My wife and I live in New Hampshire and she has a 2006 Ford Freestyle with roughly 110000 miles that was gifted by her grandparents at about 75000 miles. It has always been garaged and taken care of and still is, and as far as we know it has never had any issues apart from the tires being replaced at some point and the brake pads and rotors being replaced within the last year. It has the 3.0 V6 and a CVT. Some noises coming from the front driver's side shock absorber, but nothing crazy yet.
Her parents have a 2017 Honda CR-V Touring with the 1.5L turbo and CVT. It only has 30000 miles on it, and it has been babied since they bought it new. They want something fancier, so they offered to sell it to us for the Freestyle (which they will then trade in or private sale) plus $10k.
We are young and they are trying to help us get ahead, but I'm not which car is actually the better car with more life left in it. Should we go for it? Being cheap I keep telling myself to keep the Ford and drive it into the ground, but I also know that we'll never find a deal like this on a CR-V ever again.
This video is super helpful! I was looking last night for a Scotty video about the specific car/engine, but I didn't find this one. I'm glad that there's a solution if the dilution is caught early enough. Because the CR-V has such low miles I am hopeful that there aren't any issues with it yet. I'll be checking it out in the morning. Thanks!
No worries & all the best!
If it checks out, opportunity.
I agree with @InThrustWeTrust. If currently, the Honda does not have the oil dilution issue, get that and use 0w16 oil to make the engine run in a tip top shape for years to come.
As Scotty notes, these CRV's with the 1.5L engine and a turbo have oil dilution problems. Honda extended the warranty to six years, unlimited miles, on these engines, so you'd be covered for eighteen months or so (depending on when the vehicle was purchased and/or assembled).
This was a result of a class action lawsuit settlement:
If you're using your vehicle for short trips, it's my understanding that this would be the worst condition for oil dilution, because the engine would not be able to burn off the gas diluted into the engine.
At the very least, you'd have to go to a 3 month/3K miles oil change interval for the life of the vehicle.
And, because of the GDI/turbo combination, there's additional stress/maintenance on the ignition coils, spark plugs and the like.
If you watch Scotty's videos, he's highly critical of the CRV and it's oil dilution problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIRBsn3xfoc
And here, from CarComplaints.com: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/CR-V/2017/
Because I run a bit on the cynical side, my sense is that the in-laws want to, at least in part, dump the vehicle BEFORE the warranty period expires.
Here's what I would consider doing: Get a DETAILED general inspection of your Ford by a diagnostic mechanic. Then get a DETAILED general inspection of the CR-V.
Then, and only then, with information in hand, make an informed decision.
That's what I have, tonight.
Thank you for this and the info about the class action suit. I'll look into the remaining warranty info and local diagnostic mechanics. Much appreciated!