Honda pilot suv owners?

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LabradorGuy

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Going to buy family a new SUV, and have been looking for the last month. We keep a car a long time, so we want a dependable and reliable vehicle. Been looking at Toyota Highlander, Subaru Ascent, Subaru Forrester, and now have been looking at the Honda Pilot.

I like that the Honda Pilot, and it has the V6, but I remember a few years ago they had some issues with reliability, and I remember talking to a few people about 10 years ago that said they got terrible MPG, and not close to the listed mpg.

We also like the Toyota Highlander, but not crazy about a v4 in a somewhat large suv. The highlander gets about 4 mpg better than Honda Pilot according to sticker.

The Subarus are also nice, but they use a cvt transmission, which I’m hesitant on owning.

We keep cars at least 200,000 miles, and current car is pushing 255,000 miles.

Most all dealers are asking the sticker price and won’t budge, which I find to be crazy. I miss the rebate days when you could get a big chunk off the cars price.

I hate all the modern gadgets on cars, and I miss all the old style button and knobs. I remember having the old hand style window openers and locking car manually. I sure miss the old days of the 80’s and 90’s.
 
It sounds like you're looking for a Toyota 4runner that's good on fuel. They're ultra reliable and old school, but poor mileage compared to the vehicles you listed.

We had a Honda odyssey previously and traded it in for a 4runner and we love it. I don't really notice fuel costs being drastically different.

We test drove all the vehicles you listed except the Subaru models. Subaru was a hard no for my wife. I was pushing the highlander for a more comfortable, city friendly and economical vehicle. She liked the ruggedness of the 4runner and found the others had a minivan vibe and less of an SUV feel. I had less input because it's her daily driver. I like them too, so it wasn't a tough sell.

Honestly it's a tough call and largely personal preference. I'd say line up back to back test drives and go from there. We had a tough time finding vehicles to test drive during the vehicle shortage last year. Hopefully that isn't an issue for you. As far as pricing, yeah we were lucky to pay MSRP at the time as other dealers were marking everything up.
 
Marcus, I really like the 4 runner, but the mpg is just too low. Actually, it is the best looking suv that Toyota makes IMO. The styling is great, and they look rugged, but wouldn’t be economical for us to drive, and who knows how high gas prices will go in the future. Makes me think that they are raising gas prices to drive buyers to electrical cars. If we didn’t put many miles on a car it would be a non issue, but just not practical for our family.
 
I have a 2004 with 277K on it, just changed the oil. Runs great, but starting to develop a knock, sound like a main bearing to me. I would avoid the 2005 year, they had problems with the radiator and where they ran the ATF cooler through it. People were losing transmissions when that failed, I think they fixed it in 2006. Other than that, mine has been super dependable and my wife will probably have a week of mourning when it finally goes.

We generally get 20/24 city/highway with the V6.
 
I had an 06 Pilot I bought brand new. It was my only vehicle and driven daily. It had 197,000 on it when it was totaled in an accident. I planned on driving it another100,000 had it not been wrecked.
For non-routine stuff I replaced the radiator once, power steering and water pump once each and one front axle. I did all but the axle myself.
It did need all new catalytic converters $$$$ but I was able to find a workaround to pass emissions tests.
I got 70,000 miles out of the original brakes and tires.
It was a good vehicle. Always started. The AWD worked great in rain and snow but if you go off road 4wheeling with it you’ll get stuck.
I averaged 15.5 mpg with 50/50 driving with AWD. 24 mpg highway. No matter how I drove on long highway trips, 24 mpg was all you get.
I will add that my Pilot just might have saved my life in the accident. I was hit by someone while driving on the expressway. Hit me so hard that it changed the direction of my vehicle and sent me nearly head on into an earthen-backed concrete shoulder wall at 60 mph.
 
LMT66 said:
I had an 06 Pilot I bought brand new. It was my only vehicle and driven daily. It had 197,000 on it when it was totaled in an accident. I planned on driving it another100,000 had it not been wrecked.
For non-routine stuff I replaced the radiator once, power steering and water pump once each and one front axle. I did all but the axle myself.
It did need all new catalytic converters $$$$ but I was able to find a workaround to pass emissions tests.
I got 70,000 miles out of the original brakes and tires.
It was a good vehicle. Always started. The AWD worked great in rain and snow but if you go off road 4wheeling with it you’ll get stuck.
I averaged 15.5 mpg with 50/50 driving with AWD. 24 mpg highway. No matter how I drove on long highway trips, 24 mpg was all you get.
I will add that my Pilot just might have saved my life in the accident. I was hit by someone while driving on the expressway. Hit me so hard that it changed the direction of my vehicle and sent me nearly head on into an earthen-backed concrete shoulder wall at 60 mph.
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Wow, that was a hard hit. Glad you’re okay. The new Pilot is huge on the inside. Actually, liked the passport better, since it was shorter. Dealer said it was just a shortened Pilot.
 
We currently drive a 2006 Pilot Ex we bought new with 11 miles on it. She's sitting on a little over 250K. We are awaiting the delivery of our new 2024 Pilot Elite, not cause there's anything wrong with the 06' but because my wife deserves a new one after 17 years. We have had nothing but good luck with our 06' and have put minimal money into it over the years besides regular maintenance. As far as I'm concerned Honda has my vote.
 
We've had 2 Pilots, a 2004 and a 2011, both were very reliable not great on mileage. In the Fall of 2021 my wife decided she wanted a new car and did not want another Pilot, she just wanted something different. At that time SUVs were at a premium, long wait times or no availability. We finally decided on a 4Runner, dealer had a short wait list but we had to pay a premium. So far it's been fine, not great mileage, though. This is basically her go to town vehicle, she likes that it's large and offers good visibility.
 
We have a 2018 Honda Pilot with 85,000 miles on it and it's been nothing but reliable other than a battery which crapped out a month or two ago. Gas isn't great in MPG but they are much cheaper than 4Runners and while maybe not as equal in terms of longevity as a 4Runner I'd say you could easily get them to 200,000.

It's the V6 model it seems to struggle a bit going up hills and stuff with a full car but with my wife and two kids it's been solid.

I'd stay away from high mileage Subaru's they're still having troubles with blown headgaskets after all these years, sister in law bought a 2016 with around 100,000 miles back in March and it blew a headgasket within 2 days of driving it off the lot the dealer did fix it of course.
 
If I gave you a choice today for a new Toyota Highlander or Honda Pilot, which would you choose, and let me know the reason why? I'm leaning toward the pilot, but the extra MPG of the Toyota Highlander is nice. I've test drove both (2023 models), and surprisingly the Highlander with the V4 Turbo seemed to have more power than the V6 Pilot.
 
LabradorGuy said:
If I gave you a choice today for a new Toyota Highlander or Honda Pilot, which would you choose, and let me know the reason why? I'm leaning toward the pilot, but the extra MPG of the Toyota Highlander is nice. I've test drove both (2023 models), and surprisingly the Highlander with the V4 Turbo seemed to have more power than the V6 Pilot.
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It's a win win situation but for resale value down the road I'd go with a Highlander. I like our Pilot it's just as nice as a Highlander in my opinion but yeah if you're buying brand new off the lot well the Highlander in 10 years will probably have better resale value.

Really you're not going to lose either way also makes a heap of difference if they're AWD too. When it's time to change tires you will need to change all 4.

I'd run through some of the other caveats like insurance cost and sales tax too if you really wanna crunch the numbers.
 
Would the Highlanders V4 Turbo run on 87 octane gas in all situations? Towing, mountain passes, loaded with family? A quick search says yes but also some reports of people having to buy 89 or 91 to get it to run right for certain things. There goes any fuel savings you expected.
Myself, I'd stay away from turbo anything. I really liked the vtec 3.5 v6 in my Pilot. It towed very well and had plenty of power. That engine has been around a while so it's very reliable.
 
Honda makes a fine vehicle, however, they require periodic valve adjustments and timing belt replacements at 100k miles or so, which can be expensive.

Toyota uses a timing chain and does not require periodic replacement, nor do they require valve adjustments.

Either are dependable, reliable vehicles, but all is won or lost on maintenance habits.
 
LMT66 said:
Would the Highlanders V4 Turbo run on 87 octane gas in all situations? Towing, mountain passes, loaded with family? A quick search says yes but also some reports of people having to buy 89 or 91 to get it to run right for certain things. There goes any fuel savings you expected.
Myself, I'd stay away from turbo anything. I really liked the vtec 3.5 v6 in my Pilot. It towed very well and had plenty of power. That engine has been around a while so it's very reliable.
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IMO, the only word that should come after "turbo" is "diesel". Gas engines just aren't built for those kinds of pressures. Dodge/Chrysler did that back in the 80's with their K cars or one of the smaller cars. It didn't go well. Maybe the technology has improved, but I'll believe it when I see 300K on a turbo gas engine as a common occurrence.
 
Screenshot_20231104-191411_Gallery.jpg

Well, that is a 2006 Colorado, but reinforces my maintenance point.
 
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