Hi Alan, I'm presently considering the CR-V, but after reading the reviews here;
http://www.whatcar.co.uk/car-review-readers.aspx?RT=898
I'm somewhat hesitant. The main gripes appear to be pulling to the left, notchy gearbox, noisey clutch pedal, and clutch judder. I don't know if you've noticed any of these problems, but I'd be interested to hear if you have.
Hi Eddie, I am home from work now and have the time to reply properly.
The gearbox is not notchy, notcyness is when the synchros baulk out and cause a clash hence a noise, sometimes a double notch were you feel a heavy resistance in the stick as you engage and then a futher clash as the gear engages. The CRV has a very positive detent and biasing of the gear gates, this I think is due to the sometimes expected off road driving and the firm/positive detents are what help keep the gear engaged, with weak detents on any 4x4 you can witness gear drop out over rough terraine. I think Honda have over done this a bit I would have tuned the engagement/disengagement forces slightly lighter, you will probably find this same gearbox in the Civic with lighter tuning springs fitted in the gearbox. I use to travel all over Europe tuning truck gearbox springs for our customers so I do know a bit about the subject.
Noisey clutch pedal is a slight flexing at the pedal box I think and does sometimes produce a very slight squeak, a nothing really that I have become use too, but Honda should beef up the pedal box area I think and stop any sign of flexing.
Clutch judder simply not present on my vehicle 2.2 Diesel after 16000 miles. Clutch bite is quite low from the floor and maybe due to a heavy duty clutch, but very smooth and reletivly light.
By the way you may have seen high oil comsumption mentioned, this is common with most makes that use very low viscosity oil, 0/30w,I never had any issues or early top ups of oil between services, however I consider better protection towing etc with Millers fully synthetic 5/40w and have used it for many years with no issues.
I think if you want to find issue or nit-pick with any manufacturer you probably can, but Honda are really more reliable than most other makes if not all, and just get your self a good test drive in one.
If anyone say's try a LR Freelander, remember the old model was the worse vehicle in the uk for reliability, dont think they will have fixed all their issues first time with the new model, I did drive the new model and found it OK, but would be very worried it would soon start to go wrong.
Each to his own but in Honda I trust.
Best Regards
Alan