Shopping for a 2013 RAV4 or CRV?

[carluzky]

First I wanted to say hi, since I am new here , this site is excellent!
I apologize for my grammar, since English is my second language.

I'm writing this for anyone who is debating between the rav4 and the crv, since my wife and i don't buy a new car every year there is really not much room for error so we want to make the right choice. Now i'm just an average joe with an average salary and i understand that peoples tastes and opinions are subjective but this are my thoughts on the subject.

A little History:
Until last year i Used to own an acura 2001 cl type s coupe. I loved that car and if it wasn't because of a failed transmission and an accident that left nasty dents on the car, I would have drove it to the ground.
It never gave me any problems and beside the usual tire replacement and oil change, it still drove like new, until the other day when it refused to change gears on the middle of the highway and the engine light showed up! The engine was revving but wouldn't go past 30mph. What a scary feeling. Safety first so I had to sell it.
Anyhow, had a nice chat with my wife and we decided on a SUV (baby on the way), something small, safe and reliable (who wouldn't want that right?) and it all came down to a crv or a rav. So we went ahead and test drove both vehicles twice for the past two weeks. The crv was not bad, but at the end i was leaning more towards the rav.
Originally I wouldn't even think about getting a rav4 till I saw one in person. i'll put it this way, It's not the drop dead gorgeous runway model BUT it's the perfect girl next door.
We knew we wanted the top trim without gps, that way we could compare it side by side.

So we test drove the crv first, it felt very spacious inside, plenty of room everywhere and plenty of storage room. My thoughts:
Pros-
-Plenty of interior space
-Clean layout in center console
Cons-
-Read a lot about the headlights, they seemed pretty weak for night driving.
-Weak horn (like a toy) - although the rav4 suffers from the same problem
-Kind of bothers me that the shift its on the console
-What is going on with the center armrest? It feels really uncomfortable and you can't adjust it, maybe I was used to the one on my acura.
-I don't know, but something didn't feel right about spending 30k on a crv that lacked a few standard things even a hyundai had.

What won me over to the rav side:

As far as driving, I had to be realistic, there is no way I can get the same feeling of excitement *I had with my acura, and I didn't want to fork over an extra $16k for a mdx, so both vehicles felt the same to me (very loose handling), specially with that electronic power steering wheel now present in almost every vehicle. Although I felt the rav4 to have a little bit more of passing power.

Resale value: I tend to keep my cars for at least 8 years, so I didn't care a about that.
Reliability: kept constantly reading about these top 2 brands, honda first and Toyota second, so you can't go wrong with either one.

Quiet ride- I must say, I thought my acura was pretty quiet for a sport car, but it was because I ALWAYS had the radio on, until one day when I had to replace the battery, the radio kept asking me for a code I didn't have. At first I thought I could live without it, but by the end of the week I broke down in tears and went to the dealership to get that code. The car wasn't terribly loud in the road, but still... I would have given it a 5 out of 10 (10 being heavenly quiet) So I decided to listen carefully while test driving both vehicles and I'm happy to say they deserve a 7.5 aaaaaand that's why I have no opinions yet about the quality of the sound system. My fault.

I guess it all came down to value and standard features, correct me if I am wrong, but even the basic trim on the rav4 had a ton of more features than the crv. But since I like the limited, lets stick to that trim:

- Power liftgate: might not be a big deal to some, but tell that to my wife when she comes back from shopping with 3 bags on each hand and me waiting in the car, ( ladies, don't give me that look, sometimes we have to double park and you know it) . I know, I know, I can always get off my ass and help, but .....

- Keyless entry and start: *I think it's a neat trick, I can see when will this be helpful, rainy day, having my hands full and not dropping everything to look for the keys, etc.

- Side mirror turn signals- I was surprised the crv didn't have them, I don't know how useful they are but you know, better have them and not need them than....

- I can't say that the rav4 is "safer" than the crv, but it does have 8 airbags if that makes a difference.

- About the softex (aka pleather) -
Every single car I owned, *(not a lot, only 3) had real leather, and loved it, in spite of my wife giving me a hard time when the weather got too cold or too hot and sticky, I loved that damn leather. So I came in that day to the toyota dealership with the preconception of hating the softex, but boy I gotta tell you, it felt just as good, Not even a cow could have told the difference if it was riding with me. They did felt plushier than my acura, more like lexus seats.
A little advice , for those who are thinking about getting a car With cloth seats, at one point I was looking at used vehicles, and the ones with cloth, no matter if it was one year old or five years old, every single one of them had some type of stain , some of them can even make CSI cringe!

- Back seats can recline, believe me it makes a world of difference, specially on Long trips, makes the back seem much roomier and you can actually take a comfortable nap.

- Auto dimming rearview mirror: *I didn't have it on my acura and it used to drive me crazy, I can't believe honda didn't put one on the crv, luckily the Toyota has one.

- Memory seats- not a big deal for me since I am the sole driver, but again, better to have it and not need it....

But as you know not everything is perfect in life, I do have some complaints:

Console storage: just to give you and idea, you can put a six pack on the rav and not much else, on the crv you can store twice as much, in bottles.
Any other type of storage: where am i supposed to put my coins?

Everything else seems equal in between both vehicles, *but don't take my word for it, go see for yourself! Have fun in your test drive!

[silverboy]

Hey, welcome aboard.
Great observations, great job.
If I may suggest a few things:
The radio is better in the Rav4, headlights at night time are amazing. Driving, the Rav4 feels a little more pepy and I dig the six speed. The Rav4 is quiteer too than the CRV. The seats reclining are a plus.

You can't go wrong with either vehicle, however, you'll do better with the CRV on the gas mileage, space, and other few things. You may do better on the CRV on financing too (0.9%) I believe or lower.

I got the Rav4, based on looks (exterior) radio (I love music) fun to drive, eight air bargs (safety should be the same-good). Roof racks are different if using a cargo box like I'm for long trips, fits better (Thule).

Finally, I used to be a Honda-Acura guy, but I'm digging my new Rav4.

BTW, congrats on the baby.

So, what are you getting?

[molina67]

Wow that was a great comparison. What really bothers me about Honda are their arrogant sales people that's enough to keep me out of their dealership.

[carluzky]

Hey thank you guys, I am leaning towards the metallic grey, for some reason any lighter color makes the car look a little cheap, with all that plastic at the bottom and front.
As far as the interior, I was originally thinking about all black, but wifey thought my acura was too dark, so we test drove one with black softex and on the second test drive we sat on the TERRACOTA. Now here is my opinion, if you are shopping around online looking at pictures, believe me, they do NO justice, once you sit in one it looks very elegant and sleek, that is why it's imperative that you personally come down and see it for yourself. I was happy with it and so did my wife, and that's the one we are leaning more towards. Its not a fiery red, more like dark brick red. I don't foresee any issues on keeping it clean as opposed to the other 2 lighter colors. But having said that, it's not for everyone, although people get used to everything after some time.

[molina67]

I don't know I kinda like the Blizzard Pearl... I do have to agree I can see the seats being a pain to keep clean...

[Blogson]

Originally Posted by molina67

Wow that was a great comparison. What really bothers me about Honda are their arrogant sales people that's enough to keep me out of their dealership.

Hmm - your experience with Honda dealers is different from ours, we've bought two CR-Vs from the same dealership and sales person and have had good experiences. Toyota - the dealer I bought my RAV from also provided a good experience. Both dealers special ordered the exact vehicles we wanted. Neither dealer was pushy or arrogant, they took the time to answer our questions (Toyota dealer sales rep was slightly less informed, their service manager was badly uninformed, vehicle wasn't properly prepared prior to delivery), and both Honda and Toyota gave reasonably decent deals.

[molina67]

Oh I had the finance guy in one of the dealership tell me that he wasn't going to shake my F$%@ing hand when we couldn't come to a deal. Another dealership told me that they don't compete with online dealerships and if I didn't want to pay the price they have to go somewhere else... So I have stayed away from Honda ever since... about 8 years now....

[NewRav2013]

Every time i see a 'deal' advertised there's always some gimmic. In one case a honda dealer was advertising a CRV for less than invoice, but amazingly these are never still available when an inquiry is made when they've been on the internet for weeks. In another case I'm familiar with it was the right CRV, only with 600 demonstrator miles on it.
Local toyota dealer: "3500 minimum trade for your car (internet pricing excluded...)" you know your dealing against msrp and maybe other newly invented fees sheeeesh.
That's why I go out of my way to shop an Internet toyota dealer; here's our price; here's the car, put a refundable deposit on it to hold it until i get there; 200 max documentary fee if they do the loan/title work, zero fee if they don't. My fourth trip back (corolla, highlander, tacoma, now Rav4) to a dealer 35 miles away with 7 dealers within 20 of my home(one five miles away.)

[carluzky]

Hey guys I did it! I finally pulled the trigger today! I guess the third time is the charm! I am gonna create a new thread later on with more details about the car.

[ROLLTIDE]

@carluzky.
Your written English is excellent. No need to apologize for it being your second language. And at least you know the difference between "its" and "it's"; unlike so many native English speakers who still use "it's (it is)" as a possessive pronoun. LOL. And hey, congrats on your new RAV4. Enjoy!!!