The missus has her heart set on a CRV or something similar, unfortunately she doesn’t look beyond the shape & colour, whereas I’m all about running costs, reliability & performance etc. She’s expecting to spend about 7-8K.
What’s the consensus on these things?

We had a Nissan X Trail for a while. Solid, performed without fault, quick when needed, worse on fuel than a diesel estate (which is obvious) and handled better than I thought it would.

Just gone from a Honda 4×4 to an Accord Estate and the Accord is better in every way. Pig ugly though.

joolsburger – Member
Just gone from a Honda 4×4 to an Accord Estate and the Accord is better in every way. Pig ugly though.

I take it you didn’t read the op

The missus has her heart set on a CRV or something similar

You don’t argue with this….

Perhaps have a look at the alternatives suggested by Parkers?

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/honda/cr-v/estate-2007/also-consider/

It’s the type of car I’m considering (though at present a new car is not even on the horizon!) and I’m sure I’ve seen a list on the Parkers site of ’10 best crossovers’ or some such which featured the CR-V.

There is only one choice if it has to be SUV type and it’s an X trail….. The CRV has a sweet engine but thirsty CITD lump. The X trail is roomier and more car like with better running costs

The missus has her heart set on a CRV or something similar
You don’t argue with this….

Too right.
Just showed her an Xtrail & she said, ‘does it have cup holders’.
This is what I’m up against.

A colleage got rid of an X trail. He said the boot was tiny compared to the size of the vehicle.

X Trail has cup holders – ours could be cooled from the air vents. The boot was fine for us with a toddler and all the crap they need.

We had an accord estate cdti and was so unstimulating to drive, we hated it and was glad to get rid of it. Just been out in a Ford Kuga ( the wifes idea, not mine) and luckily it was hateful, so thats got a cross on the list. I am pushing her to a 330d beemer. All for getting a frickin dog FFS. 🙄 Doesnt help the OP, other than forget the kuga unless you want to go green and see your dinner again. And they are supposed to be one of the better handling ones !

Mazda cx7, not sure what a diesel one will cost you though, but I bet you can pick up a cheap, very well specced petrol

Just showed her an Xtrail & she said, ‘does it have cup holders’.

To be fair, that’s pretty important.

I have a Vito and the cup holder is pitiful ! It’s a lease van, but I’m buying after this and it won’t be a Vito unless they have changed the design !!

I spend a lot of time in there, and like to have a brew while I’m driving. A decent cup holder in a sensible place, that works is important 🙂

Our 56 plate CR-V has been pretty good, uber reliable and we won’t be getting sahot of it any time soon. It’s great for biking (with a towbar rack) and I also use it off road around Gisburn Forest when trail building, also not bad in the snow even with rubbish tyres. Not massively expensive to insure.

Downsides ours is fuel hungry, 2 litre petrol, get around 27 mpg, tax is at the higher end and it’s got next to no power, our 1.6 diesel Touran would leave it standing. It suits us well as a second car as it does very few miles plus it does get some off road use and we do get quite a lot of snow which cuases the odd days issues. if we had to rely on it as our main car it would (with much regret) have to go.

A diesel would probably address a lot of the runnign cost issues though.