Options / Opinions?

[Red916]

Hi all :D

An almost CRV owner, with some questions (sorry!)

I'm currently driving an 2.2 EX '06 (new shape) Civic, and have fallen in love with the engine :D
But as it's a company car, lease is due up in August and so we started wanderring around the garages.
Type S 2.2 Civic was top of the list - until the wife and daughter got in it...
3 door car is off the list then :rolleyes:

So, had a look at the car next to it - CRV is now the list leader LOL


Looking at my options now...

basically boils down to an ES with extras, or an EX without.

options that would could go into the ES are one of the following combinations:

Option 1)
19" wheels = I have 18" on the Civic right now, so a stiff ride isn't an issue

Option 2)
full aero pack

Option 3)
Sat Nav pack (s/n, HFT, rear cam)

With options 1 and 2, I'd been adding a seperate portable sat nav and fitting my own reversing cam


There might be some minor cash left lying around for the cheaper mods - maybe just the aero spoiler with option 1 or 3, that sort of thing :D


Has anyone else delved into the options list and have any comments please? :D

Thank you!

[Jimbo_EX]

I have an EX with 19" wheels.
The CRV I test drove also had 19" so ive not driven one on smaller rims so I cant give you a comparison, but I find the ride is fine on 19" - far superior to my bmw with 17"

The parking camera is invaluable, and the HFT works perfectly, and was not difficult to set up.

I saw a CRV the other day with the roof spoiler - I thought it looked pretty good.

Personally id go with an EX and have your sat nav/Camera built in and integrated .

[Red916]

Cheers for that Jimbo :D

it's a real tough call for me LOL

especially as 3 others in my team just have, or are about to pick up their CRVs too - I need something to make mine stand out :wink:

choices choices...

or somehow I need to sweet talk the wife! :D

[Jimbo_EX]

Well Ive noticed that most CRVs seem to have the standard alloys. I have the Onyx 19" wheels, only seen 1 other with these. And they are easy to keep clean:)

[Red916]

Both of which are definately plus points :wink:

and to make yours no less special, you'll be pleased to hear I'm thinking of the Blaze alloys :lol:

[wadham]

Hi

I am about to collect my black 2.2d ES and the only option I have specified is the rear spoiler, which with the black paintwork and privacy glass will look good.

My thoughts are that the options Honda provide are restrictive and for me, on the EX model, pointless. That's my opinion only of course folks.:)

For instance, the panoramic sun roof does not open. :confused: Huh.
You only need heated seats with leather because leather feels cold, so why bother with leather. :confused:
I can get a good screen mounted GPS for £150 and its in my eyeline for the road rather than down where the radio is.

I can park my car now so why do I need a rear camera. :confused: Silly

Adaptive cruise control and CMBS I can do without especially when following someone using it. (look out for strange & unrequired braking on the motorway next time you are driving) :mad: Extremely silly - as I still need to look where I'm going unless Honda will take the Rap for my driving without due care.

18" wheels sound good and look nice but .... you get a lower profile tyre (60 vs 65) with potentially more torque steer with very little extra grip. Lower profile tyres are more prone to sidewall damage if you hit a kerb or pothole. (Going offroad ?) So only go for them if the looks are a must.
I can set the wipers to the correct speed for the rain conditions myself and I can still see when its dark enough to switch the headlights on.

I would like an ES with the option of a better Sound system with Bluetooth and a power adjustable seat. I would also like a proper opening sunroof. Those options are not available so I bought an ES and left a pile of money in my bank.

This is my first Honda and I really think they need to open up the available options for each model so owners can personalise their cars. At the moment its an ES or an EX and thats it (more or less). Thats poor Mr Honda.

Thats it for my first post.

SW.

I enjoyed the test drives and looking forward to collecting what seems like a good motor.

[Red916]

Honda do definately seem to play silly games when it comes to options (and the prices of them)

And even more so when you compare country to country :(

[wadham]

Further to my previous -

If you need BLING then the Ex is for you.

:) :) :)

[Red916]

LOL! :D

An all Black CRV IS on the short list ;)

[wadham]

I intend to post a few photos of my travels with this car on the site as I have travelled on a motorbike throughout Europe and intend to do the same with the CRV. On pistes if suitable (offroad).

:D

[stan]

I am in the UK so the options are differnt here but a couple of points from me.

- Built in Nav is pretty good - I would say better than the nav I had built in on my BMW 5 which cost about £2000 as an option!

- Rear Camera is great to show off to family and friends but with the weather we get in the UK it is mostly dirty -

- I have the areo pack - I think it makes the car stand out but if you have the reversing sensors in the uk you have to pay to have the rear ones painted the same colour as the body - mine was black so I didnt need this

- I only test drove a 19" car and have the 19" wheels on mine (Blaze) - I thought that these would look cleaner than silver wheels they dont! just like a black car gets dirty quickly so will your wheels! - I do like them though - The car is noisey and i dont know how much of this is the wheels.

- As well as getting the nav as standard over here on the ex - the card reader is also really quite smart and I am sure will impress your colleagues at work if they dont have it!

Hope this helps

[Red916]

Cheers Stan :)

Know what you mean about black cars and their wheels - this is my Civ when it's clean (which lasts about 5 mins LOL)

I have the built in Sat Nav and camera on it, which also includes the HFT - I think it's pretty much the same system as in the CRV :)
And the camera picks up crud on it too... :(

The CRV system does get a couple of extra bits, as Civic owners all over the world are trying various different methods (with varying degrees of sucess) to get an aux in which works well.
As card reader - we should be so lucky LOL


Where I stand right now:
Company car, and throwing all the various costs (except fuel) into the mix, my 2.2 Civic EX with a whole bunch of bells and whistles is costing me £130 per month.

A bog standard ES CRV will cost me £118 per month
A bog standard EX CRV will cost me £178 per month

both with zero options except metalic paint.

The various options cost, and then cost me per month:
Sat nav on the ES = £1400 = £28 p/m
Full aero pack inc the bits for the reversing sensors = £1725 = £36p/m
19" wheels = £1000 = £20 p/m
blue ambient light kit = £200 = £4 p/m
aero spolier only = £300 = £6 p/m

stand alone sat nav unit = say £250 for a all singing one, but this would be a one off cost, and would belong to me still when I give the CRV back at the end of the lease.
stand alone reverse cam setup = £50

The obvious down sides of the stand alone stuff is that it is stand alone. Wires to hide, cradles to worry about, car getting broken into on the off chance etc.

Ideally, I need the total cost to be as close to the £130 I'm paying for the Civ as possible.

A bog standard EX, with no extras, at £178 is pretty much the limit.

So I've got up to £60 p/m to play with out of the combinations above LOL

pint and quart pot anyone? :D

[Red916]

ah yes - oops! - my Civic :D

[stan]

Civic looks really cool - Funny I was in Swansea today and my car is a company car as well - Although I work for a national company where the cars are normally sourced from the north my car came from Honda in Cardiff!

spooky hey!


My last 2 company car's were BMW's and I had the built in sat nav which cost a fortune! - The honda was cheaper car for me with cash back so getting the nav built in on the EX was a bonus. - My wife has a mini which has a wire from the tom tom around the steering and cuts across the stero - it drives me mad - I hate having to take the bloody thing out and swap it into my personal car and also hide it away/take it out when you not there.

I find the sat nav better than the BMW and I also prefer the interface to the tom tom.

What colour are you going for - For me (dont flame me its just my opinon!) the crv looks a bit odd from the front in other colours than black unless it has the areo pack on it - its something to do with the grill and the bumps on the black bumper?

Something else to bear in mind is that they both have a 2.2 engine - you will probably be getting well over 40 mpg on your civic where you will get about 36 on the CRV - you will also have more fuel to pay for and no more to claim on the IR official rates!

Can you just choose honda with your company?

[Red916]

very spooky Stan! :D

The guys at Honda Cardiff are pretty good - although I now actually go a further 15 miles down the road to Bridgend for my servicing, as I know a couple of the guys from there now.


We can go for pretty much anything - at a price LOL

My previous one was a 3.2 TT with DSG box - which was fantastic, but cost a fair bit more each month.

Unfortunately, in the two years which I've had the Civic for, the money we saved has now been spent on other minor stuff (like a new mortgage LOL), so we're loath to head too far back towards big money again.

Sat nav in the Civic is great.
I had TomTom in the TT, and that was an improvement on the built in Audi Nav in the previous A4, but the whole integrated thing with ease of use does win it for me.
Obviously some downsides - until the latest version of the maps (just hitting the streets now), the Civic had the nearest MacDonalds as bing in Calais!
And the inability to add your own POIs has been a bug bear for some owners.

BUT, I do much prefer it to a stand alone system - especially when you chuck in HFT and reverse cam too.


Fuel is not tooo much of an issue - again coming from the TT when I got high 20s on a run...
But I have a company fuel card, and then pay back the cost for my personal mileage, so at least the only tax involvement is the one right there at the pumps.
And most of my mileage is work anyway - I do about 25-30K miles per year, of which under 10K is personal.

Besides, that's a cost I can act surprised about when the wife notices ;)


Colour...
torn between two choices at the mo.
Whistler Silver or Black.

The ones in the dlr were both Silver ES spec, but one had running boards on.
Whilst they looked good, and I thought finished it off nicely, wife had other ideas LOL
And the are exactly the right height to hit a protruding rainpipe junction in my parking space at work, so they're out.

We both looked at each other and said 'Black!' :D

But then we saw one in the flesh in the car park, and (sorry!) now we're not so sure to be honest - it just didn't seem to look quite 'right'?

It was a naff old day, overcast and dreary, but the paint seemed very dull?

Even coloured in muck my Black Civ still has a 'glimmer' to it?

If that makes any sense at all!

[Jimbo_EX]

My black paintwork still has an excellent shine, but i did buy the Auto glym lifeguard option. After a wash using nothing more than a bucket, sponge and tesco vlue car shampoo i dont need to polish it its like a mirror:D

[Jimbo_EX]

CRV sport concept - if you want a bit of bling...
http://www.world.honda.com/news/2006/4061031SEMAShow/photo/images/13.jpg
http://www.world.honda.com/news/2006/4061031SEMAShow/photo/images/14.jpg

[stan]

CRV sport concept - if you want a bit of bling...
http://www.world.honda.com/news/2006/4061031SEMAShow/photo/images/13.jpg
http://www.world.honda.com/news/2006/4061031SEMAShow/photo/images/14.jpg

That looks pretty much the same as mine with the aero pack - looks like the same wheels as well.

I dont have the side's painted body colour though - but it is black!

[stan]

http://www.crvownersclub.com/forums/attachments/741d1203282021-img_9338.jpg

[stan]

http://www.crvownersclub.com/forums/attachments/744d1203282093-img_9343.jpg

[Red916]

sport concept is nice :)

black goes back on the list :D

[fatboyslim]

My black paintwork still has an excellent shine, but i did buy the Auto glym lifeguard option. After a wash using nothing more than a bucket, sponge and tesco vlue car shampoo i dont need to polish it its like a mirror:D


For now!!
Please, please, please DITCH the sponge and get either a lambswool or chenille washmitt, these are better for your paint finish and won't trap the dirt on the surface which will cause swirls

[Red916]

And...

spend some money on some really good wax - but as a warning, this is a long, expensive, slippery slope ;)

Big initial outlay, but it lasts for ages. My tub of swissol wax has so far seen me through 2 years of a TT and 18months of the Civ, and is still about 1/3rd left :)

[Red916]

and the results are pretty good, if I say so myself :o

[Jimbo_EX]

and the results are pretty good, if I say so myself :o

oh yeah, thats impressive mate!!

Something elso to consider - the crv being a 4x4 does quite suit being a bit dirty - at least thats m excuse

[Hughesy]

This is my first Honda and I really think they need to open up the available options for each model so owners can personalise their cars. At the moment its an ES or an EX and thats it (more or less). Thats poor Mr Honda.


I like the approach of Honda (and Lexus) that everything is standard.
Firstly it helps on the lease cost (because extras are usually divided straight over the lease period, whereas the car itself you only pay for the depreciation + interest over the period).

Secondly, it is also good for second hand buyers. Try getting a used BMW or Audi with the particular extras you want, it is almost impossible unless you get an ex-demo.

The EX spec suits me perfectly. The only thing I would ditch to save money is the panoramic roof. Everything else is on my must have list anyway (leather, heated seats, folding mirrors, auto wipers, sat nav).
Memory seats with auto-reverse-dipping nearside mirror would be nice :)

[Red916]

oh yeah, thats impressive mate!!

Something elso to consider - the crv being a 4x4 does quite suit being a bit dirty - at least thats m excuse

thank you Jimbo :D

and - Like it! :D

[Arthur]

Colours.... or Colors?
Well it is the European thread so let's have it as colours.

My first post and I'm talking about colours.
That's what happens when you pick the make and model but the Wife gets to choose the colour.....
Basically, until the good lady (she who must be obeyed at all times) gives the approval on colour there's no proceeding to GO.

So, the model & colour.
From me, the model will be a UK 2008 EX with ASP, full Body Pack and 19" Blaze Alloys.
As to the colour, the good Wife wants it in Deep Bronze Pearl and Ivory Leather.

My question is ~ has anyone seen a CR-V with these two colours and if so what were your thoughts?

Cheers in advance.
Arthur