jsjag1990

I have a 2011 CR-V EX-L and it has been a great car. Last June we bought a certified 2015 Subaru Outback. All I can say is we should have added one more CR-V to the driveway and passed on the OB. The CR-V has never given us trouble of any kind but the OB has the nickname of boomerang. Boomerang because it keeps going back to the dealer.

I should have walked the day I test drove the car. I got in the car and went to start it, the car had just gone through the certified check point and the battery was dead. A jump start. Off onto the road and I press the brake pedal and it goes almost to the floor. Told the sales guy these brakes need to be bled. Bled them and off we go. I should have walked. Then there is the never ending disappearing coolant. Dealer says normal. Pressure tested the system. A 2.5 pound loss of pressure in 10 minutes is normal. Subbie fans say it is evaporation. Maybe???

What I dislike most is the CVT. The feel, the reaction of the CVT is not something I enjoy. Recently I did a MPG test to the gym and back, an early morning test. Test is 7 miles round trip in cold weather, on a first start of the day cold engine. The CR-V averaged 21 and the OB averaged 17.5. Now if you look on government sites the average MPG for city and highway is higher on the OB, which may be due to the CVT. Our 2011 is a non-cvt car. So why would the CR-V be getting better gas mileage and by the time I get to the gym, the CR-V is blowing warm air but the OB is still blowing cold air.

Truth be told the trim package in the OB Limited is nicer than our CR-V Ex-L. But the difference between our Honda non-cvt and the OB CVT is night and day. I hate the CVT.

Since so many cars are going to the CVT my future market for cars may have to be older models.

So what is the last year I can buy a CR-V that is not a CVT?

Ozmodiar

It looks like the 2015 model was the first to have a CVT, so 2014 should be the last model year to have a regular automatic.

jsjag1990

Thank you.

ThisIsMatt

There are plenty of reasons the CR-V may be getting better fuel economy, one of which relating to the fact that the CR-V blows warm air before you get to the gym while the Subie doesn't. A warm engine is an efficient one. I think there's more to this though...

If coolant keeps going missing, maybe the brakes weren't the only thing that needed to be bled. It's possible that you have an air pocket in your heater core and the Subie engine actually was at operating temperature by the time you got to the gym, but no coolant was circulating through your heater core. Also, a 7-mile test is not an adequate measure of fuel economy, and most certainly doesn't resemble the testing procedure established by the EPA. How did you arrive at the fuel economy numbers you mentioned above? I'm going to assume it was reported by the on-board computer because it's hard to believe you'd fill the tank, drive 7 miles, refill, and divide 7 by the 0.25-or-so gallons of fuel you added to the tank. That's going to be the most effective way to measure fuel economy and should be conducted over the course of at least 3 or 4 tanks, filling from the same fuel pump at the same station each time to limit the variation in the pump shut-off trigger. You also have to be mindful of your tire pressures since low tire pressure create more rolling resistance.

Maybe it's all a moot point since the point of your post is that you hate CVTs (and your Subaru Outback), but done in a controlled fashion I'd be curious to see how fuel economy of the 2 vehicles compare. You'd have to state certain things up-front like vehicle weights, cylinder count, etc...but it would be an interesting study. In the ~105k miles I owned my 5-speed 2001 CR-V I ran 313 tanks of fuel through it and logged my economy on every tank. Call it a sickness if you like, but I'm an engineer and I'll find a way to graph damn near anything!

On the subject of CVTs, I dislike them more than most people since I don't even want a cogged automatic in my driveway (off roading rig aside), but everything I've read suggests if anyone knows how to make a CVT it's Honda. Reviews on the current gen Accord CVTs are positive! Maybe the CR-V ones aren't bad. Regardless if I were shopping CR-V's I wouldn't go beyond 2006 because that's when the manual disappeared. They're getting old, but give me 3 pedals or give me death!