1999 Honda CR-V LX 2.0 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Best of Japanese with the safety of AWD

Faults:

Fan belt was squeaky for a while. Eventually it worked itself off the runner. My Honda dealer was absolutely brilliant. They towed it to the workshop, gave me a free courtesy car, and fixed it under warranty.

My Honda dealer did a number of "big" maintenance jobs in pre-delivery service e.g. suspension bushings, and cam belt.

Original tyres needed replacing. Quite reasonably priced.

General Comments:

Perfect balance of Honda personality, performance and economy, Japanese reliability, AWD safety, SUV height. Plus all the usual creature comforts. And the added bonus of being intimidating to the majority of UK traffic.

From experience, a well maintained Honda will go forever.

I prefer this model to newer ones, even though it's 8 years old.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 23rd August, 2007

22nd Sep 2007, 09:45

Glad you are enjoying it.

I had a mark 2, and now have a mark 3 Honda CR-V.

Just to point out that the CR-V does not have AWD, it has an on demand 4wd system.

1999 Honda CR-V 2.0 from Ecuador

Summary:

Right size, fun performing, just buy one!

Faults:

Until know, some water leaking (car was previously painted) on front windshield, sun-roof working badly, cardan maintenance, steering wheel seems to be 30 year old.

General Comments:

It has been only three months that I own this car, and in this time it has been working nice. Preventive maintenance has been done, with front paliers, hoses, brake pads and cardan.

My upgrade is from a 1.3 l to this nice 2.0 l engine, and it performs very nice up here in the Andes and with the same gas mileage.

Slippery surfaces are this SUV's habitat, real-time 4wd works perfect.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 12th January, 2007

4th May 2007, 11:23

Some days ago this SUV reached a place my old 4x4 with off-road gadgets didn't even get to the approaching muddy road.

21st Jul 2008, 12:31

Sincerely Honda dealer is a pain in the neck!

Because of that, what I thought it was the best car owned ever, converts on a nightmare. Spare are "hyper" expensive and now I need to change suspension arms and other spares, I'm knocking wood to find alternative spare provider. Really strange sounds come from the bottom part (close to the cockpit) of car, when taking a curve, when over passing a hole or bad condition roads.

Two times at dealer over $900 expense, problem is still the same.

1999 Honda CR-V 2.0 from North America

Summary:

This may be the best car I have ever owned

Faults:

So far, nothing has gone wrong with this car. Please note that I am a freak for preventive maintenance.

General Comments:

This little SUV is tops. It’s good on gas and roomy. It’s not a hot rod, but, suits my needs perfectly.

When I first bought the car I thought I had been taken. The 99 CRV has “Grade Logic” transmission. So, the computer decides when to shift up and down. This is for gas mileage and to assist the real time four wheel drive. So, the result is that when you slow, but, do not stop, then accelerate the car seems to jump into first gear. I thought there was something wrong with the car. I took it to Honda and they looked it over, serviced it, and said it was fine, and it has been fine. Now I don’t even notice it.

The CR-V is a fantastic all around car. I had to get from North Carolina to Tennessee in a virtual blizzard. I was a bit worried about it. The real time 4 wheel drive got me there when most vehicles, and all of the semi-trucks were on the shoulder of the road.

Real time 4 wheel drive is not designed for crawling through ponds of mud or climbing rocks. It will cut through snow, mountain dirt paths, and ford light duty streams. So, for nearly every member of the population it is perfect. If you want to cross the Sahara then you need something else.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 28th October, 2006

16th Oct 2009, 12:11

I though I would give an update on this car. It's been three years or more since I wrote this review and I have had no problems with this car. I do have a slight oil leak, but I haven't bothered to even look for it yet. Very minor.

I have used this car in the snow a few times, and it always does a great job of getting me where I need to go. My work car is a Ford Explorer and the CRV goes better in the snow than does the Explorer, at least the CRV seems to track straight. The Explorer fish tails a bit in the snow.

Last winter I was up in the mountains and it started to snow and ice. The CRV didn't care at all. I went up and down mountains on the drive home and never had a minutes problem. The real time 4x4 is not for mudding and rock crawling. But on slick roads it is awesome.