Honda CRV

Sir Osis of Liver.

Hello lads.
Im looking at a 2l petrol 2004 Crv(newer model) a mechanic friend has for sale.
Milage seems pretty low at 70k miles and body and engine are perfect.
Money is fairly right too and I could do with more space for the kids

Any advice or pros and cons would be welcome before I commit.

I have a daily commute of around 15 miles each way to work,so average about 10000miles per annum.

I currently drive a 1.6 Corolla.Will it cost me much more to run the Honda?

Any of you ever had one and how did you find it?

Thanks in advance

Atlantic Dawn

As far as I know it used the same 2 litre engine from the Accord which is pretty much bulletproof. Your looking at around early 30's mpg, the Corolla probably got early 40's mpg so in theory could be a third extra in fuel than the Corolla.

bazz26

It will definitely be heavier on fuel than the Corolla for sure but at doing only 10k miles per year I think fuel costs should not be a huge concern.

Tony Beetroot

The mileage is slightly unbelievable for its age.

MadYaker

My dad had one a 2004 petrol one of these just like the one you're looking at. He kept for a long time and put 150,000 miles on it and it never gave him any trouble, they are pretty much immortal. It got driven to the south of France pretty every summer and even as far as Poland one year, great car.

sunnysoutheast

We have a 2004 CR-V 2.0 petrol auto, now at 126000 miles and still going strong. Expensive to tax and probably about 20 mpg!, but has been very reliable for us. Will probably replace early next year with a new CRV.

Two maintenance things to watch:
- There is a small gauze filter in the engine which can block if poor oil and/or long changes are used, and you get all sorts of camshaft misalignment error codes etc. if it clogs up.
- The hydraulic oil in the rear differential needs changing at every 40000 miles. Symptom is a grinding when turning. It's a slightly involved procedure so we got ours done at the main dealer to avoid travelling a long way to a specialist.

I'd suggest you check those, but these are good solid cars.

We sold a 2000 MK I late last year with about 180 K miles.

Probably 30 odd mpg max .

Good car and great on our local back roads, needed suspension work, bushings tie rods etc once done it was nice and tight on the road. The suspension was rattling a lot so check this on rough roads on a test drive.

If it feels like a boat on the road it's not necessarily because it's a SUV, changing the tie rods made a remarkable difference to handling.

Oh and the window regulators on the older CRV suffered fierce corrosion and usually need to be replaced but you can get them cheap enough on E-Bay.

Windows going up and down slowly is a good sign the regulators are nearly dead.

The 2.0L sounded good and loved to be revved hard to over take etc but it had a decent bit of torque for comfortable cruising.

I certainly wouldn't have the diesel, the 2.0L petrol is smooth and sounds good and won't really save a lot over 10K miles a year even if it saved you 100 a year driving the diesel isn't worth the sacrifice.

Sir Osis of Liver.

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

Expensive to tax and probably about 20 mpg!

20mpg?

Special Circumstances

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

20mpg?

Auto around town id guess.

Manual probably around the 30 with mostly country roads. (Guess)

sunnysoutheast

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

20mpg?

Yeah but she's mainly used for short journeys in traffic of <5 miles where any car would struggle to give good figures. Smallish fuel tank too.

On a motorway run once you get the ol' girl up to ramming speed she doesn't drink so much, but we usually take the other car on those trips!

For a 2004 car I'd be more concerned with condition and service history than fuel economy TBH. Make sure the rear diff. oil has been changed!

Summer wind

I had one for 6 years. There was 122,000 miles on it when I traded it in. Never gave me any trouble. The only thing that ever went wrong was a blown lightbulb. Fantastic car and truth be told I still miss it.

Sir Osis of Liver.

Well,I took her for a test drive today and loved it.
I was wrong about the milage as someone suggested,its actually 95k,but not too bothered.

It had that tight new car feel to drive.I did about 5 miles on back roads and a main road and I loved the way she handled and all the extras.

Im going to buy during the week hopefully.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice.

JohnBoy26

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Well,I took her for a test drive today and loved it.
I was wrong about the milage as someone suggested,its actually 95k,but not too bothered.

It had that tight new car feel to drive.I did about 5 miles on back roads and a main road and I loved the way she handled and all the extras.

Im going to buy during the week hopefully.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice.

Best of luck with it. You won't go wrong with a crv, they are excellent.

MadYaker

Good luck with it! My dad still misses his CRV, he mentions it every now and again "that feckin CRV was a great yoke, we should get another one..." :pac:

The thing I liked most was the floor of the boot is a fold up table! Take it out and its got legs, how handy is that! I still see it around Galway from time to time with it's new owners and I'm always tempted to go up to them and talk to them about it, so many great summer memories in that car.

Sir Osis of Liver.

Funnily enough,the guy selling the car seemed disappointed when I didn't get over excited with the picnic table.:D

Im fairly impressed with the compartment that chills your cans in the centre console though and all the other extras.

Call me Al

I have a 2004 2l crv with about 110,000 miles on the clock. It has never caused me any problems in the 9 years ive owned it. The engine runs like a dream. It's heavy enough on juice and costs €600 to tax it, but I find the reliability so reassuring, and it's never had any issues/failures/retests with ncts. In fact it passed one last month and hadn't even been serviced for 14 months. It has cost us nothing outside of routine servicing items. I have found it great for dragging around the "stuff" a family of young active kids seems to bring with them everywhere. I'd have no hesitation bringing it on a long drive abroad.
There was a safety recall a couple of years ago relating to the windows I think, but that's been it as far as I know.

It's an excellent car and we've decided we are going to keep it for as long as it can stay on the road. I will eventually be looking to replace it with another crv when the time comes.
Best of luck with your purchase.

Eta, I don't have the "picnic table model"... Should I be peeved!?!

Sir Osis of Liver.

Finally picked up my new motor today.
Got a petrol 04 crv for handy money through a private sale.Its taxed up to Sept.and nctd until next July.

Fairly impressed with it so far.Feels like a new car.Id say she could be thirsty if driven hard,but I dont plan to.
Loads of space for kids/tools /shopping.

I'm delighted with myself tbh.:)

Thanks to all for advice.

Cool, nice bit of space alright and soaks up the crappy back roads well , best of luck !