Help...my wife does not want a pickup

[the other pc]

I read the Honda Pilot being described as a car based SUV, the Honda Odyssey of SUVs and as a value priced Acura MDX, IMHO there is some truth in all of these descriptions....

The reason they're described as "car based" is because they are. They're cars. That's what they share all their parts and design features with, not trucks.



Honda makes fantastic cars, motorcycles, generators, etc. They just don't make trucks. Never have. That's just fine because there's no particular reason they need to. Yeah, they bought trucks from Isuzu (who makes a bunch of trucks but relatively few cars) for a while and badged them as the Passport when the SUV craze hit. But they figured out early that the public doesn't really want trucks. People really want big cars (that look like trucks).



Now everybody Toyota, Nissan, Ford, GM, etc. is making vehicles that share common mechanicals with cars rather than trucks because the public isn't looking for frame-on-chassis construction or humongous beefy axles and bad gas mileage. The public wants interior space, comfy ride and better mileage.



Ironically Isuzu, who doesn't have a mid-size or large car in their lineup, can only make truck based SUVs and nobody is buying them.



The pilot really is a great car and is a leader in what the industry now calls "crossover" vehicles. I think that the term used for the last half century, station wagon, is perfectly adequate but marketing folks hate people like me.





PC.

 

[Corey Bit Spank]

I read recently that the TL's leather is not holding up too well after 1 year. Too bad. Nice car otherwise.



PS: His wife may not want to drive stick or can't.

Leather in a few MDX's had burn marks, mose likely from the seat heaters, while I worked the one saturday at the dealer here. I didn't notice until the sales manager was pointing it out to one of his salespeople.

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Leather in a few MDX's had burn marks, mose likely from the seat heaters, while I worked the one saturday at the dealer here. I didn't notice until the sales manager was pointing it out to one of his salespeople.

I am sorry, I reread the article and it was the plastic trim that was aging too fast.



Sorry about the miss info.

 

[Corey Bit Spank]

The interiors look nice initially but do not hold up very well.

 

[RedondoV6]

Now everybody Toyota, Nissan, Ford, GM, etc. is making vehicles that share common mechanicals with cars rather than trucks because the public isn't looking for frame-on-chassis construction or humongous beefy axles and bad gas mileage. The public wants interior space, comfy ride and better mileage.

You hit the nail on the head!



I'm one of those people who wanted a car like ride, better mileage and plenty of interior room, but in a package that offered 4 wheel drive, a more upright driving position, easy handling and the kind of all round visibility the crossovers like the Pilot offer. I don't own a boat, huge trailer etc. so the ability to tow 6000 lbs was never an issue for me.



Funny thing with the Pilot is, it is really more of a cross over minivan, it shares the same platform and many major components with the Acura MDX, which itself is based largely on the Honda Odyssey minivan.



Of course, I could never drive a station wagon or minivan