Honda All Wheel Drive AWD VTM First of all let me just say that I am not a poster child for Honda. I have a 2005 Honda pilot with all wheel drive. The two main factors for me purchasing this vehicle were safety and resale value. The pilot has excellent crash numbers and several safety features that I really like. One of the biggest ones is the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). The other biggie is the all wheel drive system. This weekend it rained really heavily. Many times (when no cars were around or in an empty parking lot) I purposely put the vehicle in situations where it should have spun out or completely lost control. It just would not lose control. I'm telling you that I really tried to make it lose control but I was completely unsuccessful. Full throttle starts in the rain are a thing of beauty. Although I have not tried, I feel certain that from a traffic light in the rain, I can leave/out run any non all wheel drive vehicle made. This of course is not the point of the all wheel drive system. I don't believe a person could lose control of the vehicle while driving normally unless they were possibly on very slick ice or snow which I have not had a chance to test as it never snows where I am located. I have also tested the pilot all wheel drive in some mud. The vehicle was only a week or so old when I pulled into a new subdivision under construction. What I thought was a dirt was really mud. As I pulled into it, I could feel the vehicle sinking down two or three inches into the mud. I started to worry because the shortest distance out was the way I had just come and I did know if locking the VTM would work in reverse. Well fortunately it did work in reverse and pulled me out pretty as you please. After I got back on dry pavement, mud was slinging off of the vehicle for a half mile down the street. Another off-road adventure involved another new subdivision under construction but this time it was just loose dirt. The Pilot went through everything just fine and even went up a short 40 to 45 degree hill of grass. Now I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that this is a bonafide off-road vehicle but it will certainly handle any off-road conditions that I am man enough to attempt. Hopefully this will help anybody that is wondering about the off-road ability of the Honda Pilot. A few other matters of note that might interest some are the following: The air-conditioning system while overly complicated works very well. There's an air conditioner in the front and also one in the back for my puppy. I live in Dallas, Texas which can easily reach over 100 degrees in the hottest part of the summer. I purposely chose white, the coolest color and have my front windows tinted with legal window tint. I also have an inexpensive oscillating 12 volt fan in the back for my puppy. This setup appears to work very well. General advice for anybody living in a hot climate is not to buy a dark colored vehicle. One major gripe I have about this vehicle is this. If you turn on the interior light manually, and forget to turn it off, you will be rewarded with a dead battery when you come back out. After the second occurrence of this, I purchased and always keep in the vehicle a portable jump-starter. Now when this happens it is just a minor inconvenience but I really wish Honda had spent the 50¢ for the circuit that shuts off the lights or any other battery drain to keep this from happening. Another smaller gripe that I have that Honda has rectified is the leather seats. About the third time you sit on them they become bunched up in the center and look horrible. Honda has gone to a different setup on the 2006 models. The 2006 models also have the side curtain airbags which is a major safety enhancement for the Pilot. The 2005 Pilot has front and side airbags but the side curtain airbags extend the full length of the vehicle's interior. Didn't mean to be so long winded but couldn't find any similar information when I was looking for it before I purchased my Pilot. Hopefully this will help someone out. Good luck!
