Honda Pilot...

Anyone have one? The wife and I are looking at a 2006/2007 EX with most all the trimmings. If anyone has had one (or still does), let me know of your experiences if you don't mind.

Thanks!

I had one new on lease for 3 years (wife's car). It was a fine appliance. Honda settled a class action over the odometers reading high by about 10% iirc so you can take that into consideration in looking at actual miles. It was a typical Honda - 3 years 36k miles of basic oil changes was all it needed. I can't say how they've held up since then.

Friends have one. Been anvil reliable, though he considers it more of an appliance than something enjoyable to drive. No problem with two adults, two car seats and all the stuff a toddler and four year old need hauled with them.

I would do some research on possible trans issues. The early models had them and as the newer ones age they seem to develop them. My problem with Pilots is that I am pretty sure they are the same vehicle as a Odyssey but in an SUV shape. They do everything worse than an Odyssey except for look like an SUV. That said, my wife wont drive a Minivan so we have seriously considered buying a Pilot.

MrJoshua wrote: I would do some research on possible trans issues. The early models had them and as the newer ones age they seem to develop them. My problem with Pilots is that I am pretty sure they are the same vehicle as a Odyssey but in an SUV shape. They do everything worse than an Odyssey except for look like an SUV. That said, my wife wont drive a Minivan so we have seriously considered buying a Pilot.

And Odysseys are great vehicles. The Pilots aren't that exciting but they are great for families and so on. If I were to own an SUV or CUV of any sort it would be a Pilot.

My 04 Pilot EXL Navi was never happy. One little thing after another. It was a CPO vehicle so my expectations were high. It was aligned but still ate front tires. Batteries ran down quickly and the low oil pressure light comes on when the battery is low (DOH!) Needed both motor mounts. The Navi was laughable. I was just waiting for the trans to lunch as all of the early ones(all 03 and most 04) did. MPG was just ok. It was a happy day when it left.

In reply to ls1fiero:

I learned through hard experience (ending in a lemon law claim that almost shut the dealership down) that Honda's CPO program is total crap. I'd rather buy a private party car with no history than a CPO Honda.

The motor mount thing is a good thing to bring up. Everyone I know with one over 100k on an Ody or Pilot needed a rear motor mount. Heck, one client needed one around 60K. It should be an easy DIY since the shops did it in something like less than an hour. IIRC the transmission "Fix" by Honda is to reroute one of the transmission feed lines to spray one gear in the transmission directly so it will stay cooler. A transmission cooler is supposed to be a good idea.

pigeon wrote: In reply to ls1fiero: I learned through hard experience (ending in a lemon law claim that almost shut the dealership down) that Honda's CPO program is total crap. I'd rather buy a private party car with no history than a CPO Honda.

The problem with Honda's CPO and any other CPO is that most of the CPO certifications are done by just about any techs. Doesn't matter if it's a lube tech or a master tech as long as it get's that CPO badge and the sales force can put it out on the lot.

When I was working for a Honda dealer I would refuse to sign off on cars the sales team wanted certified all the time. The reason being that I would recommend everything the car needed for it to be "certified" and the used car sales manager would only approve about $250 worth of repairs or maintenance. I'd do what he signed off on but they wouldn't get my signature as a technician for it to be a CPO, but those shiesty sales guys would just go to another tech and have them sign off on it....shady nonsense.

Only Pilot I've ever been in is my brother-in-law's. Pretty nice. I haven't heard any horror stories so I suspect it's been fairly reliable. I'd consider owning one.

If buying from the dealer as a CPO, the Honda Care warranty is something to consider. We paid roughly $1k for the extended warranty, and it's more than paid for itself over the past few years. As others have mentioned, the CPO isn't worth anything by itself (we saw a lot of CPOs that were garbage). However, if the vehicle is something you'd buy anyways, the CPO does allow you to get the aforementioned Honda Care warranty. When we ran a Carfax on our van (before we bought it), we actually saw that a bunch of the regular maintenance was performed at the same dealer we were buying it from, so that made us a feel a little better about it.

Tips from owning an '05 Odyssey: - Change the transmission fluid on a regular basis - I'd really hesitate to buy anything that was obviously used to tow (This was easy, as the Ody didn't have a hitch when we bought it. Maybe tougher on a Pilot, as I'm guessing some kind of hitch came standard, or at least was a common option) - If you're going to tow, definitely get an aftermarket AT cooler

We have an 06 EX-L. Other than routine maintenance, we've had to do exactly zero to it in 102K miles. You can put tons of crap in it or tons of people in it. And it drives decently well. The MPG kind of sucks, but is better than most of the contemporary competition. All that being said, I can't think of any really great reason to buy one instead of an Odyssey. Unless you just don't really want a minivan.

pigeon wrote: I had one new on lease for 3 years (wife's car). It was a fine appliance. Honda settled a class action over the odometers reading high by about 10% iirc so you can take that into consideration in looking at actual miles. It was a typical Honda - 3 years 36k miles of basic oil changes was all it needed. I can't say how they've held up since then.

It looks like the settlement agreement says they read up to 3.75% high. Sounds pretty normal to me.

I have used my wife's to pull my 4x4 F-250 out of a ditch a time or two. It's been a good car with no problems for 120,000 miles other than a rear wiper that quit working.

Thanks, all, for your comments. I had heard about the earlier transmission issues and that had had been cleared up by the time 2006 and 07 rolled around. The ones we are looking at are the ones with everything; DVD, sunroof, leather and all that jazz.

Otto Maddox wrote: The MPG kind of sucks, but is better than most of the contemporary competition.

I looked at that as well and it gets exactly the same amount of mileage as our 1997 Pontiac TranSport (which we are using as partial trade) so we're used to that.

Thanks, again. Keep 'em coming if you feel like it. Don't mind the read and different perspectives.

I read that title and the first thing to pop in to my mind was this.

Here's the pilot.

Sorry.

I will say the neighbor bought one and loves it.

Edit: she bought the car, not the plane.

My sister has one and it has been appliance reliable. That said, it also looks like a washing machine, so if that doesn't matter...

One of my neighbours had one - they had to do a complete rebuild of the front end (all bushings etc.) at less than 60K miles.

NGTD wrote: One of my neighbours had one - they had to do a complete rebuild of the front end (all bushings etc.) at less than 60K miles.

The local Honda dealership has pretty aggressively written "Upsell" motivational signs throughout the repair bays. Maybe they are coming down from corporate?

Oddball things happen to any car. If a Honda Pilot isn't reliable enough for you, there is nothing reliable enough for you.

Otto Maddox wrote: Oddball things happen to any car. If a Honda Pilot isn't reliable enough for you, there is nothing reliable enough for you.

This really has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread.

qdseeker wrote:

Otto Maddox wrote: Oddball things happen to any car. If a Honda Pilot isn't reliable enough for you, there is nothing reliable enough for you.

This really has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread.

My apologies. I was just letting you know my experience with my 2006 Pilot EX-L. Sorry to fly so wildly off topic.

qdseeker wrote:

Otto Maddox wrote: Oddball things happen to any car. If a Honda Pilot isn't reliable enough for you, there is nothing reliable enough for you.

This really has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread.

Exactly. Why would he bring on-topic logic and critical thinking to this thread?

Be forewarned that we are starting to see the long term "fixed" trans having the same problems as the earlier models. At least on the Acura side. The MDX (expensive pilot) is still making us busy.

In reply to Bobzilla:

What kind of miles are you seeing on cars with failures?