Pilot Vs. CX-9, Mercedes M/R Class, 07 RAV4, Highlander,etc

[Sportymonk]

Had to take my wife's Civic in for some minor work yesterday and walked down "car row" while I was waiting to do a litle window shopping. Did not drive any of them, just looked and sat in them. First came to the BMW dealer.

BMW - Nice cars. 325 looked good. 5 series a little big for me, 7 series definitely too big. Didn't look at their SUVs, they only had the smaller SUV.

Next Mercedes. Looked at the M Class SUV. Definitely bigger but the cargo area in back tapers as it does down to the floor, getting smaller. Not sure it could handle the wide loads of a Pilot at the floor level. Driver's area seems larger and I felt a little swallowed up. Only seating for 5. no third row seat. Cost about $54K.
Then the R Class. Seating for 6, three rows. Driver area the same. Sort of a minivan but they call it a grand tourer. The roof had two huge open moon roof areas. The driver's would slide open, the one over the rear passenger would not. I asked if there was some sort of cover if you didn't want the sunlight coming in. (There was obviously no way there was a hard cover.) The answer is to push a button and a flexible sheet like our cargo cover pulled out of the center and went forward and to the back for each respective area. It was thin, flimsy, and not opaque. Was not really impressed. The material should be thicker IMHO.
Considering the quality issues hitting Mercedes and VW lately, I will pass. BTW the SLK roadster was $49K and the SL was $98K! Thank you I will take a S2000 and put up with the noise in my pockets rattling around.

Next Suzuki XL 7 (No hyphen this year!). Bigger and improved. Nice but no Pilot. Price was good for what you got.

Next Caribou Coffee. Yum!

Picked up wife's car and kept riding around the area.

Lotus: Elise and Exige. No, no way to compare to Pilot but have always wanted to look at one. Lets just say that no woman with any self respect and a dress on will ever get into one and if they did, they will never get out. I would say except Brittany Spears but then there is the self respect issue. The floor sill is several inches above the floor and the seat bottom. Definitely a toy for somebody with too much money.

Toyota - Wanted to see the new RAV 4 and if there was any info on the new Highlander. Told the salesperson how I had not chosen the highlander as I could never get the pedal, seat, steering wheel to fit like I wanted. A little too small.

RAV4 - Bigger. Nice smooth sides. Attractive. Bigger, V-6 option. 22 city 29 Hwy. Better city and 1 worse hwy than the 4 cylinder CR-V. Honda might have some competition here with the V-6. Seemed almost as big as the Highlander I sat in in 05. RAV 4 has telescopic steering wheel and I was comfortable in it. No comparison to Pilot except towing capacity is the same, 3500 pounds.

Highlander. No real change. Could not find a comfortable position. Salesman said new one would probably have telescopic wheel and was definitely bigger. Will have to wait and see but it appears RAV is almost taking highlander place and Highlander is stepping up.

Mazda - CX-9. Interior looked the same color as Ford Edge, pale white cream, just its because Ford owns 33% of Mazda. Interior was large. but I felt swallowed again by the console, higher than the Pilot. Not as many cupholders and/or storage spaces. Salesman said it was full time AWD not part-time. (???) Nice vehicle but felt like I was sitting down in a hole.

All in all, when I got through looking, I was glad to get back into my Pilot. Comfortable seating for driver. Good use of space. Gas mileage about the same as CX-9. Some vehicles had a lot of little electronic things the Pilot didn't have (electric tailgate, etc) but when I went to Pet Supply to pick up two forty pound bags of dog food on sale; Sam's Club to pick up 7 cases of Talking Rain bottled water and wom other stuff, and then to Office Depot to pick up an unassembled wheel barrow, I was glad to have my Pilot and not anything I had looked at. Sort of like looking a fancy houses, nice to look at but nicer to get home where you are comfortable and that is my Pilot - comfortable for long trips with family and friends (have hauled four adults and two teenagers 100 miles to the airport with luggage for the teens - no problem with the back row seat), practical, flexible. Am I looking forward to what they come out with next? Yes, the Pilot design needs a little updating but if my Pilot was destroyed today and I walked away with enough to buy whatever I wanted ( oohhh my back still hurts, how much was that check!!) my only problem would be finding another Steel Blue 05 Pilot.

Oh, BTW way I found out that the BMW dealer is the NC Rolls Royce dealer also. The BMW person kindly let me go in and look. They just received a 07 Bentley Flying Spur with only 4000 miles on it. A doctor had to sell some of his cars (some??) due to health problems. Price was only $163,000. Gee, where was that loose change I saw the other day?

[jimmyhauser]

With the exception of the Highlander maybe, all those cuv's are going to be more fun to drive than the Pilot. It does what it does very well, but Honda needs to give the next Pilot more character, and more responsiveness.

[ramirami]

Originally posted by Sportymonk

Lotus: Elise and Exige.

would they fit in the pilot

[Sportymonk]

Originally posted by ramirami



would they fit in the pilot

Yeah, but I almost didn't fit in them, getting in or out!!