Pilota

Deep Scarlet Pearl 2018 Honda Pilot Touring

She's our 10th Honda and we named her Pilota.

Ah, the Hondas in our lives.  It all started with a used Civic hatchback we bought with 72K miles on it as my commuter car.  It was the most neglected car I had ever seen, but it ran well.  I called it the puddle jumper, but my family referred to it as the puddle junker.  By the time I had 100K miles on it the engine was in need of help.  It was leaking oil past the valve guides.  A friend down the street helped me pull the engine for a rebuild.  The rod bearings looked amazingly good, but we replaced them anyway.  We also put in new rings and honed the cylinder walls, had the head professionally done, and rebuilt the clutch.  Once back on the road it was a strong and solid runner and I was sold on the quality Honda designs and builds into its cars.

Eventually we got rid of the puddle junker and bought a new 1983 Civic 1500S (the Speed Buggy).  We put 154K miles on it before replacing it with a 1988 Accord LXi sedan (we named it Hendreary after a character in 'The Borrowers' because our salesman was named Hendry).  We turned that car over to our older son with 281K miles on it when he headed off to Florida to pursue his doctorate.  We replaced Hendreary with Vita, a 1993 Accord SE that we drove for over 240K miles.  There was actually another one between the '88 and Vita.  We had put just 12K miles on a new '92 Accord EX sedan when it was totaled out from under me on a winter day.  Other than a cracked sternum, I was just fine.  It was the air bag that caused the cracked sternum, but saved me from possibly much worse injuries.  We still have the sweat shirt I was wearing that day and my wife sometimes wears it when gardening in cooler weather.  It has a quarter-sized spot that looks like a dirt smudge, but is actually where the air bag crushed the sweat shirt pile between my sternum and the seat belt.  We decided we wanted dual air bags in the replacement car.  The '93s were out by that time and the SE was the only model that offered dual air bags.  At the time, Vita (shortened from La Dolce Vita - the sweet life) was the most luxurious car we had ever owned.  She was an excellent car that provided trouble-free service, like our previous Hondas.  Vita got replaced by a 2006 Accord sedan, which got replaced by a 2015 CR-V.

We moved to Texas in 2017 to be near our younger son, daughter-in-law and our granddaughter, and a lot closer to our older son.  We settled in Frisco, about 20 miles north of Dallas and less than 10 minutes from Matt and Lacey and Cassidy.  We had been trying to get them to buy our CR-V for Lacey so she would get out of her Kia Rio.  We didn't feel she and Cassidy were safe in that thing.  We finally bought the Pilot and hoped it would force the issue, but they declined so we sold the CR-V.

The Pilot is far and away the most luxurious car we have ever owned and is extremely comfortable.  It is much more spacious than the CR-V was, with three rows of seats.  We will be able to transport the whole family if necessary.

                 The lap of luxury with heated power front seats, dual zone climate control, a home link system, three rows of seats, a rear seat entertainment system and walk-away locking.