A1 Service Completed, with Repair Parts on the Way - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

A1 Service Completed, with Repair Parts on the Way - 2016 Honda Pilot Long-Term Road Test

I took our 2016 Honda Pilot to my local dealership for its first service. I also had them address a few atypical problems.

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bankerdanny

Well, it is disappointing that the wheel heater and window regulator would both fail in less than 10k miles of use. I won't make some grand pronouncement of declining Honda quality standards based on a single vehicle, but even so, it is extra disappointing because this is a Honda and I would expect better.

banhugh

If you look into the Honda Pilot's manual you should see that the "A" service is only engine oil change. "B" type services include oil filter change (among other). Regardless, the dealer changed the filter. I guess we should be thankful they didn't put a sticker on the dashboard to come back in 3000 miles to replace the oil again (and the filter too)...

fordracefan

Is the audio reducing something from your phone when it is connected through the bluetooth? Such as a text message or other alert?

tomslick2

My local Honda dealer tries to do that too. I get the "this is our recommended maintenance schedule" bit. They do free oil changes as long as you have them do the dealer reccomended maintenance (which is more frequent and includes more items).

I got the first free oil change, and now I just do everything myself.

thepuff

I love all of the quality issues in the Toyota's and Honda's yet people will still dig on the American and European cars for their lack of quality. Good to hear that US News also awarded 90% of the categories to Toyota and Honda too. It's time for people to break convention and start looking at the other options and not falling for propaganda and 1980's memories.

djd352

+fordracefan, I recently had a similar audio problem on a rental car... come to find out it was my weather app receiving weather alerts on my bluetooth connected phone. The strange thing is that it didn't make the usual alert sound, it would just quite the music. This was on a Renault Megane and my wife has had a similar thing happen when her iPhone was connected to a VW Golf.

kirkhilles1

So, nearly $50 for the oil change itself? Complete rip off. The $17.60 for Tire Rotation is very reasonable... for our first "free" oil change, they charged us a whopping $35 to rotate the tires! What?? If changing the oil is like the previous generation, then the cost is insane. $25 for 5 quarts is what Mobil 1 costs at Walmart. Filter is reasonable (although likely the low quality "A02" filter), but the labor charge, disposal cost (free at auto parts stores) is pretty insane for just a low quality oil change.

longtimelurker

I think that is entirely reasonable - that vehicle comes from the factory with synthetic oil and $5 a quart for it is super cheap from anywhere. It's at least syn blend if it's 0w-20...no 0w-20 dino juice that I know of. $30 in labor in Southern California, to rotate tires and change oil and filter? That's dirt cheap - probably 15 minutes by the shop rate - can you do an oil and filter change and rotate tires in 15 minutes?

I would be more concerned by the fact that this vehicle holds 5.7 quarts when changing the filter, and they just charged me for 5.0 quarts. Did they intentionally give me a freebie (good) or underfill the crankcase (bad) or just not have the work order accurately reflect the work done on my vehicle (bad, even if it gets me something for nothing)? Sometimes Edmunds staffers take their vehicles in for service without having a clear idea of what should be happening to them, and they don't seem to ask the questions that you or I would - is it synthetic? Are you replacing the filter even though it doesn't call for it? Why are you charging me for only 5 quarts of oil if I need 5.7?

And finally, when I come back for the heated steering wheel repair, will you turn my front rotors for me? It's a Honda, right?

greg128

"I love all of the quality issues in the Toyota's and Honda's yet people will still dig on the American and European cars for their lack of quality."

I agree. If this was a GM vehicle most of the posts would be about the typical lousy quality and or reliability of their vehicles. Given the recent problems with Honda (defective Civic engines), Hyundai-Kia (prematurely failing engines) and VW diesel emissions scandal I would think that these topics would be discussed more on Edmunds.

allthingshonda

greg128 said:

"I love all of the quality issues in the Toyota's and Honda's yet people will still dig on the American and European cars for their lack of quality."

I agree. If this was a GM vehicle most of the posts would be about the typical lousy quality and or reliability of their vehicles. Given the recent problems with Honda (defective Civic engines), Hyundai-Kia (prematurely failing engines) and VW diesel emissions scandal I would think that these topics would be discussed more on Edmunds.

Honda and Toyota without a doubt has a better reliability history than GM. With that said they have also had a few stumbles in quality but not to the extent of GM. Concerning the engine failures in Civics and Sonatas at least they acknowledge the problem and have issued a recall to fix the problem. Hyundai even increased the warranty on the engine to 120,000 miles in case it may fail in the future. GM, on the other hand, has never recalled 2014-present Silverados and Sierra for vibration problems. The also haven't bothered to recall current full size SUV's for buffeting and vibrations because the roof isn't attached correctly. Then there are the 3.6 V6 engines that break their timing chain guides. The 6 speed front wheel drive transmission co-developed with Ford that fail because GM, unlike Ford, didn't bother to heat treat the parts. The exact same tranny in an Explorer is reliable but are prone to fail in GMC Acadias so GM could save a couple of bucks. The V8 Vortec engines with piston slap. They will fix them, if they can, when they fail or customers complain under warranty but they don't recall them or acknowledge there is a problem and extend the warranty to cover the component if it fails. If they can't fix them they usually tell the customer that it's normal and doesn't require fixing.

Honda had known transmission failures and I was lucky enough to experience it in my 1998 Accord with 150,000 miles on it. To my surprise when I picked it up from the dealer after the repair my bill indicated that 25% of the total bill was paid by Honda as a good will gesture. I don't see GM paying for any repairs on a 10 year old car with 150,000 miles on it.

greg128

"Honda and Toyota without a doubt has a better reliability history than GM"

I don't think so.

According to carcomplaints.com 5 out of the 20 worst vehicles are Honda and there is not 1 GM vehicle
on the list.

In addition equating Siverado engine problems with Hyundai Sonata engine problems doesn't hold up.
According to arfc.org which totals various complaints for each vehicle as reported to the NHTSA. Between 2011 and 2015 total engine complaints for the Sonata were almost 10x the number for the Silverado. In addition while most of the complaints for the Siverado involved stalling and no-start situations, the majority of the ones for the Sonata were for complete engine failure often while traveling at speed. Also I'm pretty sure a lot more of the GM trucks were sold in that time period.

thepuff

I will also add some more personal experience....in all of my ownership of vehicles from Ford (3), Mercury, GM (Buick), Dodge (2), Nissan (3), Mazda (2), Acura, Volvo and now BMW the only major issue I have ever had was with my Acura. In the first 500 miles my 2007 TL's manual transmission went out (kept popping out of first and 3-6 were not engaging) requiring it to be towed back to Colorado (I was in Wyoming at the time) for an over 1-month fix. After that, brake issues and complete navigation system replacement....yeah, let's talk renowned quality vs. hyped up marketing and Consumer Reports brainwashing.

I also teach a defensive driving course on weekend to teenagers...in the last year we have had two Toyota Prius's die, one Honda Fit die (with new plates, had to be towed), a 2014 Toyota Camry lose its brakes, and a Honda Pilot light up like a Christmas tree and not start. Alright, yes a Pontiac Sunfire took a dump too but it has 138k on the odo. Basically, the second you start pushing these cars their true build quality starts to show.

cameronr

fordracefan said:

Is the audio reducing something from your phone when it is connected through the bluetooth? Such as a text message or other alert?

At the time the music turned down, I had no text messages or any other sort of alert coming through.