at Honda and Toyota. I am short, and it is easier in and out than the RAV4 for me. It drives really well, and there is plenty of room for our family of 3 and all our stuff on road trips. My MIL has a 2009 and really loves hers too. I do mixed city and country road driving and average about 23 mpg.

 

[kfeuer]

I have a 2008 CR-V and I absolutely love it. I'm averaging 25 MPG (half my commute is on the highway). It seats 5 comfortably and with the seats folded down there's lots of cargo room, but it's not too big. I really have no complaints, if I had it to do over I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Chaoster]

Don't own one, but thought about getting one. I didn't realize it only comes in a 4 cylinder. With the kids and all the gear when we travel would like a 6 cylinder. Maybe they will come out with one.

 

[DISdreamin']

Just picked mine up on Monday and love it so far! I agonized over the CR-V vs Rav4 decision for weeks. I finally just went for it and got the Honda. I haven't regreted it for a moment so far. My old ride is an Odyssey, but with the additional weight that vehicle packs, the power difference between that six cyl and this four isn't as noticeable as I would have thought.

Before buying, I drove a VW Tiguan, the Rav4, looked at the Hyundi Tuscon and Santa Fe (didn't think they were nice enough to warrant more money than some trim levels of the Honda, honestly), and considered a few sedans (Civic..too small, Accord...side impact safety for rear seat passengers wasn't acceptable, Prius...too small, worried about clearance for winter driving, Ford Fusion...too expensive in the trim level I wanted to be worth the $). So you can see I'm pretty indecisive and really played the field, but once I finally made up my mind it was the CR-V.

BTW, I was really worried going from the Ody to the CR-V would be a bit of a shock size-wise, but I've elready been pleasantly surprised how much stuff I could cram in the back of the CR-V. I did a BJ's trip yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff - I figured the kids might ride home with a giant package of paper towels between them, I got so much. Not only did it all fit in the cargo area, it was below the seat level, so it didn't even limit my view out the rear window. When I looked at my cart, I would never have guessed that much would fit in the car so easily!

ETA: I bought new, and wished I had done more bargaining on price. If you check out the Edmunds forums, there is info about prices paid for both Ravs and CR-Vs. I got something off MSRP (paid just over invoice), but I could have gotten a much better deal had I been more patient. I saw the vehicle I wanted, the color I wanted, just off the truck....and totally caved. LOL!

One word of warning - the LX and EX trim levels don't have a power drivers seat...which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it means the angle of the seat bottom is fixed and you can only raise or lower it, not tilt the seat front up or down. The driving position wasn't comfortable to me AT ALL with the non-adjustable seat. Once I got in the EX-L and had the ability to tilt the seat, I loved it. Make sure you try the exact trim level you are thinking of buying so something like that doesn't sneak by. Had I tried the EX-L first and not realized the seating would be different in another trim level, I might have gone for the EX or LX and ended up really unhappy. FWIW, I'm short and DH is fairly tall (we differ in height by one foot), so trying to find a vehicle that is comfortable for both of us wasn't easy.

Lastly, I tried looking for used CR-V's, and found them (at least the ones from the dealership that came with a warranty) to be nearly the price of new. With the 1.9% financing Honda is currently offering (up to 36 months, 2.9 if you want a longer term) it didn't make sense to go used when we'd end up paying nearly the difference in interest. Just my $0.02...or $1.02 - LOL!.

 

[dznyacct]

LOVE LOVE LOVE my CR-Vs ! I bought my 2000 new in 2000 and drive it until I got my 2009 and then gave the 2000 to DS. I have never had problems with any of the Hondas that I have owned (a Civic, 2 Accords and the 2 CR-Vs). Get a CR-V, you won't regret it .

 

[emma'smom]

I have a 2007 CRV and I would not buy one again. I don't mind driving it, but I've had to replace the tires twice and I only have about 45K on it. The tires are non-standard size which makes their replacement quite expensive. The road noise is also very loud on it (which isn't that big a deal---but it bugs me).

It doesn't drive well at all in the Winter. I've slid through a number of intersections and it has gotten to the point where I just won't drive it if there is more than 1/2 inch of snow.

Just my two cents....our minivan is a Honda too and we love it! So nothing against Honda. I just wouldn't do the CRV again.

 

[Swimalie]

I have a 2007 CRV and I would not buy one again. I don't mind driving it, but I've had to replace the tires twice and I only have about 45K on it. The tires are non-standard size which makes their replacement quite expensive. The road noise is also very loud on it (which isn't that big a deal---but it bugs me).

It doesn't drive well at all in the Winter. I've slid through a number of intersections and it has gotten to the point where I just won't drive it if there is more than 1/2 inch of snow.

Just my two cents....our minivan is a Honda too and we love it! So nothing against Honda. I just wouldn't do the CRV again.

I'm curious, what kind of tires are you putting on it? I'm on my 2nd set now at 125,000 miles and I don't think I spent more than $250 on the full set. I ran over a screw on Monday and the tire held air for 20 miles until I realized it and got to Costco to get it pulled and patched. Now that tire is back on the car. I've driven up mountains covered in snow in my CRV (in Oregon) without problems of sliding. It sounds like it could be a tire issue with yours, not the car itself.

 

[lyonking3]

Love the CRV. Gas mileage a little worst (24-26 MPG) than I would have expected from Honda....

 

[cheap traveler]

I have a 2008 CRV, bought it with 7 miles on it and it is about to reach 70K. I traded a 99 Odessey, and agree that the power difference isn't huge between the V6 and 4cyl.

I own a repair shop, so I know the normial problems these cars have. Because of that I changed the trans and differential fluids at 60K. The car is running great for me thus far.

I am about to put my 4TH, YES 4TH! set of tires on the car. When Honda switched to 17inch tires, the tire life went down the drain. The car came with Continentals, I replaced them with Cooper CS4s (which I loved on my van), and replaced those with Michelins (notorious for great tread life). They all have lasted roughly 20K, and I am not happy. I have had it aligned 3x, and this is where the problem comes in. The rear of the vehicles are NOT able to be properly aligned, and unlike EVERY other car out there, there is no shim kit avaliable to fix this problem. Honda just doesn't think it is a problem. When I get around to putting my 4th set of tires on it, I am not going to rotate them, just to see what that does.

Other than this problem, the car is wonderful. I can finally drive in the snow (van was awful), it has enough room for my small family, it is very comfortable, and I love the look of it. I have a problem with my dome light (has a wiring short), but that is nothing more than a slight nussaince.

And my final bit of input, though I have had to replace the tires so often, with nearly 70K on the car, my brakes look like brand-new! My van got tires every 65K and brakes every 20K, so I figure I just traded that around lol.

Good luck with your decision and purchase!

ps, my gas mileage is 24.5 in the winter, 27.3 right now. About 50% highway

 

[cheap traveler]

I'm curious, what kind of tires are you putting on it? I'm on my 2nd set now at 125,000 miles and I don't think I spent more than $250 on the full set. I ran over a screw on Monday and the tire held air for 20 miles until I realized it and got to Costco to get it pulled and patched. Now that tire is back on the car. I've driven up mountains covered in snow in my CRV (in Oregon) without problems of sliding. It sounds like it could be a tire issue with yours, not the car itself.

The 2000 CRV had 13 (or 14)" wheels on it, and the tires wear like a dream. Wish I could put them on mine, though I do love the look of the 17s they use now

 

[PGHDisneyfan]

As much as I hate to say it I honestly dont think you could go wrong with either car both are very well made. Although I try to by American cars when I can ,several of my company cars were Toyotas, my brothers family always gets Hondas. That being said we have a 2004 Mazda MPV and 2000 Grand Cherokee and I can honestly say at 100,000 the Jeep has been slowly falling apart. I never had an issue with any of my Camerys or the Mazda. My first Jeep was a 1999 Cherokee Classic that stickered at $27,000 nicely loaded. At 11,000 it needed a pinion bearing and 2 axel seals. I think from here on out we are done with American cars with the exception of Ford who seems to be makeing a very nice, well built car lately.

 

[ZPT1022]

We had a 2003 CRV which we sadly traded in to get a Pilot in March. We loved that car and hated to trade it in but we were expecting our fourth child and needed a bigger car and couldn't justify keeping the extra car when DH has a work vehicle. No problems with the car at all and in the future I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. We're a Honda family though- we've had an Accord (saved my life in a bad accident, hence the brand loyalty), and Odyssey (that we sold to someone when it had 170,000 miles on it and they are still driving it), a CRV and now the Pilot. When you add in the rest of DH's family a lot of them drive Hondas too and we've never had any major issues

I have a 2007 CRV and I would not buy one again. I don't mind driving it, but I've had to replace the tires twice and I only have about 45K on it. The tires are non-standard size which makes their replacement quite expensive. The road noise is also very loud on it (which isn't that big a deal---but it bugs me).

It doesn't drive well at all in the Winter. I've slid through a number of intersections and it has gotten to the point where I just won't drive it if there is more than 1/2 inch of snow.

Just my two cents....our minivan is a Honda too and we love it! So nothing against Honda. I just wouldn't do the CRV again.

I'm sorry to hear you've had such problems. Ours was older than yours but we loved it and never had any issues with tires or foul weather driving (important since we live in New England). We go to Firestone for tires and it was always under $500 for four new ones

 

[DISdreamin']

I have a 2007 CRV and I would not buy one again. I don't mind driving it, but I've had to replace the tires twice and I only have about 45K on it. The tires are non-standard size which makes their replacement quite expensive. The road noise is also very loud on it (which isn't that big a deal---but it bugs me).

It doesn't drive well at all in the Winter. I've slid through a number of intersections and it has gotten to the point where I just won't drive it if there is more than 1/2 inch of snow.

Just my two cents....our minivan is a Honda too and we love it! So nothing against Honda. I just wouldn't do the CRV again.

FWIW, a lot of the road noise (especially at highway speed) comes from tire selection - some are quieter and some are louder. The CR-V doesn't seem to be very well soundproofed to me, but I don't mind the slightly higher road noise.

As for sliding through intersections, IMO it has very little to do with the vehicle itself (assuming it has antilock and traction control) and has pretty much everything to do with tire selection (well, that and the driver, but obviously you know how to drive in snow ). OE tires, in general, stink, IMO. You're not usually going to get good traction from an "all-season" tire in severe weather either, that's where winter tires come in.

FWIW, I live in an area that gets a fair amount of snow (about ten feet a year, on average), and lots and lots of friends and neighbors have CR-Vs and swear by them. Some do winter tires, some do all-season, but I haven't talked to anyone yet who mentioned issues with winter driving.

 

[mamaLori05]

We have a 2004 CRV with 94,000 miles on it. WE LOVE it!! We've never had any problems with it besides regular maintenance, and even that has been minimal. We live in Wisconsin and drive through the snow all the time. I have never once slid or gotten stuck in the snow. We have never had to buy any special tires for it either. We've only replaced the tires on it once, and my hubby downgraded the tires that came on it to something even less expensive (sorry, I don't know the different tires to tell you what kind he put on). They are uniroyal P205/70R15 (Whatever that means).

We also find it to have pleanty of room. We have 2 kids in LARGE carseats, and I can still fit in between them in the back seat. There is also a ton of room in the trunk. I think we have fit 4 or 5 large suitcases, a pack n play, and a double stroller back there. Anyway, I would highly recommend teh CRV!

 

[Shadeaux]

Another CRV owner.....2008 EX-L. As someone else mentioned, be sure to try out the exact model you're considering. I'm short so we went with the model that had power seats. I love my CRV! We just got back from a trip to Chicago; 2500+ miles; gas mileage for the trip averaged 31mpg. (until we got into Chicago traffic & spent most of our time sitting at red lights!) My everyday mileage is around 27mpg...that's country & city.

 

[momofrrr]

We bought our DD18 a 2007 CRV when she started driving. It was used. She LOVES it. It was perfect for her soccer and school stuff in the back, there is plenty of room. She is going off to college next week and it will be the perfect fit. Safe enough to get her back and forth....She calls is "Simba" since it is gold...