Road Tests: Long-Term Test

Video highlights of this vehicle

With the beginning of May came the beginning of our Honda Pilot's first real test as the "ultimate family adventure vehicle." Editor in Chief Karl Brauer had been tentatively planning a cross-country excursion, complete with wife and children in tow, for almost a year. With our long-term Pilot sporting such features as a DVD navigation system, DVD video player (dealer-installed) and, recently, the addition of a Sirius Satellite Radio system (Karl Brauer-installed), Karl felt as prepared for road trip travel as he'd ever been. "It sure won't be like the family road trips I went on as a kid, where the only source of entertainment during the 12-hour driving days was seeing how many layers of skin you lost as you periodically peeled your limbs from the sticky vinyl seats," quipped Karl gleefully.

The planned road trip was rather ambitious. First a two-day drive from Los Angeles to Denver, then a stopover for a week in Denver while Karl attended an overseas press trip and his family spent time with Karl's parents. The Brauer family would then continue east to central Pennsylvania, with a one-night stop in Des Moines, Iowa. After several days in Pennsylvania and upstate New York, a return trip to L.A., by way of Austin, Texas, would finish out the family's seat time in the Pilot.

It should be noted that 24 hours before Karl's planned departure time Edmunds.com picked up its newest addition to the long-term fleet, a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica. This vehicle was similarly loaded with all-wheel drive, a fold-down rear DVD player and a DVD-based navigation system. Karl seriously considered taking the shiny, new Pacifica instead of the Pilot, but he ultimately figured that, with the Pilot only four months away from ending its one-year stint in the long-term fleet, he should stick with Plan A. The Pacifica, having just arrived, would offer plenty of time in the coming year for him to dream up another family road trip on which to test that vehicle. Besides, with the distances Karl was traveling, he simply felt more confident taking a Honda Pilot, with 13,000 trouble-free miles, rather than a brand-new Chrysler model with 75 miles on the odometer. After all, dependability with a Honda product is basically a lock, right?

Driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas proved to be a delight in the Pilot. As reported in previous updates, the vehicle offers a relatively quiet cabin, confident handling and plenty of power. The seats are also quite comfortable, though the distances on this trip did raise an issue that Karl had only noted in passing: The Pilot's front-seat headrests are terrible. They are hollowed-out hard plastic units covered by leather, and they don't articulate. If you just sit in the front seats for less than an hour, you hardly notice them, but recline the seat back and try to use the headrests for support as you catch a few winks (in the passenger seat, of course), and the hard plastic and open center prove extremely uncomfortable. It's unfortunate that Honda decided to go this route for the headrests, especially when you consider that the conventional headrests for the second- and third-row seats are much more comfortable (though not as large or impressive-looking).

Front-seat headrests aside, the Pilot's road trip features, particularly the navigation system and DVD player, were fully appreciated. Karl enjoyed using the nav system to compute and track his distance and time to the family's next destination. The following day, as the family drove from Las Vegas to Richfield, Utah, his kids enjoyed a screening of Disney's Toy Story. The Sirius Satellite Radio system was also a treat, though there was noticeable signal dropout when traveling north on Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. This was less of an issue as the Pilot swung slightly east or west during the trip, but when driving on the due north sections of I-15 the signal would often cut out. Karl plans a call to Sirius to see if someone at the company can discern the exact cause.

While the satellite radio was delivering mixed results (signal dropout was much less of a problem on the following day as the Brauer family headed north from Las Vegas toward Denver), the Pilot itself pulled a most un-Honda-like stunt on the stretch of Interstate 70 between Salina and Green River, Utah. For those who don't know, this particular length of I-70 is one of the most desolate in the entire North American interstate system. It's 110 miles of absolutely nothing except the occasional "view area" or "ranch exit." There are no services (food, gas, hotel, etc.) of any kind. In his college days, Karl would often drive between L.A. and Denver with friends, and they would always joke about this being the "worst place to break down in the world."

At 47 miles west of Green River, eight miles from the exact midpoint of this section of road (about as far from civilization as it gets on a major U.S. highway), the Pilot's engine shut down and refused to start back up. Karl was driving at the time, and his one bit of luck put him at a "view point" when the engine died, meaning he could at least coast well off the highway and not be inches from semi trucks as they roared past doing 75-plus mph. After about five minutes of turning the key and hearing the engine crank over with no sign of life, Karl broke out his wife's cell phone and noted that one small bar was fading in and out. His own cell phone, which can barely hold a signal in greater Los Angeles, had been reading "no service" almost non-stop since leaving Las Vegas.

The entire "adventure" is too long to chronicle in a long-term update, but you can read the full story in this month's Carmudgeon article. The short version goes something like this: Honda issued a recall on August 30, 2002 (one week after Edmunds.com bought this Pilot), that said a casting flaw in the vehicle's water pump can "interfere" with the timing belt, eventually causing the belt to break. The notice of this recall was never received by Karl or Edmunds.com, and when the Pilot went in for its 7,500-mile service in December, no one at Goudy Honda in Alhambra, Calif., ever mentioned or addressed it.

Between continually dropped cell phone signals, Karl was eventually able to get a Green River towing service to send a flatbed truck and take the Pilot and the Brauer family 150 miles to Grand Junction, Colo., (the location of the nearest Honda dealership). The tow charge was $458 and the Pilot arrived well after the dealership was closed late Friday night (the same night he and his family were supposed to be in Denver). During the five-hour ordeal, Karl had plenty of time to consider the day's events, and arrived at several conclusions:

1. Nextel cell phone coverage is a joke.
2. His wife and kids are extremely patient and resilient.
3. You should never assume a specific Honda product is automatically more dependable than a specific Chrysler product, no matter what J.D. Power or Consumer Reports says.