Year End CRV purchase

[johnnyvw]

So did you take delivery?

 

[Living Proof]

So did you take delivery?

Ahhh, yes I did, apologies for not updating. We took delivery last Friday, so, we have a week of discovery. The best part is my wife continues to smile, and, is really enjoying a new car. I hated driving her Ford 500 due to transmission quirks, she was content...until having the quiet new experience. Our week spanned some of the coldest weather with leftover new snow. AWD is a nice feature.The salt and grime sure did make a mess of the exterior deep burgundy color, did my first hand-wash in the 60 degree winter thaw yesterday. It is surprising there is so much surface area to wash, and a lot of weird angles to get water off. It is a far larger car, and, sits much higher than expected. I did a Weathertec order for front floor mats, the black stock mats are salt stained.

Like cellphones, the electronics take some getting used to. Apple Care links very well with our cell phones. It will conduct text messaging in hands free mode, voice recognition software continues to amaze me. One known issue discussed in CRV forums is that cruise control varies too much, I've only experience it once when it did not hold a steady speed on a level road. Radio sound system is just ok. All digital controls are different for us after a lifetime of analog systems.

The engine is a turbo 4, linked to a CVT transmission. Power is adequate to good, but, I don't push the car hard. I do wish there was more horsepower reserve, but, the trade is for over 30 mpf on highway driving. There is a ton of long term reliability discussion about how this pairing will remain trouble free, but, it seems that this pairing is to be very common across all car lines. We will probably buy the Honda extended warranty good through 100k miles. Cost is about $1K, so, if it is used one time, it will be at break even. The CRV owner forums are an interesting read about extended warranties. Honda reliability, at least in the past, has a majority of owners stating it is a waste of money. My take is modern electronics and leaning out engineering overbuilds just may not produce the same high reliability.

In summary, we are enjoying the new ride. Our need for space to haul "stuff" will increase this spring due to stocking up a new home, the CRV, with the 2nd seats down will be very practical. So far, a fun experience.

 

[Uncle-A]

What is the sound level from road noise? Is that part of the sound system issue or is it something else?

 

[Living Proof]

What is the sound level from road noise? Is that part of the sound system issue or is it something else?

I need more miles as the driver before saying anything definitive about the road noise, we only have 150 miles on the car, most driven by my wife. Road noise is not something I have noticed, it does seem fairly good going over bumps. The sound system appears to be 2 small speakers in the front, I'll check it out some more, but, it appears to be just a very basic sound system in a big interior.

 

[johnnyvw]

It looks like even the lowest level CRV has 4 speakers and 165 watts, so it sounds like maybe the audio adjustments are out of whack

 

[Living Proof]

It looks like even the lowest level CRV has 4 speakers and 165 watts, so it sounds like maybe the audio adjustments are out of whack

Thanks, I need to do some more research about my system and possible upgrades, I now think there are mid-range speakers in both the front and rear doors. Some threads on the CRV forum state the radio and tweeter speakers are good, but, it needs help in the mid-ranges, so, an upgrade to the front door speakers could be and improvement.
As I am not the primary driver, it does not have much priority.

 

[Magoo]

Not sure how things work on the crv but trying to upgrade speakers in my CX-5 for the same reasons mentioned was a road i wish i never went down. These new systems aren't like the old days they have sound tweaks in them that work with the paper speakers and the highs. Trying to change speakers out won't get you what you are looking for until you start tweaking with the sound output.

Not sure it is the same but man do i regret doing anything. Never again. Been upgrading systems since the 80's and now it seems you better be willing to break out 1k to start making it better. 2k to make it right.

 

[Living Proof]

^^^^

In reading the various threads on the Honda CRV user forum, most would agree with your thinking, and, just leave the stock system alone.

BTW, yesterday, had a nice experience carrying "stuff", one of the prime reasons we bought the CRV. We are in the process of a total gut rehab of the master bathroom, and, I loaded the new tub and a whole bunch of HardyBacker cement boards in the back with the seats down. CRV does very nicely as a truck.

 

[Magoo]

My Mom has a CRV and I have the CX-5. The lower floor to go with the more vertical rear window on the crv make for huge gains. Little more room in the right places changes everything.

 

[johnnyvw]

Interesting that some newer vehicles are so problematic to upgrade the sound system. I've done a few upgrades on VWs less than 10 years old, everything was plug-n-play and super easy. But checking Crutchfield I saw that no instructions or exact fit speakers are available for a CRV. Guess you can blame the car manufacturers for that.

 

[Magoo]

Install or finding products to fit isn't a issue. The problem is now the stereo has sound tweaks in it that can't be fixed unless you really go the full mile and upgrade the sound processing. It is a whole new ball game to get a good sounding system.

 

[Living Proof]

What is the sound level from road noise? Is that part of the sound system issue or is it something else?

We did our first roadtrip this weekend, some observations.

- The road noise very low, at least compared to our previous car. CRV handles bumps with minimal noise. The only other small SUV I test drove the Nissan Rouge which had terrible road bump performance. There is a bit of wind noise, but, overall high marks for being quiet, especially for a small car built on the Civic frame.

- It is going to take a while to adapt to Apple Car Play that let's I-phones communicate via the sound system. We both have I-phones that pair with system, so, there were several times when calls interrupted the music source, and, the sound system did not revert to music when the call ended. I was also using Waze for navigation, which is not an Apple supported app, so, again, it would interrupt the music source. The Car play does support the Iphone navigation app, but I do prefer Waze for traffic updates. (Note- The EX level CRV does not have navigation integrated into the system. The 2 levels above EX, EX-L and Touring, do have an integrated system).What concerns me the most is that the distraction from paying attention to the road. I believe the solution is to use the "voice command" system to control music input, and, climate systems, so, more experience is required. Glad my wife was with me to make all the adjustments. Modern electronics...bless them and damn them.

-This is my first experience with Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS), which, when activated, will semi-steer the car on highways with white road definition lines. When leaving your lane, the steering wheel shakes slightly, and, the system will auto correct if you let it. It will drive fairly well on it's own, but, tends to over-correct and go to far the other way. While it is a safety feature, it is NOT a self driving car. My preference is to leave the system off, but, if I was tired, it just might be more helpful.

-Minor funny/crisis moment when I could not figure out how to open the fuel filling door. We were in NJ where self serve gas is illegal, so, the attendant helped me out.

- Getting 32 mpg is nice!

Glad we made the CRV our vehicle of choice for at least the next 100K miles.

 

[PTskier]

At the car dealer:
New car sales are low margin
Used car sales are higher margin
Service is their gold mine

We bought a 2017 Toyota Prius Prime from a dealer that had exactly the car we wanted. (Love the plug-in hybrid Prime; 25 miles on the battery before the engine starts.) The stealership has a second sticker with $795 worth of almost totally useless add-ons. I said, "I'm not paying for that." Period. After lots of hemms & haws, and lots of the sales guy scuttling to the sales manager like a cockroach scuttling across the floor, he asked, "what will you pay for that?" I said that there was $100 worth of stuff that was of value to me. They agree, and we got the car we wanted.

You want the car. They need to sell cars. Needs always trumps wants. Time is on your side. Sit there holding your (reasonable) position as long as it takes. Say as little as possible. Silence is on your side. They'll come to you.

My snow car is a 2016 (newest generation) Mazda CX-9 AWD. Really like it. I want the newest driver assistance technology. I like the adaptive radar cruise control, automatic braking when the car is too close to the car in front, lane departure warning (jiggle of the steering wheel) and lane keeping assistance (lightly pulls back into its lane), and blind spot warning, as well as 26 mpg @ 75 & 80 mph for this large SUV. I notice the lack of front proximity sensors in this Mazda. Our Toyota has different implementations of the driver assistance technology. Sometimes the Mazda does the job I like better, sometimes (rarely) the Toyota does better. The Toyota has great automatic hands-off parallel parking. A friend's 2017 Honda CR-V has better lane keeping assistance.