Despite being a fierce advocate for and long time lover of my Sienna, its looking like our next car will need to be higher off the ground (the private road we are moving to is generally well maintained but can get very muddy/snowy/icy and my mini van keeps nearly getting stuck, even just in mud- so I'm not sure that its an issue AWD would fix- we just need higher clearance).
We have 3 kids and haven't ruled out a fourth. In my research it looks like the pilot has the most trunk storage before moving into either Luxury territory or suburban size territory, both of which I'm not into.
How the heck do the kids get into the third row?! When we get this car I'll have a an 8/9 year old, a 5/6 year old and a 3/4 year old (so most likely a booster and a high back booster in the 3rd row, and then a convertible in the middle?).
I'm so used to my mini van that the though of leaving it behind is very troubling to me. Can someone with a Pilot tell me that they love it?
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My 6 year old is in the third row of the Honda Pilot in a booster. He either climbs over the second row, or climbs in through the trunk. We keep the other half of the third row folded down permanently, so climbing in that way is fairly easy, and I do it regularly when we have extra passengers. We have an infant seat in the middle of the second row and a forward facing carseat on the passenger side of the second row, so he climbs over the driver side seat in the second row. We put the booster in the third row because he can buckle himself there and not in the second row next to a carseat.
We really like it, in fact the reason we got it is because it was my in-laws car, and we liked it so much we bought it from them. It has more storage space than similar SUVs, plenty for our family of five. The newer models are longer, but I like how short it is. We couldn't fit a minivan in the garage with our other vehicle, but the Honda Pilot fits fine.
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So I don't have one but my coworker does and she loves it. She only has two kids but they often go on vacation with her parents and they can easily fit 4 adults, 2 kids and all their stuff in it.
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Have you thought about a Ford Expedition? (Not the Max, but the shorter version). They were redesigned in 2018 and have a “car seat safe tilt” in the middle row for easy third row access even when there is a car seat installed in the middle row
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The higher trim levels of the Pilot have captains chairs in the 2nd row instead of a full row of seats. We test drove it before having kids but I remember thinking it would work nice at the time. I haven’t looked at it again since though and I know there are so many things I was wrong about when it came to “convenient for kids”
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@mdf106: @KT326: thank you!
@bees_knees: we are the type of people who usually drive our cars into the ground and have been brand loyal to toyota or honda...but I've heard that ford has been more reliable lately so I will have to look into it!
@JennyPenny: I haven't looked in person, we won't need it for about 2 - 2.5 years so I'm thinking ahead. Not sure we'd do the upgraded version because we're cheap when it comes to cars and we'd already have to upgrade to get AWD.
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@bees_knees hijacking for a few, do you the expedition? If so pros cons? We have been happy with my Edge but we are quickly outgrowing it. We also have an Explorer but really need the extra space. The safety features seem much improved and if we don’t go the minivan route the Expedition is my front runner. TIA!
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@MACSUNSHINE: we are currently debating between another Yukon XL or an Expedition Max...needing to decide soon
But I have a friend that drives an Expedition Max and she really likes it!
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We have the older model Pilot and I do love it - but we RARELY have to use the third row. The good thing about when we do use it is you can put part of it up and keep half your trunk space. With the entire third row up there is barely any trunk.... Getting into the 3rd row is challenging -- if you're getting a new Pilot and know you'll need the 3rd row I'd go for the model with captains chairs, much easier access to the back.
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I got a 2018 Pilot a couple of months ago, and so far have been really happy with it. We've only used the 3rd row for adults so far, but it's easy to get in and out as long as you don't have a carseat on both outside seats. If you put both boosters in the 3rd row and the kids can buckle themselves in, you just push a little button on the back of the seat and it moves up easily. Honda unfortunately doesn't have the technology yet where the seat can move forward with a carseat attached. It is harder to fit the stroller in the back with the whole 3rd row up. Our stroller won't lay flat, so I usually leave 1 seat down and put the stroller there. We both wish we had gotten the EX V6 with a video screen instead of the Touring edition that we bought. The Touring model has a lot of extras that we find annoying, like lane assist and parking assist. It also automatically cuts the engine off every time you stop like a hybrid - which is annoying because it doesn't start up fast enough when you want to go again, and we have to remember to turn that feature off every time we drive. Basically, the Touring features are great if all you ever do is go on long road trips on the interstate. But we live in the city, and they drive us crazy.
Otherwise, it's been a great car so far, and as we expand our family in the future we're looking forward to having all the space.
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