Reader Review of the Week: 2007 Honda CR-V

“We’ve had the Honda CR-V for over a year now, and I am happy with it. The power is adequate, the interior is roomy, and the fit and finish are great. The interior fabric on the EX version is not up to Honda’s usual standards; the floormats are not up to standard either. The only major issue that continually annoys me is this: the transmission ratios.

“The first four speeds are spaced just fine, no problem at all. Then comes 5th overdrive. It lugs noticeably at 50 in 5th, and the driveline isn’t real happy. You notice that 50 mph is a common speed real soon, and you can actually feel the loss of power when it shifts up.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for high-speed cruising, but it gets darned annoying shifting up and not having enough power to accelerate at all until you get to 60-plus mph. Try to drive it at 45-50 mph and you’ll see what I mean. You simply end up driving it a little aggressively to work around this. If Honda would only program the transmission not to upshift to 5th until 60 mph, everything would be fine. It gets about 28 mpg on the road and 23 mpg in town. The A/C compressor cuts out under seemingly light acceleration, an annoyance here in the desert. I took the CR-V to the dealer and they told me it is a normal finding and that the transmission is shifting normally.”