Honda C-RV. Please can any owners tell us of pros and cons and offer us any advice?

[CarnageReincarnated]

This is on our car upgrade list along with Nissan Qashquai and Mazda.
I already have a Honda Civic 2007 model and I love it, so a Honda upgrade seems the logical choice.

I’ve sat in one at a garage and loved the feel of it, but not drove one yet.
We are waiting for the second hand car prices to go down, so might be a while.

We need a bigger car for camping gear and for when we get a dog next year.
Until then, please any advice, pros and cons will be appreciated.
TYIA

What year would you be looking at? Until last year I had a 2006 CRV and it was utterly brilliant. So much room, and very practical. My neighbour bought it from me and it is going strong still and he is a picky driver

We have two in our family, older models from 99-2010. Typical Honda bulletproof reliability, but when something does go it can be expensive, dm had to replace a front door window motor and it was £500. But all in all will chug away for a long time no problems.

Theyre pretty thirsty though, mid 20’s for normal driving. And also susceptible to cat theft, we had one taken in a matter of seconds- they’re high up and easy to climb underneath plus the older models the cat is very exposed. Absolutely cavernous with the back seats down though.

Around 2018 - 2019 as it needs to last us through retirement.

Apart from the clutch needing to be replaced twice, my Honda Civic has been reliable also, no other problems.
We’ve used it for camping a few times and can get everything in with the back seats lying flat so it’s important to have these again.
Glad you enjoyed your Honda 2006. I’ve seen that years model out and about so everyone else must think the same, which is good.

DH has had 3, current one is a 16 reg.

It's the most reliable, comfortable car we've ever had, it's like the capable, dependable friend who is always there when you need them. Smooth and comfortable on long journeys, great load space and a really good standard level of specification compared to more premium models.

We've had no major problems with any of the ones we've owned and will probably buy another after this one. Much as I adore my Mini Countryman I have to admit that the CRV is definitely the superior car in build and reliability.

When you say thirsty, do you mean petrol or diesel ?

So many cat thefts around, it’s unreal. Seems to go with the territory. Not on, is it?

We have a car account which has so much going in monthly, hopefully will buffer any expense when things start to go.

Brilliant, that’s what we need to hear 🙂.
We’ll also be going to France in it, so long distance comfort also a p,us.
Interesting that you say the spec is of a good standard for its age, I’ll look more closely at what all specs are year wise.

Meant to say, we are prepared to drop a year or two if it’s the right model with the right specs etc for us.

Petrol, the 2litre ones op. Really expensive for stop start urban driving but obvs better on longer trips. But as you’re looking for much newer models things will have got better.

And re the cat thefts, yes it’s common but the garage that replaced it said that Japanese makes, particularly older Hondas are very desirable as they have a high concentration of the metals that get extracted. He also said that makers were now aware of the problem and tend to now mount the cat up near the engine block, you can’t access them nearly so easily as older models which tend to be mounted lower, alongside the exhaust. So a newer model should be less prone.

We had one for three years, no issues and reasonable spec.
I thought it was a little underpowered compared to the Hyundai Santa Fe we went on to have.

Thank you, we’ll keep our eye on the horse power details when we look properly.
We don’t want a car that can’t pull the skin off a rice pudding (dh’s favourite words).

Thank you @Lonelycrab

Our 2001 CRV is just coming to the end of it’s days with us - we gave it to our DD two years ago when she started driving, it had been sitting on our drive for a year or so before that. It needs some money spent on it, I assumed we wouldn’t be able to sell it but the garage says we should get $5k or so for it so definitely a good buy 😁

That’s very encouraging that they are holding their value 🙂