Any multiple Pilot owners? (more than 1 at a time)

[neuronbob]

I have daily-driven my CTS-V through the tail end of one winter and fully through two others. I have proven that it is possible to drive a modded 650 hp RWD beast through the worst winter weather Cleveland has to offer.

This winter, I am strongly considering buying an inexpensive 4WD vehicle to drive on the worst winter days, while still daily driving the V on other days. I'll probably store the extra 4WD vehicle during the summer.

It's natural to look at the Pilot, as we have owned a 2007 4WD EX-L navi since new over 4 1/2 years and 43k miles ago. It's been bulletproof other than that one of the headlights constantly has condensation....a trip to the dealer will hopefully help. The wife daily drives this car and loves it.

In any case, I'm looking at 2006-7 EX-L Pilots as these have fallen to the $13-15k range with reasonable (less than 100k) miles. They look like a steal to me at this point. How have "higher mileage" Pilots (well, higher than mine anyway) held up over the years? Any issues to look out for in these? If I do it, the wife thinks it'd be cute to have his'n'her Pilots. Awwwww, cute.

I'm also looking at the Acura MDX (2007-8 MYs), which is of course the Pilot's slightly sportier handling and more luxurious cousin, or a new TSX wagon (which, while not 4WD, is a great-looking and great-handling FWD car). These, of course, cost more than a Pilot.

[northerncrown]

I have a 2004 EX-L (wife's daily driver) and a 2011 EX-L (mine). We love them both. The 2004 has about 110K on it, and we recently had the 105K service done, but at my mechanic, not the dealer. Timing belt, water pump, trans flush, all brakes, radiator flush and hoses, diff flush, and a new set of tires. The mechanic says it's in great shape and that we've easily got 100K+ of reliability left in it.

It still rides like a new car, solid, no squeaks or rattles. Other than the driver's seat leather showing some patina, it's almost perfect.

[northerncrown]

I hit [submit] too fast. We've had two repairs needed. 1. MAF failure right when it was new. Warranty. 2. Broken motor mount, so it failed inspection a couple years ago. I think this can happen on the Pilots (the mechanic didn't seem surprised), so I'd have that checked before buying one used. We never did know why/how it broke, since we don't abuse it and have it serviced regularly.

[pilot_man_dan]

I own two '05 EX-L's. I bought the first one for myself, and my wife loved it so much I let her have it and started driving her Nissan Altima. Needless to say, the Altima was not awesome in the winter months, and I missed my Pilot. I bought an '04 Toyota Highlander, but it sucked really, really bad. Traded that in on another '05 EX-L! My wife's has side steps and tow package. Whenever we go on family trips we take hers. Mileage on hers is 114,000 and mine is 146,000

[pilot_man_dan]

update: just traded the black '05 for an '07 EX-L. now we have two silver Pilots!

[94eg!]

If you don't need to carry a lot of people, also give the Element AWD a look. Before our pilot, we owned a 03 with a 5-speed manual. I gotta say it was always a blast to drive. I hated the looks of the Element before we bought it, but it really turned out to be quirky and fun. Especially when you cart others around. They get all confused by the suicide doors and really enjoy the stadium seating in the back that allow you to see over the driver.

The nice part about the 5-speed manual, is that Honda uses their famous close ratio gears with a really short final drive. I swear it felt exactly like shifting my 89 CRX Si. With the short gear combo, I could actually pull on my brothers 07 Civic Si (200hp w/ LSD) through 1st gear and part of 2nd. Of course the AWD has a lot to do with that. But the truth is short gearing really brings 4-cyl motors to life.

The 4-speed Auto in the Pilot really sucked. I drove one from CA to NV once and it hunts for gears too much. Later Honda changed up to a 5-speed auto, but I cannot comment on the gear selection. Typically Autos have much longer gears that really kill the torque of 4-cylinders.

As for the Real-Time AWD system, it worked flawless for me. A couple times I had to pull over into snow drifts in the mountains when going snow-boarding. It always pulled right out without a fuss. I never once had to put chains on it. And several times we had to pick up extra passengers when friends cars couldn't climb the mountain.

It was a great truck, and I was sad to sell it.