Honda Pilot

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Fairweather Pure
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Honda Pilot

Post by Fairweather Pure »

My wife just bought a 2007 Pilot this weekend. We test drove about 8 other vehicles ranging from an Oddyssey mini van to the mammoth Acadia. My wife could have any car she wanted, and she chose the Pilot because it drives very much like a car/minivan. It's not as large as my extended Envoy, but it's larger than something like a CRV or Rav 4. The touch screen navigation and hideaway/flip out storage for blackberry, business, and personal cell phones were all big sellers for her becuase she will occassionally take this on the road if it is more economical for her company to pay her milage vs renting a car. That equals about 4ish times a month. Other than that, it's pretty much garage kept.

It has a 3rd row of seating, and is fully loaded. An excellent deal for sure and so far we are very happy with the purchase. It had the best ride and was more quiet than anything else we drove.

Here were some of our other test drives off the top of my head:

4 Runner <----- drove too much like a truck for my wife's taste.
Sorento <----- Very dissappointing. I really wanted to like this.
Odyssey <----- My wife just didn't want to drive a mini van. Nothing wrong with that. I loved the power side doors. Perfect for kids.
Acadia <------ Too much like my Envoy. My wife did love the seat mounted DVD players and duel moonroofs though. We talked at length about this vehicle over lunch and decided that our family didn't require 2 giant, fully loaded SUVs. She also wanted something different than mine, just because. Good for her. If she didn't get the Pilot, we would've had an Acadia in the garage right now.

There were another 4 vehicles in there, but they all kind of blended together. I had no intention of buying a Pilot, but after driving it first, everything else in it's class/price range just didn't compare.

Oh yeah, we drove the Lexus SUV. I was completely unimpressed. You call that luxurey driving? What a fucking rip off. It drove like shit and all the woodgrain interior was ugly as fuck. Same with the Nissan Murano. It had less interior room than anything else we test drove. Both of those vehicles had less of everything for about 10 grand more in cost.
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Noysyrump
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Re: Honda Pilot

Post by Noysyrump »

You can't go wrong with a honda. Grats and good choice. Now if you where talking about her buying a GM blazer I'd laugh my ass off at you. Like I am about the envoy.

In defense of the Murano, wich I do like, it's about styling in a crossover, it aint square, so it sacrafices space fer looks. Nissan has a few automotive issues wich put them 3rd on my list of "best manufacturers".

Toyota Honda Nissan. That order. Mind you this is from the perspective of someone who tears them apart and see's how they are built on a daily basis, Not taking into account styling preferences, or "feel".
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Pherr the Dorf
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Re: Honda Pilot

Post by Pherr the Dorf »

Gratz on the best midsize SUV out there. I sell GM Acadias as well and would have steered you away from it simply because the reliability so far is total ass. They are breaking faster than anything our techs have ever seen before, this includes the ones we are selling as fresh units now, things should have been ironed out by now but they simply aren't. The Pilot really is the perfect vehicle in it's class and I imagine you did your homework and got a good deal, especially with the $3500 in dealer cash we have on them now, we are in some of our used Pilots more than a new one... go figure.

The Murano drives like a fat pig to me but I will say the Rogue is a fun car and other than the cheap interior the Altima is a well designed mid size.

Roadfeel is a biggie for Honda, they corner far better than Toyo's which is why they sell so well in areas where you are actually required to drive to get to and from where you want to go.
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Re: Honda Pilot

Post by Fairweather Pure »

I drove it to and from work the other day, and as much as I like it, it dosen't hold a flame to my Envoy in terms of pretty much everything. That Envoy is luxury driving. It's quiter, the stereo is about 100x better, and it has considerably more features. My Envoy was also about 5k cheaper than the Pilot. All those mid size SUVs feel a little cheap to me. The Pilot, while being better than what I test drove, still does not have the solid feel of the Envoy. It's that "car" feel over the "truck" feel I guess.

The pros outweigh the cons, with my wife's love of the Pilot being the best thing going for it. I find it to be pretty decent overall, but consider my Envoy superior in every way possible. I just don't constantly compare the two. They are different classes of vehicles for a reason. For a midsize SUV, I feel we bought the best thing out there.
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Re: Honda Pilot

Post by Funkmasterr »

Pherr the Dorf wrote:Gratz on the best midsize SUV out there. I sell GM Acadias as well and would have steered you away from it simply because the reliability so far is total ass. They are breaking faster than anything our techs have ever seen before, this includes the ones we are selling as fresh units now, things should have been ironed out by now but they simply aren't. The Pilot really is the perfect vehicle in it's class and I imagine you did your homework and got a good deal, especially with the $3500 in dealer cash we have on them now, we are in some of our used Pilots more than a new one... go figure.

The Murano drives like a fat pig to me but I will say the Rogue is a fun car and other than the cheap interior the Altima is a well designed mid size.

Roadfeel is a biggie for Honda, they corner far better than Toyo's which is why they sell so well in areas where you are actually required to drive to get to and from where you want to go.
The underlying issue here is that all american and euro car manufacturers have decided that a high enough percentage of people only drive their car for 3 years or so, and because of this they will only build them to last about that long before the issues start piling up real fast.

My girlfriend has a jeep compas and loves it, her mom is a big jeep fan too (she has a wrangler), and these seem to be the exception to the rule. I have never liked any american made cars/trucks and would most likely never buy one, and now that I have learned my lesson with Euro cars, I would say Japanese is really the only way to go.

Anyhow, grats on teh new car.
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