ITS FOR THE WIFE HONESTLY

Just had insurance settlement on previous car
Wifes always wanted a rav but they seem a little pricey compared to
Honda crv or suzuki grand vitara

Any body own or owned any of them and whats your opinion

Thanks

Honda CRV

Brother has got one and it’s a lot better than the Rav4 that his mother in law has got

Just feels more quality

Was cheap to buy too

So she wants a Rav but you want to get her something else. Good luck with that. 😕

Rav is smaller than a CRV but not as good I’d say.

looked at rav4’s and crv’s for my wife – we ended up getting an x-trail which we hadn’t even thought of before we started looking.

felt better built and drove better than the other two.

Rav4 has a tiny boot
CRV felt that you were a wee bit disconnected from the road and the build quality didn’t seem that good.
XTrail seemed to be step up in quality from the other two.

This is based on limited experience in test driving those cars, your may find differently 😉

Any of those cars scream ‘I AM A HAIR DRESSER!’ 😆

My wife has a Vitara. Its alright but its got a very short top gear and is really noisy on the motorway, I try and avoid doing longer runs in it.

We looked at the Rav4 and XTrail, both of them were much better cars, particularly the XTrail, but she insisted on the Vitara.

Assuming your looking at new models (rather than older versions), and basing it on mainly road performance, I’d go:

X-Trail (petrol rather than diesel)
Rav4 / CR-V
Grand Vitara

Vitara is apparently best of the lot off-road, although the X-Trail is surprisingly capable on muddy trails. None of them will match a Defender, but then who wants to drive a Defender for any distance on road.

Mum has a Rav4, 2L auto 5dr version. Guzzles petrol, its gutless, esp uphill and the boot is useless. Back seats are like sitting on planks.

Uses more petrol than my old twin turbo Subaru Legacy!

I wouldnt go near one, but she loves it.

Thanks for comments
Should of added im looking at around 02 to 05 models
she doesnt do alot of miles so petrol will be an option

03 CRV
Performed way better in the snow than I thought it would
Build quality feels fine, typical Honda
Wasn’t sure about the auto engage for 4WD, but it seems to work. I would still rather have a manual switch
Spacious and comfortable – central Scotland to Yorkshire and back no real problem.
Handbrake in weird place
Surprisingly poorly designed use of space/ For example, cup holder flips up between seats, but when down, there’s just a big gap wth no storage potential. Glove compartment surprising small
Possible to install satnav, but looks like a PITA to do yourself.
Fuel consumtion what you would expect
Not all that noisy
Poor rear visibility due placement of central (non-removable) headrest in rear seat. A parking lens might help
I’m 6’2 – the sun visor, when down, obstructs visibility more than I would like. probably not a problem for less than 6 ft’ers

can’t comment on the others, but I like it.

looking at around 02 to 05 models

In which case, I’d go:

X-Trail – for better performance offroad, although the later diesel models (engine made by Renault) have lots of problems with the turbo and intercooler. If I could have found a 2.0 petrol engine model within the 5,000 budget I’d set myself, I’d have gone for this out of preference, but they were as rare as hens teeth around central Scotland, and lots of them have significantly higher mileage than the others.

Rav 4 – for better performance onroad, probably most like a car of all of them, but has less ground clearance as a result. I bought the 2.0VX, with 37,000 miles on the clock for £5,500. It’s a decent car to drive on the road and does well on muddy/snowy forest tracks, even with a full load and pulling a small trailer. We’ve been on a camping holiday for 2 weeks with 2 dogs and all our camping/climbing gear in the boot (and drove it in preference to the Touran we also have.)
Rav does have a ‘hairdresser’s car’ image in the UK, but if you look online, you’ll find they’re very popular in the US and Australia for modding as pretty capable offroaders.

CRV – probably the biggest of the lot inside, felt a bit of a raft when I test drove a couple, but then I don’t really like big cars.

Vitara – best of the lot offroad, but feels a bit agricultural compared with the other three when you’re driving onroad. When I looked at the start of the year, I found lots of low mileage examples – an 02 plate with about 27,000 miles for around £5,000 was the best I saw around Glasgow.

5th Gear did a good review of that generation of SUV:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR7kHC6yiQI[/video]

Q: At what point does a Grand Vitara stop becoming a hairdressers car?

[/url] Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak by Engined Beasts, on Flickr[/img]

A: When it’s a Escudo Pikes Peak version!

In which case, I’d go:

X-Trail – for better performance offroad, although the later diesel models (engine made by Renault) have lots of problems with the turbo and intercooler.

I thought it was the model’s to about 07 that were the dodgyengine

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/nissan/x-trail-2007?section=bad

I like that you can get the Rav 4 in a 180 bhp diesel – and it looks nice (not sure if they did the 180 in ’05 though).

Other than that CRV’s look OK as do X-Trails

I thought it was the model’s to about 07 that were the dodgyengine

Yep, up to 06 or so. Our 06 split the intercooler (£1500) in the last month of it’s 3 year Nissan warranty, slight oil staining on one corner of the intercooler was all to see. To be fair to Nissan, got booked in & approved for warranty work really quickly, no argument from the dealer.

I’d add that a lot of XT’s will have been used for towing, usually caravans, and front tyre wear can be spectacular if they’re driven hard in 2wd.

I love mine

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201048374251363/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/3000/model/hr-v/make/honda/page/4/postcode/kt89lg/radius/1500/quicksearch/true?logcode=p

Compared it to all those and just liked it more. It’s been surprisingly good in the snow despite normal road tyres.

my wife had an 03 Grand Vitara (5 dr) from new. It was the 2.0TD one. we sold it when it was 20 months old after she had 2 not so minor crashes in it and lost all confidence. The back end was very twitchy, with loads of power going through the rear, light, torquey and all terrain tyres. It was a bit cramped inside, but very reliable.

I quite liked it, but it was a bit of a liability in the wet. Also no traction control and rear drum brakes pretty poor. Very sturdy ladder chassis – it wrote off a Mondeo and BMW 3 series in it’s 2 seperate incidents and the Suzuki needed new bonnet, bumper, front endy stuff each time but remained driveable to the garage 😆

iainc – my 2.5l pick-up has 170 bhp going through the rear wheels and sod all weight above them.

It’s quite easy to drive if you treat it properly, but can be a handful if you abuse it. Teach the silly bint how to drive properly (joke) 😉

We have a 53 Rav 4 , the 2.0 petrol. We have owned it for 3 years and found it to be a good solid car and not had any mechanical problems (or any infact!) with it. Very reliable, relatively cheap to run and insure, however the 2.0l is a bit gutless and as such drinks a fair bit of fuel. A tank of fuel is about £50 (approx).

Boot is big enough for most things (bikes, dogs, shopping) and you can slide the back seats forward to make the boot bigger. The seats also fold into numerous positions. All in all, quite spacious, nice to drive and well equiped. Would have preferred a diesel but we dont do the mileage to warrant it. Looked at the X-Trail too but preferred this. Having driven and used an X-Trail since I still prefer the Rav.

Teach the silly bint how to drive properly (joke)

😛

note I said I quite liked it !!! The problem was she isn’t at all into cars and just wants to get her and the kids from a to b safely, which the Suzuki wasn’t as easy at doing as the Scenic we replaced it with !