Hi Scotty. If I had to choose a car between a Toyota RAV4 2.0 (2002) and an Honda CR-V 2.0 (2005) both with manual transmissions and 125K miles (200000 Km) to use as daily transport all year (live in the country side in northern Europe), which one should I go for and why? They seem to go for about the same amount of money.
Either is great and it comes down to personal preference. Whichever you like more should be fine with Toyota being slightly more reliable
Yeah they're pretty dead even - especially in those years and with standard transmissions. Either one is a great choice, but the CR-V may be a little bit zippier and therefore maybe more fun to drive.
Test drive both and see which one you like better.
both are excellent cars.
Went and looked at the Toyota today, it had some rust on the bottom edge of both front doors and behind the front wheel wells, rough paint and interior, a transfer assembly-to-propeller shaft seal fluid leak, a welded previously broken rear inner control arm mount, and a minor transmission cover leak on the left side just above the inner CV boot. At 90kp/h the car also slightly shaking both on and off power, and it wasn't from a wheel or bearing, but somewhere within the drive train. The guy wanted $3200, new rear brakes, summer+winter tyres and a flawless engine (no oil burner) but service history was a bit dim. No warning lights or fault codes though. It had closer to 133000 miles (214000 km) so I'll pass on this one. I'll look for another one and look into that Honda, as well as another RAV4 as I don't want to buy someone else's problems.