As long as the bike is in good condition, 17,000 miles is not a bad thing, but a 250cc motorcycle with that many miles is likely to have had several owners. Make sure the guy selling the bike has his name on the title (Legal owner) and the title and registration is valid before you hand over...
If this was a USED car, then it's possible that the previous owner was a smoker, and the tar & nicotine stains that penetrated into the headliner fabric are coming back down... OR the car could have been flood damaged and the rust that has built up on the unprotected sheet metal is showing...
Any good "Dual-Sport" type of bike will work. Try to find something in the $7-$8 K price range because you're going to want hard bags, clothing and accessories for touring, and that will quickly add on another grand or two to the purchase price.
BMW makes several different GS style bikes, but...
Go find a local motorcycle dealer who will allow you to sit on his showroom bikes. Try each bike you want to ride for at least 30 minutes. If you can still walk when you get off, it may be the bike for you.
If it's paid for, it's still cheaper to keep it running than it would be to trade it in on a new car (and a new set of car payments).
Take the money you were using for car payments and put it in the bank. By the time your CR-V fails completely, you may have enough saved up to buy a new car for...
Ya' know... They have this really cool invention out now that is designed exactly to help people find information like that. It even has pretty colored yellow sheets of paper with writing on them and everything! It's called a TELEPHONE BOOK!
I suggest you go find one and learn how to use it.
Gasoline with 10% ethanol has been the standard winter blend fuel in the USA since the mid 1980's, and most newer cars seem to be getting along quite well with that mixture.
Any ethanol blend will reduce your engine's performance and fuel mileage slightly.
The car HAS an owner, and it's not just 'lying around'. It's most likely that the person who owns the showroom is a car collector and is just displaying his very rare and expensive Maserati to attract customers to his showroom. The people who buy this kind of automobile do not drive them on the...