Wife buys Honda Pilot . . .

What gas mileage do you get with the Highlander? 2WD or AWD?
4cyl or 6cyl? Just curious.

I had to replace the tranny in the Windstar. What sorts of grief did you have with the Fords?

I have gone to Japanese cars, Toyota and Honda, after having too many expensive repairs and too many dangerous failures with American cars - Ford, Chevy, and Dodge.
 
Arty:

The Highlander is V6, AWD and gets about 18 around town, 23-ish on a trip. Highest I got was 25 doing 65 across Nebraska with a tailwind. 51,000 miles and the only issue was a stuck rear brake caliper post. $61 to fix. Knock on wood.

The 92 Explorer had a V6 and manual trans, and somewhere in the high 40s the transmission started leaking oil from the top cover. Repairs were quoted at over $1000, which I thought was exaggerated. Also, the "twin traction beam" front end (it was 4WD) chewed up tires, with excessive wear on the edges unless you were religious about rotation at 5K, PS pump, and the automatic locking hubs most of the time weren't.

The 95 Explorer had a different front end, but holy cats it seemingly spent more time in the shop than we had it for driving. Timing chain tensioner, check engine light, stalling, engagement/disengagement of 4WD, check engine light, stalling, radio/CD, check engine light, PS pump, stalling, check engine light, oil leak from poor installation of timing chain cover after replacement of chain tensioner, check engine light, stalling. Oh, the check engine light used to come on and go off, and it frequently stalled, too.

Noah
 
I had so many expensive repairs on my last American cars - all 3 - that I had to go to Toyota and Honda. Aside from spending thousands of dollars on each of them (2 Chevys, 1 Ford) for repairs, I had too many dangerous and exciting events.

I just hated it when the brakes went out on the highway at 65 in the Lumina. The brakes were defective, and there was a class action settlement that gave me about $28. This doesn't cover replacement of calipers and new brake linings every 15,000 miles. This gives you an idea - I bet that others here have had similar experiences. My wife really hated it when the Windstar died on the highway at 65, and we had to get a new Trans. for $3000.

My daughter tells me that her new Saturn Ion has more problems than the Chevy's that we had....including brakes going out on the highway, the engine running on and on when the key is off and out OUT! OUT! of the cylinder (NOT dieseling), etc.
 
After putting a few hundred miles on the Pilot, my wife is getting about 22 miles to the gallon, which is 10 less than I'd prefer :D but not bad for a vehicle that's much bigger than I realized with a 255 horsepower V6. I haven't been on any long trips over about 50 miles, but it seems really comfortable. It certainly handles better over the road than my Ford Ranger. My Ranger has a 210 horspower V6 with a 5 speed manual, and I get 17 mpg, so Honda is doing something right. Of course, Rangers are notoriously bad on gas mileage, I don't really know why.
 
.
My wife's been driving a CRV ~3 years.
My Quest gave out this Spring (12yr 130K-miles)
BigSigh
& we replaced it with Honda's
Element AWD mini-SUV :D
(built on the CRV base)
I like it.

Researched a lot before we got it
& liked what we saw in reviews.

Designed as an 'outdoors' vehicle.
Seats & flooring are designed to be sprayed clean.
Great for hauling,
although a full 4x8 sheet of ply/mdf
takes some manipulating & rear seat lifting/removal.
A couple dozen (or more) 8'-2x4's are easy if you lay down both
front & back rightside seats.
A 2" tow mount can be added aftermarket 100$-200$.
Honda's optional tow setup is the smaller problematic 1-1/2"? size.

Very high ground clearance, but feels pretty stable anyway.
The Element fan-sites feel a lot like this forum.
Lots of people do off-road with Elements,
although not 'supposed' to be 'wilderness'-ORV........

Main benefit is rear-door/cargo design for loading/hauling.
Main drawback is rear doors when rear passenger disembarks.
A break-even point for me.

Bought ours for midpoint $ between MSRP & 'invoice' price.
Lots of people on fan site forums post info on
where they bought theirs
& how far under invoice they paid.

Suburban driving with lots of stoplights gives me right at 20 mpg.
Empty light comes on at about 13 gallons & 225-275 miles,
15-Gal tank.

~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<> THEY call me 'Dean' :)-FYI-FWIW-IIRC-JMO-M2C-YMMV-TIA-YW-GL-HH-HBD-IBSCUTWS-tWotBGUaDUaDUaD
<> Tips <> Baha'i Prayers Links --A--T--H--D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top