| kraky |
I had an 04' Pilot and liked everything about it except the ride and road noise. There seemed to be alot of "clunking" from the front suspension and too much road noise...especially on concrete freeways.
Anyhow I was impressed with the mileage of the '04. It always got the 22mpg and often got 23-24 at about 70 mph. I was impressed.
The dealer traded my 04 with just 28k mileage and gave me a good deal moving up to an '07. I was really happy with the better ride and much improved lack of road noise. BUT....the new one seems to run quite a bit higher RPM than the old one and doesn't shift nearly as smooth.
My '04 ran 1500 rpm at 55 mph.....the new one is doing 48mph at 1500 rpm. The older Pilot would shift up alot quicker and smoother than the new. The old one seemed to shift almost seamlesly at about 1800-1900 rpm. The new one wants to see about 2200 rpm before shifting.
AND now my mileage seems to be down about 3mpg including around town and highway. I have yet to break 20mpg on the highway although it's about 20 degrees up here in Wiscosnin right now. Mixed driving is giving me about 16mpg.
What do you new owners think about the tranny on the pilots...do they get better as they break in?? I've got about 900 mi on now and I'm not at all impressed with the new tranny. If this thing can't do better than this I'll definately be looking at going back to a Yukon. If I'm gonna get crappy mileage I might as well get it from a bigger even nicer riding rig that can actually pull a 3-4000# trailer easily. |
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| ThePilotster |
quote:
Originally posted by kraky
If this thing can't do better than this I'll definately be looking at going back to a Yukon. If I'm gonna get crappy mileage I might as well get it from a bigger even nicer riding rig that can actually pull a 3-4000# trailer easily.
Ok, I just gotta ask. Why would you buy the pilot if you can't tow your trailer? I've towed 3500 give or take a few lbs and have had no issues...granted I tow only on occasion, but if I needed a daily tow, the pilot is not the vehicle of choice for heavy loads. For the one time a year (sometimes) when I need a heavy tow vehicle, I rent one for the day... $75 to rent for a day beats the gas I save weekly if I had the Yukon if I had one for a daily driver.
Hope things work out for you but be careful if you trade over to a Yukon from an 07 pilot... they do not even have numbers yet to give you a fair trade & you'll likely get hosed all the way to the bank! |
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| kraky |
I have a small trailer that I pull to the cabin with a lawn tractor in the summer and a 2 place snowmobile trailer I pull on occasion. The 2 place trailer with sleds on it probably weighs 1600 lbs. I was surprrised at how "weak" my first Pilot was at just pulling the 1600lb trailer. Mileage plummetted from 23mpg without trailer to about 13mpg and the tranny was shifting up and down like a busy bee. It does make me mad that Honda wants you to put a $1000 package on a $30k 4 wheel drive vehicle just to tow. You can buy a $20k dodge minivan and it can go to work pulling a trailer right out of the box.
I had 3 suburbans in the past. I know that resale on GM is not as good as Honda. (Although I made out like a bandit selling my Suburbans cause at the time they were a little hard to get) It probably makes buying a 2 year old Yukon or "burb" a bargain over buying anything new. One of my suburbans would get an easy 18-19mpg....basically what I'm now getting on my Pilot.
Alot of my friends ribbed me when I started buying the Pilots. I told them about the great fuel economy....how much I hate sending my money to the big oil companies....and worse yet the Mid East where it turns around and comes back to bite us in the ass.
I guess my big gripe is that they have done a great job on upgrading almost everything about the Pilot but how the heck can they be making the tranny and fuel economy go backwards so bad. I noticed from reading alot of posts here that I'm not the only one who seems to have this complaint on the newer Pilots.
I'm hoping I'm wrong and the darn thing works itself in and starts shifting smoother and bringing in some gas mileage but, my first one didn't seem to act this way from new on. I was really hoping someone would chime in and say "relax....it will improve with just another 1000 miles or so but I haven't heard that yet. I promise if "magic happens" and there seems to be a big turnaround I'll apologize to the forum. |
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| jl_ss |
quote:
Originally posted by kraky
I have a small trailer that I pull to the cabin with a lawn tractor in the summer and a 2 place snowmobile trailer I pull on occasion. The 2 place trailer with sleds on it probably weighs 1600 lbs. I was surprrised at how "weak" my first Pilot was at just pulling the 1600lb trailer. Mileage plummetted from 23mpg without trailer to about 13mpg and the tranny was shifting up and down like a busy bee. It does make me mad that Honda wants you to put a $1000 package on a $30k wheel drive vehicle just to tow. You can buy a $20k dodge minivan and it can go to work pulling a trailer right out of the box.
I had 3 suburbans in the past. I know that resale on GM is not as good as Honda. (Although I made out like a bandit selling my Suburbans cause at the time they were a little hard to get) It probably makes buying a 2 year old Yukon or "burb" a bargain over buying anything new. One of my suburbans would get an easy 18-19mpg....basically what I'm now getting on my Pilot.
Alot of my friends ribbed me when I started buying the Pilots. I told them about the great fuel economy....how much I hate sending my money to the big oil companies....and worse yet the Mid East where it turns around and comes back to bite us in the ass.
I guess my big gripe is that they have done a great job on upgrading almost everything about the Pilot but how the heck can they be making the tranny and fuel economy go backwards so bad. I noticed from reading alot of posts here that I'm not the only one who seems to have this complaint on the newer Pilots.
I'm hoping I'm wrong and the darn thing works itself in and starts shifting smoother and bringing in some gas mileage but, my first one didn't seem to act this way from new on. I was really hoping someone would chime in and say "relax....it will improve with just another 1000 miles or so but I haven't heard that yet. I promise if "magic happens" and there seems to be a big turnaround I'll apologize to the forum.
I never saw any significant change in mpg after "break-in" with either our 2005 Pilot or 2003 MDX. Both the Pilot and MDX get the same mpg as my 5.3L Silverado Crew Cab that has significantly more hp/torque/weight. |
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| GreenMachine |
Mileage really varies by terrain, weather, driver, and if you have to use that winter formula gas. When the temps are cold, I average 20 – 21mpg driven on suburban streets and highway here in flat Florida. That average drops to 18 – 19 mpg when I have to use the A/C in the warmer months.
On a trip last November from Jax, FL to Orlando and back without using the A/C, I averaged 25.8 mpg. That was with two passengers and the area behind the second row pretty full. The cruise was set at 72mph whenever possible. I don’t know too many V8 SUV’s that can do that. You really need to let yours break in a little more.
As for the transmission, I can’t compare because I did not own another Pilot, but I can say that compared to the 2004 I test drove, this one downshifts less at higher speeds. The torque converter stays locked for most gradual increases in speed or holding your speed going over an overpass versus the first couple years where the trannys downshifted frequently something that owners frequently complained about. |
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| jestmaty |
Just tested my 04 for shift points and rpm's at speeds....
55 gets 1500 rpms on the tach, 74 mph gets 2k on tach...
from a standing start, the shifts 2nd, 3rd, and 4th happen around 2300-2400 rpms. Each shift drops the rpms to 2k before the next upshift. Regular, casual acceleration input.
The last shift from 4th to 5th happens right around 46 mph and the rpms go down to 1300 rpms. |
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| kraky |
I was going by memory on the shift points. I was pretty sure If I was real tender with the gas pedal...engine warmed up....level grounds I could get it to shift under 2000 rpm. Maybe I was wrong but I've been paying attention to the new one and how it shifts and it's definately not nearly as "seamless" as my 04. I even have a hard time making it shift by doing a slight "backoff" on the throttle, which was something I could kind of do with the old one. Maybe it will loosen up with some time. I just don't remember having this kind of rough shifting with the old one. It does get a little better once the engine is at full operating temp.
I really do like everything else about the new Pilot. And as mentioned in an above post it doesn't seem to downshift as much as the old one on the highway but I'm sure that's the added HP and higher RPM that it's running.
I wonder how the new 3/6 fuel managed Pilot will do on fuel. I have a friend with a new Odessey with that and he claims he's getting a consistant 30-31mpg at 65-70 on the freeway. I shouldn't be so anal about fuel eco but Honda has usually been at the forefront for getting good mileage and I had hoped this had even improved a bit in the last 3 years.
This year we traded our Accord on a new Toyota Avalon. They're rated at 32mpg and the darn thing gets that easily and often 33-34. For a big car it's been terrifically impressive. So, we do have a real nice "ride" that gets great fuel eco for the longer trips. I DO NOT MIND trying not to send the Middle East our gas money!!!! |
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| CNJ |
| I agree with you Kraky! I'm not crazy about the way the pilot shifts! I've never owned one before but man it just doesn't want to shift sometimes. I've started to get used to it, but to get it to shift out of 1st before 3500 rpm's you have to be feather footing it! Like I said in another thread it's like it stuck in tow mode! This seems to be in the 06-07 models IMO. I also hoped it would get better gas mi. but I guess 16mpg ave isn't too bad (thats when I drive very easy) If a big V8 SUV can get that then what gives - Honda? Otherwise I like everything else about it. I'm going to the Mountains next weekend so we'll see how it does. |
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| jl_ss |
quote:
Originally posted by kraky
I wonder how the new 3/6 fuel managed Pilot will do on fuel. I have a friend with a new Odessey with that and he claims he's getting a consistant 30-31mpg at 65-70 on the freeway. I shouldn't be so anal about fuel eco but Honda has usually been at the forefront for getting good mileage and I had hoped this had even improved a bit in the last 3 years.
EPA testing shows that VCM adds 1 mpg city and 2 mpg hwy. Forum Member Tupperware has owned both 2wd (with VCM) and 4wd versions (Link) and verifies that. |
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| kraky |
I wonder if they didn't gear them down a bit knowing that the VCM was coming. It's possilbe with the taller gearing they had on the 'earlier models that they knew the 3 cyl's couldn't pull the rig with that high of gears.
OR, maybe they just wanted to give it a sportier feel.
I guess it is what it is and that's that. I am so impressed with the Avalon I got and that same engine is in the RAV 4. I was thinking that since they made the RAV 4 so much bigger that the next logical step was to make the highlander bigger also. I'll have to run the Pilot another year or two and see what comes of the new Highlander or possibly the new diesels that Honda is supposed to bring over approx '09. |
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| CNJ |
Well I just returned from a trip up to Big Bear. I'm happy to report the Pilot climbed up to the 8400ft+ elevation loaded w/stuff no problem. The tranny worked real well, no straining or hunting for gears. Without having to throttle up it just holds the proper gear and climbs up effortlessly. I was very impressed. So it seems the current transmission is programmed and geared for a little work. Although it's not real smooth in town it more than makes up for it in the hills. Since I'll be using it for road trips in the mountains quite a bit I'm happy with the performance now.
[IMG] [/IMG] |
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| andyschneider |
Well, you certainly aren't the first person to question the differences in shifting between a newer Pilot and an older one - check out this thread from last year http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/sh...&threadid=13555 . And here's a specific string about the gearing differences. http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/sh...&threadid=15313
Overall, my mpg is 2 lower than my wife's in similar driving. Shifting hasn't changed on the '06 after 15k miles, and the MPG hasn't changed either. Definitely a more "sporty" and "responsive" feel in the newer models than the old, but you pay for that in lower mpg....
andy |
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| CNJ |
quote:
Originally posted by andyschneider
Well, you certainly aren't the first person to question the differences in shifting between a newer Pilot and an older one - check out this thread from last year http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/sh...&threadid=13555 . And here's a specific string about the gearing differences. http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/sh...&threadid=15313
Overall, my mpg is 2 lower than my wife's in similar driving. Shifting hasn't changed on the '06 after 15k miles, and the MPG hasn't changed either. Definitely a more "sporty" and "responsive" feel in the newer models than the old, but you pay for that in lower mpg....
andy
You know I never owned a Pilot before. I just gathered info from reading posts here. When I get in the Altima and take off it would be in 3rd gear before the Pilot gets out of 1st and be way up the road, but it's 1200 or so lbs lighter so I won't compare. I figure to get good gas mi in the Pilot you have to drive like my Mom does! LOL. I gues you could get taller tires and get better mi on the hwy. The speedo would be off a bit and you would have to calculate it out. It gets the same hwy mi as my Tacoma v6 (20-21) and it's heavier and WAY more comfy so I won't complain anymore. BTW Andy thx for the thread links, those comfirm what I've been feeling, so it's normal for an 06. |
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