How reliable is the 2007-2008 Honda Pilot? I see fairly few complaints and the "Seal of Awesome" on carcomplaints.com. I have found an 07 with 170k miles for 3k. What are y'alls thoughts?
Those pilots were not bad, if it’s been taken care of and the transmission still shifts smooth that thing could last you another 100 or even 200k.
Indeed, if you read gen1 posts on piloteers.org you can see how good gen1 and even gen2 pilots are.
Good cars. Watch out for VCM models.
What's wrong with the VCM system?
Starting with the 2006 model year, the Honda Pilot engines were either the J35Z1 (FWD) or the J35A9 (4WD). The FWD models came with Honda's Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) system, which can deactivate up to three cylinders under light load to increase fuel economy. Long term this will wear out/damage the engine. You don’t want cylinder deactivation - more complexity and no automaker has been able to make it work reliably long term. Toyota, the benchmark for reliability, doesn’t even use it.
We'll that's great. My family doesn't have a pilot but we do have a 2017 Honda Odyssey that I know for a fact has VCM. Have y'all seen issues with VCM on these yet?
Well it wears the engines out. You can even see the most common complaints are engine problems.
I have a 2017 odyssey and disabled VCM before I took deliver of the van lol dealership was confused to say the least
My 2010 van had VCM and gave me nothing but troubles until I disabled VCM, Zero issues after disabling.
Search up VCMuzzler
@daywalker So as long as the vehicle tag says 4WD (I realize these can be switched out), it should be ok? I'm going to look at a 2007 4WD Pilot tomorrow. Carfax came back looking good, except it reports slightly higher mileage than the listing shows.
They were good cars, just keep in mind that the transmissions are the weakest link.
Only get a VCM model if the owner has deactivated it upon purchase (you can deactivate it)
