Greetings from New Zealand.

I've owned Hondas for yonks, going back over 40 years. Worst one was a brand new 84 Civic that was so bad Honda replaced it under Lemon Law (the replacement was fine and performed perfectly for 12 years until we sold it). The most recent was a 2005 CR-V, bought during COVID lockdown when our daughter and family visiting from London for two months ended up staying for 22 months. She began by borrowing my wife's Mercedes, but as a horse girl, the car began to look a bit worse for wear. So I found the CR-V with 180,000 km on the clock, all the Sports features that was better for the unpaved, potholed metal (gravel) roads on the way to her horse paddock. It was a nice car when we bought it, but just before Christmas I had a good look at it, and found too many dents, dings and scrapes everywhere. It was looking shabby, and would have needed a couple of weeks in a panel beater (auto body shop) and more money than it was worth.

Problem is my daughter went to college in America, and discovered she could get an Arizona drivers licence for $25 that was good until she turns 65. In New Zealand you begin with a learners permit (minimum 6 months), then a restricted permit (18 months), thus it takes years and hundreds of dollars to get a full license. In Tucson, she memorised the test, passed the written because she is really good at passing tests without learning anything. Then she miserably failed the driving test because, except for the three hours of practice she had never sat behind the wheel before. The first driving test was to learn what the examiner fails her on. Then on her way to college in New Mexico, she stopped off at a sleepy one-horse town where the DMV lady and my daughter shared a love of fashion, jewelry and makeup, so the whole driving test, daughter kept her talking about girly stuff. Of course the roads were wide enough to land a 747 on. Zero traffic. Hardly any traffic lights - and she passed, having zero skills in driving. And then, she returned home, waited two years and walked into the drivers license bureau and exchanged her US license for a full NZ one. Zero experience, but brilliant at exploiting loopholes - we have no idea how we birthed such a child, the opposite of us. Sadly, she has not gotten much better, hence all the dings and scrapes on the CR-V. And, she then hired a nanny would drive it and seems to have forgotten to lock down the bonnet (hood). When it flew up (not sure why the safety catch failed), it bent the struts and the bonnet. As we keep it for a guest car, it began to be a bit embarrassing.

So on our national auction site (TradeMe), I kept a "favourite" to alert me to a 2005 CRV Sport with sunroof. I find I really like open cockpits in cars, and the more boxy look before stylists began to add curves. My workhorse is a 1982 G-Wagon which is like driving in a greenhouse, and when I began to look at newer CR-V's I found they felt too enclosed for my taste. So, I was limited to 2005. One popped up at a dealer, and it was uncanny. It was the same colour, with identical features, almost exactly the same odometer (by now 200,000 k), except it was clean. No dents, dings or scrapes. The seats were not torn. And it was priced well, to the point that I sold the first CR-V for what I paid for the second. Most uncanny was when I checked the serial number it was about 400 different. Apparently the factory made about 450 CR-V's a day, so it probably was made on the same day.

But even though it looks a lot better, there is the usual debugging. First, I noticed a judder at about 80-90 km/h (50-55mph). I put on new tyres that all match, because the front ones were worn while the rear were new, because a forum said sometimes the sensor thinks the different diameters means its slipping on snow, so it kicks in the rear axle, which judders on the smooth highway. No joy. So next I read the transmission oil may need changing. Just bought it - two bottles as draining does not empty the transmission, hence two or three drains is recommended. That will be the first challenge, and I will post findings for future owners.

The other problem is a front-end clunking noise. It could be slightly loose or worn sway bar bushes, or about ten other possibilities. Had I now owned an identical CR-V, I might have presumed it was normal, but my wife was quick to point out it was not. Because the car is under a used-car warranty, I'm not working on it myself, but taking it to the dealer's mechanic. That slows down the solution-finding, but I'm happy to let someone else do the work.

Other cars in the stable: 1969 Alfa Spider (slow restoration, not running), 1982 G-Wagon (farm workhorse, hauls stones, pulls stumps), 2004 Jaguar XJ6 (kept in town for cross-country driving... we live on an island), 2012 SLK200 (top-down summer island driving) and 2017 Nissan Leaf, the shopping cart on an island where petrol (gasoline) is US$9/gallon.

So that's me and why I've joined the forum.