It was love at first sight. We bought Karen’s Honda CR-V new in 1996 at a Ft. Lauderdale dealership. It was the first year of Honda’s revolutionary “crossover” vehicle. The four-wheel drive wonder went with us from Florida to Chicago, back to Florida and ended its run in Charlotte. The Honda never had a major mechanical failure, but it taught us the true meaning of “normal wear and tear parts replacement.”
I tried to buy Karen a new car many times during the latter years of the the CR-V’s near quarter-century run. She would not let it go.
We made a lot of great memories while racking up 231,885 miles on the CR-V. It was still running great when the time came to part with it.
The deciding factor was a surprise. A woman rammed the Honda’s passenger door on the driver’s side with her Jeep Laredo on Karen’s commute home. The insurance company refused to fix it and initiated a “Salvage Claim.” Karen was incensed. “They can’t make me salvage my car!” They didn’t. The insurance people coughed up the money for the estimate to repair the door, but the major body shops refused to do the work. They reasoned that the car was too old to merit their guarantees.
The search for a new car was on. Karen wanted a SUV that was not too big and not too small. We narrowed it down to a 2020 CRV, RAV4 or Forester. After test-driving all three, the Subaru Forester was the clear winner! It was just right.
We traded the CR-V for the all-wheel drive Forester Thursday (2-27-2020). Karen was sad to see the Honda go, but seems to be adjusting to the upgrade nicely. She’s set for another twenty-four years. The CRV will go to auction and probably ferry someone else around for many years to come.