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Car and Driver 3 row SUV comparison.

LKLA

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Family just got a Pilot a couple of months ago. Nice enough. Still can't see it as being anywhere near as off-road capable as a Cherokee.
 
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Dadskier

Dadskier

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Family just got a Pilot a couple of months ago. Nice enough. Still can't see it as being anywhere near as off-road capable as a Cherokee.
I don't think anyone expects these trucks to go anywhere beyond some light dirt roads. Though the Durango shares a platform with the Grand Cherokee and prob has some decent off road chops.

Does your Pilot have the 9 speed? Is it as bad as everyone says?
 

LKLA

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I don't think anyone expects these trucks to go anywhere beyond some light dirt roads. Though the Durango shares a platform with the Grand Cherokee and prob has some decent off road chops.

Does your Pilot have the 9 speed? Is it as bad as everyone says?

Not sure what it has! The major "issue" so far is that it has a worse ride than the prior car (BMW X5).
 

François Pugh

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I spent several hours as a passenger recently in a Dodge Durango, an insurance company rental replacement. It left a very favorable impression. However, if I were going to bite the bullet and put up with Dodge reliability and poor fuel mileage, I would go all in and get the V8. As it is, I'm not throwing away $50K for something I don't need (4x4 SUV).

Good to know the 411 on the Pilot, I had assumed Honda would have done a better Job.

As someone who has driven over real forest roads, logging roads (more like logging trails), abandoned roads to abandoned ski hills, used-to-be roads to canoe put-ins and over-grown farmer's fields (once got a sapling caught in the fan belt of a '69 Satelite on the way through the woods to the duck blind) using a one-wheel drive (open diff rear wheel drive and/or open diff front wheel drive), I enjoyed this bit of the article: "You’d totally drive a minivan (you’re not one of those people whose ego is so precious that you’d be embarrassed to be seen behind the wheel of an Odyssey), but you truly need one of these jacked-up wagons wrapped in cladding like so much bacon around a sirloin. Because, as we understand it, you have children to take to summer camp. Not band camp or sports camp, and heavens no, not space camp, but the real outdoorsy kind, out in the country on a lake with canoes and archery and mosquitoes bigger than the horses. Sure you do."
 

skibob

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I spent several hours as a passenger recently in a Dodge Durango, an insurance company rental replacement. It left a very favorable impression. However, if I were going to bite the bullet and put up with Dodge reliability and poor fuel mileage, I would go all in and get the V8. As it is, I'm not throwing away $50K for something I don't need (4x4 SUV).

Good to know the 411 on the Pilot, I had assumed Honda would have done a better Job.

As someone who has driven over real forest roads, logging roads (more like logging trails), abandoned roads to abandoned ski hills, used-to-be roads to canoe put-ins and over-grown farmer's fields (once got a sapling caught in the fan belt of a '69 Satelite on the way through the woods to the duck blind) using a one-wheel drive (open diff rear wheel drive and/or open diff front wheel drive), I enjoyed this bit of the article: "You’d totally drive a minivan (you’re not one of those people whose ego is so precious that you’d be embarrassed to be seen behind the wheel of an Odyssey), but you truly need one of these jacked-up wagons wrapped in cladding like so much bacon around a sirloin. Because, as we understand it, you have children to take to summer camp. Not band camp or sports camp, and heavens no, not space camp, but the real outdoorsy kind, out in the country on a lake with canoes and archery and mosquitoes bigger than the horses. Sure you do."
I've driven low quality crappy sedans (think nissan sentra and similar) as well as old beetles, all over the back "roads" of central mexico. ANd yes, I use the words "road" lightly. Worn paths through the cactus and mesquite, over the mountains, around boulders, through rivers. Being willing to go slowly, combined with a manual transmission and a willingness to beat the living shit out of the car, will get you places you never imagined a car could go!

I want snow performance, and nothing more. Best I've had for this is a Kia Sorrento. One of the few SUV's that is actually still built on a truck chassis. My current Pathfinder is pretty decent with Michelin Ice-X. But the stock tires were TOTAL shit all the way around, especially on snow.
 

oldschoolskier

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I am going to make the comment that 9 seater or there abouts, while it has 9 seats does not mean can carry 9 persons.

Key word here is payload. Average person is calculated at 180lbs. So 9 persons equals 1,620lbs, in the range of full size pickups, not cars and SUV's, this doesn't include the cr@*, I mean useful stuff you need.

Be safe don't overload (to excessively :crossfingers:)
 

pete

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I spent several hours as a passenger recently in a Dodge Durango, an insurance company rental replacement. It left a very favorable impression. However, if I were going to bite the .......... ), but you truly need one of these jacked-up wagons wrapped in cladding like so much bacon around a sirloin. Because, as we understand it, you have children to take to summer camp. Not band camp or sports camp, and heavens no, not space camp, but the real outdoorsy kind, out in the country on a lake with canoes and archery and mosquitoes bigger than the horses. Sure you do."


Drive kids??? coworker's kid worked a very nice summer camp in the North East where he taught water skiing, Told his dad that 3 kids came in by helicopter.
 
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Dadskier

Dadskier

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Be safe don't overload (to excessively :crossfingers:)

Like this?
Atlas_2.jpg
 

John O

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I want snow performance, and nothing more. Best I've had for this is a Kia Sorrento. One of the few SUV's that is actually still built on a truck chassis. My current Pathfinder is pretty decent with Michelin Ice-X. But the stock tires were TOTAL shit all the way around, especially on snow.

Sorrento hasn't been body on frame since the '09 model year, it's unibody these days. But I'm curious, can you expand on why you feel that body on frame makes a vehicle better in snow? Obviously there are both advantages and disadvantages to unibody structures, but I've never before heard anyone claim that they're inherently worse in snow (all other things being equal).
 

skibob

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Sorrento hasn't been body on frame since the '09 model year, it's unibody these days. But I'm curious, can you expand on why you feel that body on frame makes a vehicle better in snow? Obviously there are both advantages and disadvantages to unibody structures, but I've never before heard anyone claim that they're inherently worse in snow (all other things being equal).
I don't really know. Mine was a '12, so if you are right it was unibody. I was drawing a correlation, not causation. The body on frame in pick up formats leave a lot to be desired in snow performance. At least in the 2wd traditional cab/8' bed versions. But that may very well just be because of the horrible weight distribution and have nothing to do with the frame.

I will stand by the statement that the Sorrento was a stellar performer on snow/ice. It was especially adept at just plowing right through very deep snow w/o deflecting. The Volkl Mantra of SUV's, LOL. But I don't really know the reason.
 

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