Hello All:

 

From time to time, inquires are made about how the
CR-V stacks up against the ?competition?. On a recent mini-holiday in
Newfoundland?Conception Bay South Area, I took the opportunity to rent a Jeep Liberty.
A relative of mine just recently purchased a Liberty
over a CR-V and I wanted to know why.

 

I was very excited when I picked it up at the
airport. I wanted one in red or black, but I had to settle for white. Because
we were travelling with my son, I ordered a car seat when I made the booking. When
I installed the child seat, I thought the anchor location was superior to that
of the CR-V. Unlike the high mounted hook, the Liberty
had an anchor on the back of the seat.

 

Upon picking it up, I noticed the lack of room this
vehicle has. The space behind the rear seat is about 4 to 6 inches less than our
2000 CR-V. While it may be a little taller I was surprised by the lack of depth.
The dash area felt a little claustrophobic. The depth of the dash and the
proximity of the windshield made it very Jeep-like, however, the CR-V definitely
has more room.

 

The most obvious difference in these two vehicles is
the power. The Jeeps 3.7L engine makes nice throaty sound. When you step into
it, the Jeep goes. But of course, the Jeep lives up to its name by how it
liberated the money from my wallet to pay for gas. With that said, I am not
really sure that there is a big performance difference between these two
vehicles. Driving a Honda the way it should be driven, in upper rev band and without
a lazymatic transmission, I don?t think that there are any big
performance differences.

 

Almost as noticeable as the gas consumption, it the
fact this Jeep rides like a truck. Yes, yes, I know it is a truck based
vehicle, but it makes the CR-V feel like a big marshmallowee domestic vehicle,
ya, you know, a Cadillac (I feel dirty just making that comparison).

Thanks for the comparison Jeff, I looked at these too and wondered about the
power difference. I noticed they seem much smaller inside and the details
were not as well done. The V does have to be revved a bit, but with the
5-speed, it's fun. - Larry