July 2004 CR-V of the Month

Alpine for HondaSUV · Commented: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:14 pm

It all began when my wife and I started dreaming about our future life together, a couple of kids, a nice cosy house, that kind of thing. Then it dawned on her that we simply didn't have the right type of car to match this picture. I have a 1999 Honda Civic Coupe and she had a 1997 Proton Satria (a small two door hatchback). No way on earth would the pre-conceived imagery of mother and father and two kids fit in either of these cars on a family day outing. That's when my wife said "let's get a Honda CR-V!".

For some reason she has always liked the CR-V because it was, in her words, a cute 4WD vehicle which looked sporty. She wanted a high riding vehicle which had four doors and was large enough to fit a future family plus all the luggage that goes with it. The CR-V fit the bill because it wasn't a full-size tank and would be easy and comfortable enough for her to drive herself (she is only a shorty!). That's when I said I'd think about it and do some research. I admit at the time I wasn't crazy about the idea. I have always been a sports car fan - the low riding, big rims, taut handling sexy kind of car - and never in my wildest imagination ever thought of a 4WD in my future. I mumbled and groaned about it, but promised her I would do some reading up on 4WD vehicles. I read articles on the Toyota RAV4, Mazda Tribute, Ford Escape, Suzuki Vitara, and of course the Honda CR-V. Because I already drove a Honda Civic Coupe, the Honda CR-V was always going to be the favorite choice.

So we went to test drive one at the local Honda dealer. We test drove a base model CR-V which was in the used car lot and was quite impressed. At this point we had already made up our minds that yes, this is the vehicle that we want. The problem we faced was that the generation 2 CR-V was just released and the dealer was pushing a new generation 2 on us rather than the used generation 1 that we test drove. We previously never thought of a generation 2, as my wife initially liked the generation 1. But we kept an open mind and said sure, we'll take a look at the newly released generation 2. My wife didn't like it. It was substantially larger than the generation 1 and felt too big for her. She didn't like the look of the dash compared to the generation 1 and it was too expensive for a brand new one.

To cut a long story short, in the end, the dealer found and offered us a brand new generation 1 CR-V Sport (top of the range model) in silver (our first color choice) and said substantial savings could be had from this run-out model. So we had a choice of a brand new generation 1 or a brand new generation 2. We took the generation 1.

Friends and family said we were crazy for buying a superceded car, but we have no regrets. We got exactly what we were looking for and for a very good price compared to a brand new generation 2, yet we still got a brand new car.

To this day, we still love our silver generation 1 CR-V Sport, and the SUV-class vehicle has opened me up to a whole new type of fun that can be had in a car. While I still have my passion for the low-riding sexy sports car, I have developed another passion for the high-riding sexy SUV. It has expanded my world of automotive enjoyment, and I have my wonderful wife to thank for it. Never in my wildest dreams that we would have two silver Hondas in our garage in the form of a Civic Coupe and a CR-V Sport!

Regular readers of www.hondasuv.com would be very familiar with our CR-V by now, and have seen many pictures of the roadtrips we have done. But the scope and purpose of our silver CR-V is about to change. To this day our CR-V has been a weekend leisure mobile, taking us on roadtrips, driving on the beach, on holidays, soaking up the sun through the sunroof and cruising to the bass on the Alpine stereo. Soon, it will become a baby car carrier.

Yes, my wife is three months pregnant and we are expecting our first child in December 2004. And our CR-V is going to be right there with us at the hospital when we drive in for the birth, and then drive out with a new baby in the CR-V, complete with baby car seat in the back.

Other interesting trips: Click here

Happy CR-Ving!
Alpine