The driver's side shock-breaker broke down twice in 9 months. I had to wait 5 days for the shock-breaker to be replaced the first time and more than 1 month for the second one!
The air-conditioning gives out a very unpleasant strange smell (smells like rubbish).
There is a rattling sound from the air-vents (has been repaired once, but it keeps coming back).
I can't find any truth about all good things those people hyped about the car, the engine feels lazy and thirsty. The average fuel consumption is around 5.8 KM/L to 7.0 KM/L at it's best around the town.
There is not enough power for climbing up hills and the 4-speed automatic gearbox is lazy, you just have to do many gear-changing to 1st or 2nd gear constantly. The performance is RELAXED rather than POWERFUL or FAST.
The seats are way too hard to be described as comfortable. The ride is also ROCK-HARD and all my expectations of CR-V being a comfortable ride were no longer valid long before I could spend my first month with the car without complaining about anything.
Driving the CR-V can be quite an exercise for those without a good stamina. The steering is too heavy around town and is only good for long stretch of highways which I don't use a lot.
To worsen the situation, there is a tremendously loud road noise on rough road surfaces at which point you can't even conduct a conversation at a normal volume. This is very annoying and distressing because I often end up with dizziness over a stretch of rough road surface.
The cabin is also not a very pleasant place to be. The dash design looks boring and not tasteful.
It's only best if you sit at the second row and not at the front passenger seat because of the strangely uneven floor and your legroom (width) is limited by the center console running down to the floor.
There is nothing to be complemented about the car except it's stability.
I would have been better off buying other SUV at the same price! This is the ultimate nightmare of my motoring life.
I think I had the same problems as yours, in similar conditions...
My suspension has not broken down yet, but is making quite unpleasant noises (too many potholes, I think).
Fuel efficiency is just as bad (about 8 km/liter with not much city driving).
Road noise and ride were bad, but this was mostly because of the tires. The dealer inflated they way too much when I brought it for service (35 psi instead of recommended 29), and the original tires are bad. I replaced them by cheap 215 75R15 Uniroyal ones, and now the ride is much quieter and more comfortable. Maybe the center of mass is higher and the car is less stable, but I didn't really notice it. At the same time, the engine runs more slowly because of the bigger tires: it is more silent on normal driving conditions, but also downshifts more easily when power is needed, so there's no noticeable loss of power.
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