Reliability Civic vs CRV

nick94

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I was considering the CRV but at the end I bought the Civic because I need it mostly for commuting. Smaller means less gas and easier to park. I am happy with my choice.

However, I was reading the Consumer Reports and they have the Civic to be less reliable than the CRV. Is this true? In the long term, do which car costs less in repairs and maintenance?
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Hondaman_MI

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I was considering the CRV but at the end I bought the Civic because I need it mostly for commuting. Smaller means less gas and easier to park. I am happy with my choice.

However, I was reading the Consumer Reports and they have the Civic to be less reliable than the CRV. Is this true? In the long term, do which car costs less in repairs and maintenance?
Those articles are worthless. Reliability is not known until the car is older. Buying a new car is nice because you have a warranty for a few years, the downside is it may be unreliable. Used cars you can look up what the lemon years were for a model. Example: 1999-2004 Accord transmission failures. I think a lot of the complaints for the Civic were regarding the infotainment system, not serious mechanical issues, but companies like Consumer Reports lumps all the issues together. I'm 4.5 months into owning my Civic and do notice some flaws but still happy with my purchase. Handling, braking, fuel economy, styling, make it a good choice.
 
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jred721

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I wouldn't say the consumer reports articles are "useless". There is a difference between long term reliability and reliability in general. Consumer Reports documents issues people have with cars for instance someone who has owned a CRV for a year might find they are having the oil dilution issues with their 1.5T engine and hence that gets reported against the car's reliability. So when you read a consumer report article about a relatively new to the market car, it should be assumed that the reliability rating is based on the current issues people are having with that car and you shouldn't expect it to answer whether or not the car's long term reliability will be any good or not. Long term reliability is only something that can be answered with the test of time, nothing else can tell you whether or not it will be good.

To answer your question about the CRV vs. Civic maintenance wise long term, they both utilize the exact same 1.5T engine (unless you get the 2.0 NA engine) so there isn't going to be much difference reliability wise or maintenance wise. CRV is probably rated lower because people have reported more issues with it overall than the Civic, which doesn't mean it is necessarily worse because these results are always based on the data that is given to them and you can't expect it to match exactly with the Civic.
 

WOPSiWOT

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I was considering the CRV but at the end I bought the Civic because I need it mostly for commuting. Smaller means less gas and easier to park. I am happy with my choice.

However, I was reading the Consumer Reports and they have the Civic to be less reliable than the CRV. Is this true? In the long term, do which car costs less in repairs and maintenance?
Look at the detailed ratings. The CR Reliability on the Civic was for the headunit. That's it. Infotainment reliability rated below average and dinged the entire car. You did fine. You're also not driving a CRV (it's a fine car, my wife drives a CRV .... but also my wife drives a CRV).

After some initial glitchiness with the headunit when I first bought it, it has been fine. I suspect they ran some software update without telling me when it was in for service at some point.
 
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nick94

nick94

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I never understood the complaints against the infotainment system! Touch screen is fine with me, I don't need analog switches. And I don't need a volume knob either, digital plus the controls on the driving wheel do the job just fine. So, if those are the only known "issues" then it's great!

I was worried that the Civic in general is considered "less reliable" than the CRV for some other serious reason, for example lower quality mechanical parts used that break down earlier than the CRV. I am planning to keep the car for a long time...
 


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I've had 4 CRVs and two civics, reliability-wise, I'd say the only difference to me would involve the AWD of the CRV. I do think the CRVs are nicer/sturdier on the interior. Going from the 10th gen civic to a '13 CRV, I feel like i'm sitting in a high chair!
 

racer

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Considering Honda sells about 250,000 of each (CRV and Civic) every year, I would think they've sorted out the whole reliability thing by now. Yes, some are better than others.. but they're equal in my book.
 

neteng101

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FWIW - looks like the CR-V is no better in the infotainment dept other than including a volume knob...

https://www.edmunds.com/honda/cr-v/...-honda-cr-v-monthly-update-for-july-2018.html

Seems like multiple Edmunds staffers have had infotainment problems with the CR-V HU. The CR-V system is apparently taken from the Civic so both of them run into similar issues. The new Accord system is what everyone keeps hoping Honda updates all their older HUs to eventually.
 

kc189go

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FWIW - looks like the CR-V is no better in the infotainment dept other than including a volume knob...

https://www.edmunds.com/honda/cr-v/...-honda-cr-v-monthly-update-for-july-2018.html

Seems like multiple Edmunds staffers have had infotainment problems with the CR-V HU. The CR-V system is apparently taken from the Civic so both of them run into similar issues. The new Accord system is what everyone keeps hoping Honda updates all their older HUs to eventually.
The HU problems that article reports (thanks for the link btw) are all with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Those seem to be problem areas for *all* HUs, on pretty much all brands, not just Honda. That doesn't excuse the problems -- you'd think basically being a dumb display for a smartphone wouldn't be all that hard to get right -- but it's not as if the whole HU crapped out or something like that.

All the Honda HUs other than the Accord's seem to suck -- slow, outdated graphics, etc. -- but Honda's HU software does seem to be slowly improving over time so that at least the HUs don't outright crash as often.
 

Civics4Ever

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They are both Honda's. Enuf said about reliability.
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