Honda CRV opinion

I am your man! I'll tell you ALL about it!

Two years ago, I bot a 2005 CR-V Special Edition (top o' the line) to have as a 3rd family vehicle that my then 15 year old daughter would, shortly, drive primarily. My thinking was that eventually I'd give her that car as a junior or senior in college. My wife drives a Mercury Mountaineer (Explorer) and I drive a luxury car. So the CR-V also serves as my "daily runner" when I don't want my "good" car out. Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner were also on my list but I asked myself this one question: Which vehicle, in 5,6 7 years from now, will will have the best odds against generating "Dad, my car is making this noise/dummy light is on/won't run/the dealer says needs a $2000 repair". While I knew intuitively that Honda was the answer, a timely article said that an 8 year old Honda had fewer defects than a 3 year old Ford. Case closed.

Well, the 2005 was a great vehicle. Got 20MPG in Pittsburgh hills, versus 13 on the Mountaineer. I felt that if I was going to feed a 3rd vehicle, I wanted AWD...this is PITTSBURGH. But I did not want another piggie like the Mountaineer. Yet I still wanted something big(ish) and safe enough so that when my affluent suburban neighbor's SUBURBAN/ESCALADE run into my CR-V, we would stand a chance. The side curtain air bags and stability control give me SOME confidence in this respect. I certainly would NOT put myself or my kid into anything smaller, at least not as long as the Jones are driving Suburbans and Hummers.

Well, I took the CR-V in for an oil change and saw the 2007 model. One thing led to another and I traded. (Honda resale value on the old vehicle, by the way, was the deal-clenching factor....our Mountaineer was worth about half in just 2 years...the 2005 CR-V was worth MUCH more. If you keep them forever as per my original plan, it doesn't matter but if you are a 2-4 year holder than resale actually makes the higher upfront priced Honda/Toyota cheaper to own for that period than the competition that depreciates much faster).

The 2007 rides like a "real car". The 2005 was OK, but you could feel the bumps like a "small car". For $26,000 (top 'o the line EX-L) you get about

85% of a Lexus ES330 for only 60% of the cost. Honda's got a MAJOR winner here. The current plan is, again, for my kid to get this vehicle in a few years OR my wife might take it over when my daughter goes to college and our Mountaineer will be 6-7 years old and we'll get our daughter something else (or another CR-V) when the time comes. My point is that the 2005 was not "good enough" to be my wife's "primary" vehicle...it was a great "3rd vehicle". But the 2007 reaches "primary vehicle status". The ride is SO much improved. Same great gas mileage too.

Did I answer your question?

Thank you very much for your extremely detailed review of the Honda CR-V, DD. It certainly helped other people, like me, to get an insight of this car. Many thanks for your precious time!

davidT

Happy to opine! I hope you get one and enjoy it as much as we like ours!

Thanks a lot DD for the review. For 2007 CRV, there are not many reviews out there. I've just test driven the CRV (but not on the freeway). It looked OK to me. But I'd also like to have a look at Toyota Matrix as it has great reviews for 2006 model and no big changes in 2007 model (unlike Honda CRV).

Obviously you own Honda and you must have driven it a lot. But did you drive Matrix too? If yes, can you tell the difference please?

Reviews say Mairix has only one problem, that it makes lot of noise when driving arround 75 to 80 miles/hr. I didn't drive CRV that fast, so I couldn;t tell if CRV makes big sounds too. Can you shed some light on this too?

Thanks,

John.

D=2ED. Pallmer wrote:

The Matrix is not in the same class as the CR-V (it is basically a Corolla wagon). Toyota's competition for the CR-V is the RAV4.