<p>Musicmom…well…at least they MAKE a vehicle with leather seats, heated seats and power everything that can hold a garbage can!!</p>
<p>If only they would make a car with a bench seat, my secretarial spread would be very happy.</p>
<p>Another VERY, VERY SATISFIED CR-V owner reporting in here. I have the 2006 model – one that allegedly has less “oomph” than the 2010 model – but I have never had any kind of acceleration and/or power issues. It’s a great car.</p>
<p>Rode in a loaded couple years ago model w/a friend to a conference out of town last week - very comfortable as a passenger.</p>
<p>We have 2 CRVs - a 2003 with 150,000+ miles on it and a 2009 which was its replacement… Thrilled with both. The 2009 has a lot more pep than the 2003 - and has no problem cruising over the hills near my home, accelerating up hill just fine. As for merging in on the freeway, never had an issue there either.</p>
<p>The 2003 has the swing out door with the tire on back. The 2009 swings up - and it is a huge difference. Greatly prefer the swing up as I have been smacked with the swing out door more than once when I was parking on a hill. </p>
<p>Garbage cans fit fine in either. Seats fold down flat and there is tons of cargo room. It does have limits - it won’t carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood or a queen sized mattress. What it can carry is the full contents of my DDs college room, including a 4.0 cubic foot mini fridge.</p>
<p>Another vote for Hyundai Tucson over CRV here. Can’t say enough good things about this car.</p>
<p>We’ve really enjoyed our 2006 CRV and it has been very reliable. My wife chose it over the Rav4 because she doesn’t like a console between the seats which is where she puts her purse 
If you go for the CRV, I would recommend you consider the all-wheel-drive option. You really cannot go far wrong with the Hyundais, Toyotas, or Subarus, though, they all build cars SO much better than 20 years ago!</p>
<p>Why we did not get a CRV after renting one for a week to deliver frosh kid to college and put 2000 miles on it (~300 city, rest highway).</p>
<p>Drivers seat: felt somewhat cramnped and too snug for me (I"m 6’) and even felt that way for 5’ 4" wife, too; too much entry twisting into the vehicle; would like to keep my hat on when entering a car </p>
<p>Passenger seat: while it was OK for my spouse it felt too sung for me to ride for extended distances; I found myself wanting more roomn to move around in the 2nd hour as a passeneger on the highway.</p>
<p>Visibility: the roof panels in the back made it a bit difficult to see when changing lanes or backing the vehicle, although in fairness I think that kind of design defect is widespread in the small SUV class </p>
<p>Storage area: we were positively surprised at how much we could store in the “way back” of the vehicle; definitely a positive!!!</p>
<p>Back seat for passengers: adequately comfortable with enough room for the frosh but - as you would expect - not enough for me, not that I’d ever ride back there :-)</p>
<p>Back seats folded down: this was a MAJOR turnoff; when the back seats were folded down they rode extremely high in the back and they didn’t lie flat; the combination of the angle and them riding so high in the “folded down” position seemed 1) an ineffeicient use of space (i.e., folding the seats down did not yield a significant amount of additional storage area) and 2) made it really hard for us to see how our dog (~55 pounds) would ever ride comfortably back there (no, we didn’t want dog dirt and hair all over the area where humans would sit</p>
<p>Overall grade: meh</p>
<p>Interesting about the dog - our 90 pound golden retriever rides very comfortably and happily in the back of either of our CRVs…</p>
<p>As for the seats - it is a two step process to fold them flat - first you push the back forward and then you flip the seat bottom forward, tilting the headrest into the footwells. It goes very flat…</p>
<p>FLAT fold down seats are VERY important to us…
Musician husband often has need for large cargo area.
We’ll have to check it out ourselves, of course.</p>
<p>Thank you so much to all who took time to respond.</p>
<p>When I looked at the CRV a couple years ago, the rear seats did not fold flat (by flat I mean creating one flat surface from the front to the back). Maybe the salesman was just an idiot.</p>
<p>The Toyota RAV4 seats fold in a better configuration flat than the Honda CRV.</p>
<p>Musicmom, I am curious- what did you end up buying? We are still looking. We are down between the Santa Fe and the CR-V. However, after talking to my nephew, we are going to take a look at the Forester. So what did you get and are you happy?</p>
<p>We’re between the CRV and the Forester.</p>
<p>thumper, My dad is on his 2nd Forester in a row. Had the first one till about 200k miles when he got hit and the car was totalled. Got like 15k from the insurance, even with that many miles on it. They sure hold their value.</p>
<p>Thumper1: You do know that SLPs get VIP pricing on the Subaru don’t you? I spent 2 hours looking at the Outback yesterday as it is time to ditch the van. I am just not sure I even want an SUV type at all. May look at the new Honda Crosstour. Does anyone know anything about it?</p>
<p>nothing to add about specific models, but I would highly recommend getting preferred dealers and prices from Costco and/or AAA. When we bought our last car 3 years ago, we found the car we wanted (exact replacement of one totaled) and called up the dealer that had it and arranged the sale over the phone and picked it up the next day.</p>
<p>wildwood330, We recently purchased an ‘11 Outback to replace our aging minivan. I’m loving it! After driving various minivans since 1989, it’s a welcome change. Things we like about the Outback: better mileage than advertised (we’re getting 27/32), huge passenger seating area, large cargo space, and great pick up for a 4-cylinder vehicle. Negatives include lack of a power liftgate and roof rails that don’t allow much distance between add-on cross bars. The latter is a problem for those who carry longer kayaks and multiple bikes. We’re able to carry our kayaks in cradles using rail grabs and tie downs with Yakima crossbars, but our kayaks are only 10’ and 12’. It’s a real issue for those with longer kayaks.</p>
<p>We have '97, '98 and '99 CRVs for the three (now adult) sons - called The Fleet - and all bought with at least 100K on them. We still own all three, but two sit in the driveway (oldest kid just moved to NYC so no need, third son is a freshman in college). With our fourth driver coming up on her permit in two weeks, we at least have a car available. I don’t think the lack of power getting onto the freeway has <em>ever</em> been an issue, and I drove one of those cars for 10 months. I will tell you that car saved me from wrecking in the snow on at least one occasion.</p>
<p>I have driven both '09 and '10 CRVs as work cars for several months, and really like them a lot. Gas mileage is fantastic, storage is, too. There’s a place for my purse on the floor of the front seat which is a real plus, imho, compared to other small SUVs. My only complaint is the smaller rear windows and visibility, but I trained myself to be more vigilant and it seemed to work. This was after I got a ticket for almost hitting a cop (yes, a cop) while changing lanes on the interstate. I had even glanced over my shoulder, so you can see I needed retraining on the visibility thing. </p>
<p>On the seats folding down - don’t you just remove the rear headrests to get the seats all the way down? I’m pretty sure that works fine, but you should try it out. I put the rear seats down all the time and I don’t remember that ever happening.</p>
<p>I owned a first generation (1997) CRV when it first came out, which is very unusual for me, as I normally don’t believe in buying first generation vehicles. Allow me to say that it was the best car that I have ever owned. I passed it on to my D when she obtained her driver’s license in 2004 and I bought a 2004 Pilot (I wanted a bigger SUV). I finally sold the CRV to a friend for her son’s use in 2009, when I also bought my D a brand new Honda Fit for her college graduation. The CRV was completely trouble-free. I believe in doing regular maintenance/oil changes, and the largest mechanical bill I ever had was replacing the water pump and timing belt at the appropriate time. I will sing the 1997 CRV’s praises forever, and I believe that the model as a whole is well worth the money spent. (The friend’s son LOVES that CRV and is very happy to have it.)</p>