Anyone Drive a Honda Cr-V-EXL?

[Indianamom2]

If you own one of these, do you like it? Pros? Cons?

It is something we are considering for Dh. He primarily uses it to drive to work and back during the week. We get a ton of snow (almost 100 inches this winter) so handling in the snow is important. He does not want a car, but is interested in smaller SUV's. It must also accomodate two car seats on occasion, one rear-facing for at least another year, the other a high back booster.

Thoughts?

[bubbaray]

If you ONLY need to have 2 car seats, I can tell you that I was ALL SET to purchase a CR-V EX-L last spring (because I was very happy with my Honda Ody and really loved my service advisor). I test drove the RAV4 V6 limited and, well, I now own that and not the Honda.

The RAV4 V6 is a little rocket. It gets about the same mileage as my Ody did (I had the EX-L with the 3 to 6 cyl engine). I really love my RAV4.

The main downside compared to the CR-V is that the CR-V *can* do 3 car seats across (Niccig has one and has done 3 across). The RAV4 can NOT ever ever no matter what seats you use do 3 across because of the seatbelt configuration (they overlap). If that is not an issue for you (it wasn't for us, I'm d.o.n.e with more kids and DH has a truck that can do 3 across), I would at least test drive the RAV4.

We also test drove pretty much all the other small SUVs out there. I'm not a fan of domestics, frankly. DH loved the Escape V6. I liked the Subaru Forester, but the sloped cargo area was a no-go for our dog (who rarely rides in my vehicle, but it needs to be possible).

[infocrazy]

We had a CRV. We had to be careful what we put RF because DH and I both needed the seat all the way back. If RF behind passenger, it was very uncomfortable for the passenger.

There was ZERO room for a third person in the back. Maybe not an issue for occasional use but I felt like it was a waste of space.

LOVED the cargo area (get the rubber mat), never used the table, didn't think the gas mileage was really as much difference as expected, small gas tank too IIRC.

I liked it better than a sedan since I prefer to sit higher, and my mom LOVES hers, but I felt like we had outgrown it from the time DS1 went into a convertible. Once we added DS2, I felt like we were bursting at the seams. That said, I never had a problem with it and I sold it for a decent resale price--I had the SE though (only option with leather at the time) and it was difficult to price it higher since the only difference between the SE and the EX-L for the 2005 was the leather and many people didn't want to pay more for that in my market. We got a great price and about 3k over the trade-in offer so I was happy with it.

[niccig]

I have the 2008 model. Can not help with snow as I live in SoCal. I can get 3 carseats, but it has to be seats that puzzle well. I got a rider safe vest and DS is in that in middle, and I can get 2 seats eitherside very easily. I am going to get the bubble butt booster to replace vest as DS is getting close to being too big. You could do a rf seat, but put it in more upright to give more leg room to passenger.

The cargo room is more than my older bigger SUV, because of the dimensions. I get much more in there. We did weekend trip, 3 adults and DS and had plenty of room.

We did not get RAV4 because of seat belt issue. DH wanted 2 people and DS in backseat with room for luggage. In the RAV we would have needed 3rd row because of the 2nd row seatbelt issues. A rooftop carrier would have worked.

[brgnmom]

I have the 2009 model. currently, DD is RFing on the driver's side, and DS is in the center in a Britax Frontier.

In terms of handling in the snow, I drove one winter season in MA w/ the CRV and it did well overall. But I did get into my very first car accident in snowy/icy conditions. It was scary - I hadn't been in an accident before, and I slid down a residential hill & I bumped into a parked car. The parked vehicle barely got scratched, but my CRV had a major dent on the passenger side. I believe I wrote about the incident before here - it happened on NYE '09, about 6 months after we purchased the brand new crv. I don't think it was related to the car, but just due to my driving on top of black ice on a downward slope. The firetruck who came to help also slid down the hill, and we were both stuck until the snow plower came to pave the way down. (B/c of the nature of my accident, it didn't affect my car insurance rate).

I think my DH and I are planning on getting the Oddy soon though b/c of space issues and I love the sliding doors on the Oddy. HTH.

[indigo99]

I really like my CRV. No experience in snow though. We looked at the RAV4 and a Ford as well, and the CRV won out. I do wish that the back seat would lie flat like the RAV4 though. DS is RFing in the radian XTSL in the center of the backseat. The back of his seat does come up between the two front seats so I know that it would not fit behind either one of them in the RF position. I plan on switching him to FF once baby #2 comes along, but that means that I will have one child in the center and one on the side rather than having them on either side. Hope they get along!