| Sportymonk |
I know I may be signing to the choir but over the time I have been here at HP.Org, there have been discussions as to quality, mileage, etc. and I wanted to comment on all of these.
When you get a Pilot, ( or any vehicle for that matter) you need assess your needs. The trunk in my Impala was too small. I needed room to seat my family of four with occasional friends included. Gas mileage was a factor but I knew I would not get the 23/29 I got in the Impala. The Highlander was too small and didn’t seat comfortably for me as a driver. The Sequoia was too big.
We needed to carry my son and a friend went to the Raleigh airport about 75 miles away. Rather than have everybody in two cars, I said, Let’s all go in the Pilot. (They had a Ford Escape that couldn’t carry everybody) We folded down the small section of the third row. My wife sat back there comfortably for the 150 mile round trip. The two kids and the other mom sat in the middle and I and the other father sat up front. Everything fit perfectly with luggage in the back and on top of the folded down third row seat. (And I got 21.8 mph on the trip) I have crossbars and a Thule soft bag if needed but have yet to need the roof soft bag! Also took my wife, son and another friend with luggage for a week and had plenty of room.
I bought the Pilot with no misconceptions that I was going off road in it. The most it will see is dirt roads going camping and the sort. I do appreciate the AWD/4WD in the occasional snow/ice we have.
I am happy with the 17 city and 23 highway I get. I have noticed that load does not seem to affect mileage as much as changes in acceleration. My 05 Pilot shifts into high gear at about 47 mph, which indicates that if I ran about 50 mph, I would be getting optimum mileage. Yet on a recent trip driving on country roads at about 50 –55, my mileage was not a good as when I have hauled four people with luggage on long interstate trips running 70-75 mph. My wife suggested that it was the constant small changes in the speed on the country road trip that hurt the mileage whereas on the long interstate trip, I used the cruise control. Many have discussed poor mileage but city driving in Atlanta is totally different than city driving in Rocky Mount NC. The Pilot delivers good mileage for the capabilities if offers.
As far as quality, no matter how many robots are used, there will be people involved in design and assembly and will be a potential source of problems. No vehicle is perfect. There are good and bad Toyotas, Fords as well. But over all Honda is a top quality product. I realize that there are some issues such as the 70 mph vibration that now has two considerable threads on it. But the majority of Pilots are quality products.
I just wanted to say that I am glad I have a Pilot; it is the best vehicle for my needs and desires. It will never be the perfect vehicle in that it gets 25 mpg, had 10” ground clearance, and has no problems in a production run of one million. But it does suit a definite need for many people who need more room that a wagon, need to do some light to medium hauling, and want a good vehicle with reasonable gas mileage for what it is. |
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| andyschneider |
I'll chime in a bit here. Having 2 Pilots has let me see the differences between the '04 and the redesign into the '06.
- The size of the Pilot is great, and the flexibility of folding the seats down in a split-fashion on both rear rows is really appreciated.
- Power is more than adequeate. Plenty of power even with the A/C cranked and 5 people in the car with stuff in the back.
- Gas mileage is better in the '04 (20-22 ave) than the '06 (18-19 ave). I had thought it was the driver (wife drives the '04 and I drive the '06), but I drove the '04 this weekend on a short trip and got 20.5, whereas with the '06 I would have gotten a couple MPG less. the '06 only has 7k miles so breakin may still be happening, but I still think the gearing has something to do with it.
- The '04 is an EX-L/RES, and the '06 is an LX. Both have very comfortable seats. The leather in the '04 after 2 years is holding up well (and no sagging). Rear A/C works great and helps a lot.
Before the Pilot(s), we owned an Aztek(03), a Jimmy (95), a 2-dr Tahoe (99) and a 4-dr Tahoe (01). The nicest and closest to the Pilot of all of these was the '01 Tahoe. It drove as nice as the Pilot, had a bit more power than the Pilot, but got 15 MPG best case...
andy |
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| pointech |
It's funny you should post this now. Just this weekend I was thinking about how happy I was to have bought a Pilot.
I buy and sell a few cars a year as a hobby. I had a 2003 Accord, 2004 Civic, 2005 Accord before the Pilot. I have wanted a Pilot for a while but 2 things kept me from buying- price and MPG. Everytime I buy a car I compare several models, the Pilot is always top choice for seating (up to 8), safety (by size and IIHS/gov crash ratings), and towing (it is not the best at towing but the best of what I look at).
Finally the price has become more reasonable so I ignored the MPG and bought it. I have averaged mid 17 for the first 2000 miles. It doesn't get the 35 MPG of the Civic, but it also accomdates my family of 4 and 2 full size dogs. Plus when family visits we can travel in one vehicle as Sportymonk points out. |
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