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Honda Pilot reviews by car owners that get to the point: car buyers' reasons for buying (or not buying) the Pilot
Reliability & durability: Personal history & research
Handling: The Pilot handles well while the base SR5 4Runner is 'undriveable. Another $7K will get a Trail Edition 4Runner that handles well but comes with emberassing tricks & toys.
Cargo capacity & towing: Its big
Powertrain performance: Its fine
Ride smoothness: Its smooth
Handling: The base SR5 will not go in a straight line, it leans like a boat around curves and dives when braking.
Discounts & incentives: Willing to deal with me to get the transaction done.
Brand reputation & image: Known as a quality vehicle that will last for years without major recalls and it has one of the lowest costs of ownership. 3 of the top 10 on the list are hondas.
Handling: Feels like I'm in control.
Dealership practices: No nonsense, but took a couple trips to different ones to make that statement.
Reliability & durability: The previous style has been around for 5 years and the results are strong, so the new one should be just as reliable and dependable.
Reliability & durability: Not a proven product, brand name is mediocre, although styling is great, I was looking for something that will last me over 10 years with minimal expenses.
Discounts & incentives: Not willing to deal, felt like they were selling me gold bullion instead of a car.
Brand reputation & image: It's a GM, will they even be around in 2 years?
Price or payments: You don't get enough for what you pay for. ALso, they can either give you a good price or good financing, not both like Honda Pilot.
Dealership practices: Very pompous, stuck on "no haggle" pricing policy which is too expensive for average consumer to begin with, and this brand is suppose to be the least expensive, vs. Enclave vs. Acadia vs. Traverse, give me a break. Have they checked competition lately?
Rear seat room & comfort: Only two seats in the 2nd row, very small leg room in the 3rd row.
Cargo capacity & towing: Non-splitting 3rd row is plain stupid and was a deal breaker.
Reliability & durability: Rated highest by CU family member works in maintance and claimed that repairs were very low.
Materials & workmanship: The ones that have been on the road in the rust belt appear good after several years.
Fuel economy: Mileage improved over GMC Denail that was ageing.
Audio & nav systems: Nav system useful in travels. Sound system was included.
Safety & braking: Many features that were extract on the Toyota Highlander were standard on the Pilot.
Discounts & incentives: Heavy discounts in anticipation of the new model coming out made this a no brainer.
Front seat room: The Kia Sorento had very good seating positions in the front for a very tall person, I'm almost 6'5" and was able to fit with the sunroof / panaramic roof. You get a feeling of control and confidence. You do loose about 1" or so with the
Handling: The Kia Sorento is a pleasure to drive, it exhumes confidence on the road, it's a very stiff ride in the EX model, but better then the SX version. I'm hoping that in time it will loosen up, but the trade off is almost no car lean and cetain handl
Exterior styling: Unless you like cubism then the Sorento is a far better looking CUV IMHO, however; the Pilot is kind of Range Rover esque, which some might find appealing. The Sorento looks amazing with the fog lights, roof rails and side running board with tow package.
Interior styling: The Kia has red "mood lighting" which doesn't dialate your night vision. The layout on the kia is very utalitarian, everything works as expected and intuitive. Honda & Acura are caught up on annoying voice commands versus a simple HD touch sr
Warranty, scheduled maintenance cost: Nobody beats the Kia with double the standard warranty of Honda - 10 years on the Power Train, need I say more!
Front seat room: The front seat did not go back far enough for a very tall person, headroom was good, head rest pushes your head forward which is horrible. Passenger seat has a glove box near ankles which hits your shins. I guess they used midgets to design the car.
Handling: The car drove well, I'd use the word "underwhelming" to describe the experience. The road noise was so bad on the highway that you have to raise your voice. Transmission is smooth, but possibly underpowered engine.
Exterior styling: The car is a big box, which I would have been fine with if they actually had comfortable driver and passenger positions. The amount of headroom is excellent, but I'd be curious what the drag coefficient is? That's probably what causes the terrib
Rear seat room & comfort: I actually thought the limited edition of the pilot had a nice leather seats and I liked the position of the video screen. The only part that bothered me was access to the third row was circus like.
Brand reputation & image: Honda's has a great reputation, so design your car to fit a 6'5" person and I'll buy one, okay, get a touch screen navigation system, move the glove box above the knees, and kill the road noise - and more beige interior choices.
Price or payments: We were able to get a new Highlander for much less money than a Honda Pilot and still get all the features we desired (larger than a Rav4/CRV, >20 MPG city, leather, and full compliment of air bags/antilock/traction control)
Safety & braking: Full compliment of air bags/antilock/traction control were standard on base model.
Fuel economy: For a daily driver it was nice to be able to get a vehicle with all the space with above 20 MPG fuel rating.
Fuel economy: No 4 cylinder model available so city MPG < 20.
Price or payments: Next size up from Rav4/CRV in Honda lineup and was considerably more expensive than Toyota Highlander.
Safety & braking: All safety features were not standard on base model like the Toyota Highlander.
Materials & workmanship: for the money the nicest looking and richest interior in the field.
Quietness: In a vehicle with so much going on the quietness is commendable. Little outside noise intrudes into the passenger compartment.
Exterior styling: One of if not the best looking crossover vehicles out there today
Powertrain performance: smooth and quiet with reasonable fuel mileage
Ride smoothness: smooth ride with confidant handling
Exterior styling: clunky looking, more trucklike
Quietness: fine around town, Awful on the highway. It vibrates and the passenger cabin is loud. I think this vehicle needs more developement in the NVH area. Hondas noise cancelling technology doesn't impress me.
Control design: Too many buttons on the center stack with a confusing layout.
Powertrain performance: Not very smooth. Works hard at 70-75 MPH, fuel mileage suffers at interstste speeds
Dealership practices: Two trips to dearlership for the same problem, still not fixed.
Fuel economy: Much better than Honda Pilot
Brand reputation & image: Nissan really made a difference in current product offerings
Handling: Responsive & sure
Safety & braking: Great stopping distance
Driving position & visibility: Enjoy the elevated view... visibility... and feeling of control
Quietness: Not quiet
Price or payments: High price
Control design: Not as quiet or responsive as the Rogue
Exterior styling: Blocky look
Rear seat room & comfort: Captain chairs makes it easier to bring the dog on long trips.
Exterior styling: The beauty of the Pilot is that it has a classic two box truck look. It is a style that some consider dated, but I think it is how a CUV or SUV should look.
Reliability & durability: Honda doesn't nickel and dime their suppliers until they can only engineer crap. Their reputation for quality is valid and earned. Honda designs their vehicles to be bulletproof.
Available features: I considered this car because I wanted a fully loaded cross over. The engine's cylinder deactivation operates seemlessly.
Handling: The Pilot is an easy vehicle to drive. Something I could gladly live with everyday.
Brand reputation & image: Same comments as reliability and durability. Honda has a great reputation. I've owned a couple in the passed and they held up well.
Front seat comfort: Slightly cramped seating compared to others and that passenger cubby don't make for long drive comfort.
Front seat room: Of all the vehicles I test drove I found this one to more on the cramped side then others. I'm 6'4" with a 36" inseam. The passenger side has a poor dash design that puts an obtrusive cubby in the passenger's shins.
Available features: Lack of passive entry.
Color choices: Black interiors are only limited to a few exterior choices. Gray interior is too lifeless. No option for a blue truck with black interior.
Discounts & incentives: The competition had 0%.
Driving position & visibility: Great view in all directions. The seat raises and lowers enough to make it feel like a car one day and a truck the next.
Rear seat room & comfort: Roomy and very adjustable.
Reliability & durability: It's a Honda...
Cargo capacity & towing: Lot's of room, especially when all the seats are put down. Towing capacity is pretty good when you consider it's just a 3.5l 6 cyl.
Brand reputation & image: Again, it's Honda. They creak and ratlle, but they drive forever.
Front seat comfort: This seat was not made for long distance driving. The armrest on the door feels cushy, but after a couple of hours your elbow is pretty much on hard plastic.
Quietness: Road noise is pronounced and the interior has rattles all over the place.
Fuel economy: I tried to hyper-mile this car and couldn't get it past 20mpg for any length of time. We do a lot of mixed driving, trips to preschool, 40 min runs down the highway etc and I average around 16.5 with normal driving.
Control design: There are so many buttons squashed into one location that it's very distracting to do anything as the driver.
Materials & workmanship: Just way too many creeks and rattles. Everything shakes and shimmies. I went through the car wash and the rear hatch filled up with water and had to be drained. The weather stripping and plastic body pieces between front window and hood are horrid.
Cargo capacity & towing: Cargo area folds down completely flat, can be configured many ways to fit cargo and passengers. The cargo length is 6 1/2 feet.
Rear seat room & comfort: Very comfortable rear seats and climate controls, even for tall people.
Ride smoothness: Suspension soaks up small bumps and gravel washboard well. Not so good on larger bumps.
Reliability & durability: Consumer reports show excellent reliability, and resale value is high.
Fuel economy: Reasonable fuel economy for a big vehicle, but it's VARIABLE. For example, on a recent highway trip, the computer indicated 9.4L/100 going downwind at 110 Kph, but 14.8L/100 going back upwind at 105 Kph.
Dealership practices: The price in canada is still $10,000 more than in the U.S. We only bought because of a $ 4,000 rebate on the remaining 2011 models. Honda prohibits U.S. dealers from selling new Hondas to Canadians. If you buy a used Honda in the U.S. the warrantyis void
Exterior styling: A rugged looking SUV/CUV in a world of Camry's on stilts. Grill is a bit strange, but this thing at least looks the part.
Interior styling: No wasted space. Everything has a function. Vast storage & nice seats. There seemed to be two cup holders per occupant (seats 7) and plastic parts seemed seemed purposeful rather than bean-counter-ish.
Cargo capacity & towing: Tons of space and 2nd/3rd row fold down flat. Feels bigger inside than it looks outside.
Powertrain performance: Enough power for a family hauler. Eco-drive "cylinder shut down" was a positive, even though the fuel savings seem to depend on driving style and conditions.
Rear seat room & comfort: Rear facing car seat fit well on passenger side and still allowed 6'+ passenger to sit comfortably in front.
Safety & braking: This is a big, heavy vehicle, so poor braking is expected. However, even with lowered expectations, the Pilot braked poorly.
Handling: My one quibble with the Pilot was the steering, which was sloppy and numb on center. Worse than an 83 Cutlass I owned. Did not elicit confidence in maneuvering the vehicle.
Quietness: Very quiet ride
