Used CRV’s are rarely a good deal. I bought one in 2011 brand new, sold it 22 months later for $800 less than the purchase price (- Tax & title) and the buyer was happy getting a good deal.
If you are going to finance the $16K, then I am sure the financing on the new would be better and payments might be the same. The new model comes standard with rear view camera that IMO is important esp if you have kids.
If you are paying cash, you might still be better off with new. I would go with the base model and then add leather seat covers. I believe you should be able to get customized ones for your car (with the opening for the side airbags) for around $800 to $1000. Honda loads their leather trim with a lot of other stuff that you probably don’t really need.
Also, with kids, we used to just cover the rear bench with some bath towels or blankets, but I also have a no food rule in the car that is enforced unless we are on a long road trip.
@db4690, I’m not insinuating that someone should buy a car off of eBay sight unseen. Many of those dealers potential buyers who pass every day on the street have those same cars listed on eBay. The search feature works well and the buyer can narrow their search down to X number of miles within a certain zip code along with price range, mileage, and so on.
Of course I would always recommend a look at along with an inspection pre-purchase.
I’ve been on eBay for over 15 years with a roughly 60/40 split as buyer and seller. It’s not difficult to pick out a bad seller by the info on the site and with the help of toolhaus.
In over a 1000 transactions I’ve never had a problem as a buyer or seller except with one guy who bought an antique motorcycle part and never paid. Other than that every seller and buyer I’ve dealt with has been excellent.
Oh, c’mon ase, you can’t actually believe what you’re saying.
Have you ever heard of “seatcovers”? Or Scotchguard?
My kids were no different in that respect than anybody else’s. Truth is, almost all spills can readily be cleaned from Scotchguarded seat fabrics with a simple steam cleaner. For really bad ones there’s detailers. Either is cheaper than leather.
This was one “spill” that never could come out. My son left a large box of new crayons on the seat in a minivan on a hot summer day. We came back to a box of hollow tubes sitting in a dark stain of melted crayons. Now I ask you, would you rather have that happen to fabric or leather?
I have nothing against leather. I like leather. But having kids does not mean you need leather. Millions upon millions upon millions of people have raised kids without needing leather seats.
It’s toolhaus.org and a site that provides nothing but info on neutral or negative feedback left for sellers.
Just poke in the ID and click on the “Received by” or “Left by” tab. It provides a pretty good idea of who you’re dealing with.
There’s other functions also and it cuts through the eBay clutter as most people are not concerned with the good ratings;only the bad.
but I also have a no food rule in the car that is enforced unless we are on a long road trip.
Yeah, I grew up that way and tried that with my kids but the fact is it simply not possible. I can’t send a kid in to play soccer for 45 minutes on an empty stomach or expect him to perform on the baseball field without a sandwich and some milk. By the time my wife or I leave work a few minutes early to pick up the kids and get them to their 5:30 game or ballet practice, the only time for them to eat is in the car on the way.
Have you ever heard of “seatcovers”?
Yes. Seatcovers are what you put on your stained and ugly fabric seats after you spill stuff on them that would wipe off of leather. lol. Dirt and crumbs get ground into fabric, doesn’t happen with leather or vinyl. Milk and soda on a fabric seat in a car? Yuk. I don’t have the time to be treating and steamcleaning seats. My wife and I both work 50+ hours a week. As a result, sometimes breakfast is eaten in the car on the way to drop the kids at the before school program. Things get spilled. As for leather costing more, I really have no idea. I think my wife and I have only ever bought one car brand new, the others were all used, so I can’t imagine the type of upholstery was a price factor.
I guess today’s kids are from some more fragile species that needs constant tending. I ate three meals a day as a kid and nothing in between. I didn’t need extra nourishment to play, and that includes active play. Water, yes, always. I don’t recall ever eating in the car, and that included three week camping vacations. We got out of the car to eat lunch, usually at a park or highway rest area. My parents would have considered it barbaric to do eat in the car, as well as unpleasantly smelly. Some of our cars had vinyl and some had cloth and both were fine, even with four small kids. Leather was only available in luxury cars then.
Anyhow, people who eat in their cars you probably do need leather, and that will limit their used car options if they’re buying reasonably inexpensive cars as leather only comes on the top trim levels. A CR-V in more basic trim would cost less, but only with cloth. I much prefer cloth as it breathes so much better.
We always ate in the car. The van was an '86 Toyota minivan with the engine between the front seats and in addition to eating in it, the large flat carpeted area over engine was perfect for changing diapers. Even in winter it was a warm place to perform that task.
I checked the price of a new seatcover and it was unrealistic. So I wicked as much of the wax up as I could using an iron and rags and then threw a blanket over the seat. That had to be one of the most topheavy vehicles ever, but I loved that van. It was perfect for a couple with two young kids. We had a lot of fun in that van.
I don’t think kids today are particularly fragile. I think maybe the parents are a little more ambitious. My mother had breakfast ready every morning, a snack waiting for me when I got home from grade school, and dinner in the evening. My wife actually has a job and a career and as such has much less free time than our parents did.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect an 8 year old boy to eat lunch at 11:30, finish the school day at 3:00, spend 3 hours playing at the afterschool care, then hit the soccer field for 45 minutes or do an hour of taekwondo without some food. I’ve tried it and he just can’t run. It’s not fair to the team to have a lagging player. Leaving work and getting the kid to the activity just leaves no time to stop somewhere for dinner, often times they are changing clothes in the car as it is.
As a kid we usually snacked in the car on road trips, but stopped for lunch. Tremendous waste of time unless you’re stopping at an attraction. In fact stopping overnight is an unneeded expense and waste of time as long as there are 2 drivers. The kids can relax in their luxurious leather seats and sleep.
My father used to have a 1983 Toyota van with the engine between the seats . . . same as yours, except 3 years older
He had it in Germany, so it was euro-spec. It was called Model F. I’m not sure what it was called here
Anyways, that thing was so underpowered, it was almost dangerous. It couldn’t get out of its own way. The only saving grace was that it had a 5 speed stick. I can’t imagine how bad it must have been with an automatic transmission . . .
I will say that it was a pretty useful vehicle. We hauled a lot of stuff in that van
I’ve driven many Kia Souls over the past 5 years. They are very popular among rental agencies. Decent little car. Handles nice…rides OK…comfortable on long trips.
Leather seats for kids ? If you let kids ride on leather seats when they are young, they will have nothing to look forward to when they grow up. Seriously, with kids, accidents will happen but the stains they generated are for the most part minimized with good parenting while an inconsiderate adult passenger who tries to drink his piping hot coffee in a car and dribbles it all over the place is “untrainable”. It’s the adults who need leather seats for stain control, not the kids.
Hyundai line of small SUVS has improved too and are worth a look as well if you want budget transportation.
Db, its only name was Toyota. At the time Toyota wasn’t yet using model names in the U.S.
Mine was underpowered by today’s standards too, but it got the job done. It was also very poor on corners, unsafe by current standards. It probably made me drive a lot safer. It too was a five speed, which I concur was definitely needed.
The van was perfect for my needs, but I cannot state emphatically enough that it needed to be driven with great care and forethought. I needed to anticipate what I was going to do and do it carefully. If I missed an exit in that vehicle, I had no choice but to keep going and turn around at the next exit. As regards merging and overtaking, those acts needed to be well planned and not attempted without plenty of room. These are actually great habits to develop anyway, and I still drive like that.
However, properly driven it was a really great van. Highly utilitarian and perfect for a growing family with young 'uns. I don’t regret that purchase one iota.
I seem to remember that Toyota van was high, had skinny tires, and wasn’t very heavy
A rather dangerous combination, at times
I remember a few times, driving on bridges which went through valleys, and the wind was blowing very strong. It was quite scary, because you had the feeling the wind would blow the van off the bridge, and you’d drop down into the valley. Definitely encouraged you to keep a death grip on the steering wheel
I guess it’s all what you’re used to. The human body was evolved to eat when it could, which wasn’t even daily at times It doesn’t run out of gas in a few hours as it can easily store enough for several days… As kids we played actively all afternoon and didn’t eat a thing. We had plenty of energy to get through to dinner. And most generations before me had their kids working out in the fields for hours at a time. No naps, no sandwiches.
When we were on vacations we stopped to see the sights, gas up, and for restroom breaks, but meals were modest and there was no snacking. Even today, driving back from my mother’s home takes seven hours and we usually drive right through. No, I’m not dying of hunger by the time I get home.
The tires weren’t skinny for the era (185mm section width), but it had a very short wheelbase and large side area. I doubt if it would pass current safety standards. Here’s some photos.