OD Garage: Honda CR-V

Between 9am and 11am is rush hour in Mumbai. The way forward is one inch at a time. One morning, a cab in the next lane closed in on me and the CR-V. I felt his steel bumper scrape my front left bumper. When his lane traffic moved ahead I heard an even more horrible sound....metal grating and tearing plastic. When I checked,true, the cabbie had yanked out a small strip of plastic surrounding the front wheel arch and there was also a small dent which I was able to put right. The scratches needed a paint job.

The dent and scratch are minor damage but show up like sore thumb against the CR-V’s pristine body sheen.
A lot of hard driving and oodles of miles on the odo have left the tyres with a squeal-making propensity while going hard into corners. Grip levels though are still as impressive.
I also sense a slight drop in power; the sharp bursts of acceleration in higher gears seems to have diminished a bit. It’s time to get the injectors, air filter cleaned and oil changed. A scheduled service should set these right and get the CR-V back in top nick.

- Bertrand D'souza