The Long Haul: A Reflection on Honda's Uncompromising Approach to Design and Functionality

As I sit here, surrounded by the familiar comforts of my Honda Pilot, I am reminded of the peculiarities of life. The realization that my knees are nestled in the dashboard, there is no room for lattes, or even an iPhone cable, is a humbling experience. It's as if I've been forced to confront the limitations of human design and technology. My wife, now living separate from me, had mentioned my neglect towards her and our children, Wolfie and Billy. The memories of those sleepless nights, filled with screaming kids and endless diaper changes, still linger.

As I reflect on that fateful day, I realize how life's circumstances can shift in an instant. My corporate job, once a symbol of success and validation, now feels hollow. The constant pressure to meet expectations, coupled with the mundane routine of daily driving, has left me feeling unfulfilled. My wife's words still echo in my mind: "Did you walk Wolfie?" The answer, of course, was no. I had forgotten that simple act of love and responsibility.

The experience taught me a valuable lesson about priorities. What initially seemed like an insurmountable challenge – navigating the complexities of modern life – ultimately revealed itself to be a mere obstacle. As I navigated the frozen landscape with Wolfie, trudging through the snow-covered streets, I realized that true happiness lies not in external validation but in the simple things. The dog's reluctance to relieve himself became a poignant reminder of the beauty in imperfection.

My journey has led me to appreciate the Honda Pilot's unique approach to design and functionality. In an era where technology is rapidly advancing, it's refreshing to see a manufacturer that values tried-and-true principles. The Pilot's door handles, for instance, offer a tactile experience that allows drivers to connect with the vehicle on a deeper level. This attention to detail speaks volumes about Honda's commitment to crafting vehicles that are both functional and enjoyable.

The Pilot's performance is another area where it excels. With its smooth V6 naturally aspirated engine, the vehicle glides effortlessly through the city streets or onto the highway. The handling is surprisingly nimble, making it an excellent choice for those who value a comfortable ride without sacrificing agility. However, as impressive as these features are, they pale in comparison to the Pilot's most significant strength: its ability to strike a balance between form and function.

A common criticism of modern vehicles is their soulless design, with some opting for luxury brands solely for the sake of exclusivity. While those may be valid concerns, I believe that the Honda Pilot offers a unique solution. Its understated elegance belies a deep understanding of human needs. The cabin is spacious, the seats are comfortable, and the ride quality is exceptional. These features make it an excellent choice for families, commuters, or anyone seeking a reliable vehicle that won't break the bank.

As I continue to drive this Honda Pilot, I'll be paying close attention to its performance over time. Will my initial enthusiasm fade as the miles accumulate? Or will the Pilot's commitment to functionality and design continue to win me over? Only time will tell, but for now, I'm content with the knowledge that I've found a vehicle that truly understands me.

In the end, it's not about seeking external validation or material possessions. It's about finding joy in the simple things – like a well-crafted engine, a comfortable ride, and a dash of personality. As I embark on this long haul with my trusty Honda Pilot, I'm reminded that sometimes it's the unspectacular choices that lead to the greatest rewards.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to a new video series on the long-term ownership of this 2024 Honda Pilot and I've been in the three row game now for probably about 3 or 4 years because I'm using as a work vehicle a hauler for a trip machine and all the money in the industry is going towards SUVs and three row SUVs it's really popular so they've gotten better and better the competition is a lot higher as well one of the reasons why I wanted to do this series was to be a bit more real if you look on the internet YouTube videos between the influencers and the marketing You' think everybody is just loaded full of money and having a ye good old time and it makes you kind of feel bad if you're not in that position and you have a family or you're struggling and you need like a good product but you don't have a kajillion dollars so I'm going to start this off by posing a very basic question I want you to look at both of these and honestly think to yourself which would you rather be driving and I think the thing is is n out of 10 times people would answer they'd rather drive drive the BMW and I'm not going to lie it's one of the best driving SUVs or three row SUVs on the planet with a VA the ride quality all the features but there's a big difference between wanting to drive it and actually owning it now granted I did not buy this new I bought it used during the end of Co so I did pay a little bit more than I should have but this represents one of the biggest mistakes I ever made buying a vehicle ever and I just want you to let I just want to let this sink in for a minute in 2020 this was brand new at $122,000 in 2023 I just got a tradein quote two different tradein quotes for $48,000 that's almost a $70,000 depreciation so it just goes to show despite all the technology how great it is to drive this is literally becoming a paper weight nobody wants it as a used product because it is so overtly complicated and expensive to repair and now that I've got time in something like this it really opens your eyes in the regard of is this really worth it are these luxury products these Lease Only machines worth that extra money and and I'm just going to tell you I don't think they are because after all of that wears off you're left with a whole bunch of compromise to have a luxury vehicle from you know I got to spend $500 for a caliper if the if the brakes go bad and I got to go to a dealership versus going to an Auto Zone or a part store to get basic brake pads for $50 I mean literally it's night and day but you're achieving the same end game between these two and in a lot of cases a vehicle like the pilot does the everyday functions much better it's less complicated they've kept the simple things simple that need to be that way versus trying to wow you with every like electronic Nanny and everything that this this thing has and a lot of vehicles are are leaning towards so I'm going to get in this and granted this is brand new so it's going to be an over overview of what I think is good at least at the start of this this series and then some of the things I don't like to St off and then I'm going to take it for a brief drive now it's no surprise if you followed our content this is one of our favorite three row SUVs of the year and it makes a lot of sense that I do a video series on something I like I'm going to be far more engaged and I'm going to be far more realistic as the ownership period goes on in terms of the interior and exterior this has been redone for this model year it is essentially shared on the same platform that the MDX is on now the suspension has changed they don't have as many luxury features but a lot of the same good things about the MDX are there but it's just been more hondi which means it's more utilitarian it's trying to wow you less with material choices uh Fancy Pants exterior design and it's just a more applian looking vehicle overall now they've moved to a more boxy look like many brands are doing with their SUVs to kind of merge it with the times it's far more Butch looking and I think it's a little bit less descript but more non descript script and one of the reasons why I chose Red is because every vehicle is white silver or black so at least in a parking lot filled with SUVs at Le oh there's a red SUV I'm going to find it I think it adds a little bit of personality to it as well but on the inside a lot of that ends this is a very monochromatic interior space and I will say that they've backed off all the shiny material there is some high contrast stuff on the doors but they've mixed kind of the the bright Works in terms of matte silver in it so it doesn't look as well Ultra shiny fingerprint prone they have left some of the piano black in you know around the steering wheel the center console area and where the hvc controls are but it's not out of control and it's really subtle everything else has been left to matte textures and hard textures and then you get to the leather seating surfaces on the upper trim and they are really well done like the piping the silver piping is a good accent but I'm you know I'm going to be straight it it's a very plain Jane type interior without being overly generic and the main point is like every vehicle you're using every day you're putting people in you have to haul stuff you're like living in this thing as like a secondary house the fancy stuff wears off what you really care about is how is it to interact with and that's where the highlight of this vehicle is and I complain about this all the time how hard is it to design a door panel where you can fit multiple tiers of storage like real bottles uh multiple bottles multiple storage things like hand sanitizer food a snack your phone a wallet Maybe miscellenous stuff for personal items you can pretty much fit everything you want in just one single door and then the passenger has their own space you're not eating into the communal space in this car and it's still very tactile to use you have a physical door handle you have a physical grab handle to open and close the door all the things that our human hands need to interact with to make this a less frustrating experience is what Honda does really well here and that that really transfers over to the entire cabin space from steering wheel Heat Fe on the steering wheel like logical placement clicky controls like you you're never going to figure out oh where where's the volume switch it's like right here it's clicky you know when you interact with stuff and the same thing goes with HVAC controls and I Jer around a lot about you see many cars moving to HVAC into the in the touch screen well if you're getting yelled at by three different people in the car and you're overwhelmed with life and somebody's in the back complaining they don't know how to adjust the temperature it's literally it's physical like it's I just turn a knob I hit rear and I turn a knob that's it I don't have to interact with the screen so a lot of this again is about the thought to Interior Space usability where to put things and the abundance of space you haven't been shortcut and we look at a vehicle like the cx90 uh and just like the Cayenne we just got out of because they have to be rear wheeel drive to be great driving cars you have a transmission tunnel or a differential tunnel that eats up all your center console space that's not the the problem with something like the pilot you open up the center console and you're going to fit a purse in there you're going to fit a large amount of bottles if you have kids you can fit a lot of things in there and this these little things start to add up into your daily usability where it becomes far less frustrating to use and it just becomes part of part of making your life a little bit easier and that's what the pilot does really well despite it doesn't have a massive wow factor it does these things good the big update here to pretty much all this generation of Honda products is the new seat design the skeleton of the seat has been improved and the foams so this is a far less stiff and rigid seat than it used to be on the older products so even sitting in it for hours is is way better you don't have the pressure points as much on your back and your butt and I think it's going to be more Adept uh at supporting multiple body types as well if you're small you can still get up on the steering wheel within reason so you don't kill yourself with an airbag but if even if you're big you still have plenty of space and the rear seats and the way that the cargo space works in the back including removing the second row armrest to give you more space to to walk through all of this is very easy to use in physical while still being comfortable the one thing I will say is the removal of the center armr or seat while it does have a stewing place in the hatch uh under the floor which is great it leaves these massive anchors where the seat went these massive steel pieces that 10 to one a kid's going to fall or somebody's going to fall and break their leg or hit their head on it so I wish they had like a a trim piece that you could put over it like for storage that could still give you the fter ability but covers up those anchor points so they're less of a liability but other than that really everything about the interior space and the functionality of this is why we love it so much and in including the audio system the electronics work pretty well you can see there's a placeholder here in the infotainment the bezel is clearly designed uh for the new updated infotainment that they're putting in the Accords so unfortunately 2024 does not have that but you can see that it will get it probably in a midcycle refresh uh the the infotainment has been improved slightly a ver like the Civic it is quicker to connect it seems less crash prone uh with whatever updates they made so even that you know Android auto and uh Apple carplay wireless work pretty seamlessly in here which is what you're going to rely on in infotainment like this so basically most of that works pretty well and in future videos I'm going to get into the safety Suite uh some of the safety and functionality parts of how well they work and don't work and then including what it's what's been going on with adding some models but I'm going to put this on the road with Jack really quick and give you a quick story long-term Honda Pilot Mark Jack let me tell you a little story my friend I can't wait so you're uh 25 and clearly this isn't going to apply to everybody but you're 25 years old and you made the decision that you're going to have a relationship with a female and you go out for din dinner you go to see some movies you talk about science philosophy your life your dreams you even take vacations to places you normally wouldn't that you hate but you just enjoy each other's company and guess what happens 10 years passes and now you're 35 you're at dinner at a restaurant you used to love but now you hate every single word you say goes in one year and out the other and you start spinning up a conversation about the 28 different trim levels of 9/11 you're considering buying and how you're on the fence this applies to me I see that all right yeah so you you're thinking about spending about 20 grand on the leather Dash upgrade and you made one fatal mistake you're no longer in charge of this conversation the uterus is the uterus is now in charge of your entire life and you at that very moment you black out and you wake up in the hospital to twins being delivered and she's screaming at you did you get the car seats ready and you go outside and you put your rear faing car seats and your gr Corolla and you try to fit your diaper bag and your stroller and your formula bottles and your bottle warmer and your sterilizer and your wipes and every other little thing and you get to up get up to the front with the car seats and you realize your knees are in the dashboard there's no room there's no room for your lattes there's no room for anything and you look in your your little center console and you're like oh my God I can barely fit my wallet and an iPhone Cable in here Mark what am I going to do with my life well you get home and after about 2 months of no sleep and two screaming kids you get in and your wife's like hey or your fiance in this case she's like hey did you walk Wolfie he hasn't been walked in 8 hours you're like all right I'll go walk them you get outside and you forget it's 20 below zero and the dog doesn't want to take a so you walk outside for hours with this dog for him to take a dump you get back inside and guess what there's two full diapers waiting for you to change and the kids are sick and your wife tells you you don't spend enough time with me and the kids Billy what are we going to do this isn't working for me Billy at work listens to me he spends all the time in the world with me he talked to me at the right place and the right time and you don't treat me like how you used to and you go and you go back up in your office and you realize she's moving out the next day what are you gonna do you're stuck with the Honda Pilot and when you go into your next corporate job and your boss hates you he's going to say you know what he doesn't drive a sports car and your co-workers don't hate you because you drive a more expensive car you drove a Honda pilot and you decide you're going to keep this longterm for 30 years cuz you can't afford to keep anything else and it's still going to run it's still going to be comfortable and it's still going to work every day of your life your miserable fing life and now it's you and your pilot for the Long Haul when every every body else has left you well Mark I can't wait to revisit this Honda Pilot with you once you get some more miles and we get to see where your story now takes us I want to take it right on the back of this thing I know that was a bit unhinged but I think the roundabout point is that Honda has found a way to show you that we have not evolved all that much as Humanity physically and technology is moving much faster in the car market than we are as people and I'm not saying this to be like oh get with the times or whatever we still have the same physical constraints of having hands that we need to use we still have to drive cars with hands on the wheel so trying to over complicate some of these basic systems that are just tried and true like Honda proves it here having door handles that are real that you can grab onto the tactil the physicality of everything without having to overthink every single input is why this car really works great and the argument of like well is a luxury car better it really doesn't do anything better yes it delivers better drivetrain you can have 500 horsepower plus you can have crazy differentials and rear wheeel driving you can do a little bit of skids but nobody's doing that here so the things that a vehicle like this is supposed to do is essentially you're trying to turn this into a minivan without being a minivan and it does most of the minivan things great it's comfortable it rides quiet the hand in is really great with the differential they've made it really Nimble without feeling like it's just a total boat it's split the difference between almost every single brand at doing the ride quality thing the drivability great the only thing that really is not the best at is fuel economy despite it having a really smooth V6 naturally aspirated no turbos it you know you're still going to be stuck in the lower 20s and to be fair most of the bigger vehicles like this are doing the same thing uh the other negative really here is most people are going to look at this and they're going to feel kind of their stomach drop it's a little soulless and it's a little NPC and I know in this segment of vehicle that you may not be looking for a ton of uh passion and design and like just a wow factor so that that might drag this down for some people you might be willing to spend more for a luxury product just to get a little bit more personality um but I think after that wears off you really love driving this thing and that's the mo really what I appreciate the most and I'll be curious to see over time as we pile on with this and the the honeymoon phase wears off if my opinion will change so stick with us as we go through that Journeywelcome to a new video series on the long-term ownership of this 2024 Honda Pilot and I've been in the three row game now for probably about 3 or 4 years because I'm using as a work vehicle a hauler for a trip machine and all the money in the industry is going towards SUVs and three row SUVs it's really popular so they've gotten better and better the competition is a lot higher as well one of the reasons why I wanted to do this series was to be a bit more real if you look on the internet YouTube videos between the influencers and the marketing You' think everybody is just loaded full of money and having a ye good old time and it makes you kind of feel bad if you're not in that position and you have a family or you're struggling and you need like a good product but you don't have a kajillion dollars so I'm going to start this off by posing a very basic question I want you to look at both of these and honestly think to yourself which would you rather be driving and I think the thing is is n out of 10 times people would answer they'd rather drive drive the BMW and I'm not going to lie it's one of the best driving SUVs or three row SUVs on the planet with a VA the ride quality all the features but there's a big difference between wanting to drive it and actually owning it now granted I did not buy this new I bought it used during the end of Co so I did pay a little bit more than I should have but this represents one of the biggest mistakes I ever made buying a vehicle ever and I just want you to let I just want to let this sink in for a minute in 2020 this was brand new at $122,000 in 2023 I just got a tradein quote two different tradein quotes for $48,000 that's almost a $70,000 depreciation so it just goes to show despite all the technology how great it is to drive this is literally becoming a paper weight nobody wants it as a used product because it is so overtly complicated and expensive to repair and now that I've got time in something like this it really opens your eyes in the regard of is this really worth it are these luxury products these Lease Only machines worth that extra money and and I'm just going to tell you I don't think they are because after all of that wears off you're left with a whole bunch of compromise to have a luxury vehicle from you know I got to spend $500 for a caliper if the if the brakes go bad and I got to go to a dealership versus going to an Auto Zone or a part store to get basic brake pads for $50 I mean literally it's night and day but you're achieving the same end game between these two and in a lot of cases a vehicle like the pilot does the everyday functions much better it's less complicated they've kept the simple things simple that need to be that way versus trying to wow you with every like electronic Nanny and everything that this this thing has and a lot of vehicles are are leaning towards so I'm going to get in this and granted this is brand new so it's going to be an over overview of what I think is good at least at the start of this this series and then some of the things I don't like to St off and then I'm going to take it for a brief drive now it's no surprise if you followed our content this is one of our favorite three row SUVs of the year and it makes a lot of sense that I do a video series on something I like I'm going to be far more engaged and I'm going to be far more realistic as the ownership period goes on in terms of the interior and exterior this has been redone for this model year it is essentially shared on the same platform that the MDX is on now the suspension has changed they don't have as many luxury features but a lot of the same good things about the MDX are there but it's just been more hondi which means it's more utilitarian it's trying to wow you less with material choices uh Fancy Pants exterior design and it's just a more applian looking vehicle overall now they've moved to a more boxy look like many brands are doing with their SUVs to kind of merge it with the times it's far more Butch looking and I think it's a little bit less descript but more non descript script and one of the reasons why I chose Red is because every vehicle is white silver or black so at least in a parking lot filled with SUVs at Le oh there's a red SUV I'm going to find it I think it adds a little bit of personality to it as well but on the inside a lot of that ends this is a very monochromatic interior space and I will say that they've backed off all the shiny material there is some high contrast stuff on the doors but they've mixed kind of the the bright Works in terms of matte silver in it so it doesn't look as well Ultra shiny fingerprint prone they have left some of the piano black in you know around the steering wheel the center console area and where the hvc controls are but it's not out of control and it's really subtle everything else has been left to matte textures and hard textures and then you get to the leather seating surfaces on the upper trim and they are really well done like the piping the silver piping is a good accent but I'm you know I'm going to be straight it it's a very plain Jane type interior without being overly generic and the main point is like every vehicle you're using every day you're putting people in you have to haul stuff you're like living in this thing as like a secondary house the fancy stuff wears off what you really care about is how is it to interact with and that's where the highlight of this vehicle is and I complain about this all the time how hard is it to design a door panel where you can fit multiple tiers of storage like real bottles uh multiple bottles multiple storage things like hand sanitizer food a snack your phone a wallet Maybe miscellenous stuff for personal items you can pretty much fit everything you want in just one single door and then the passenger has their own space you're not eating into the communal space in this car and it's still very tactile to use you have a physical door handle you have a physical grab handle to open and close the door all the things that our human hands need to interact with to make this a less frustrating experience is what Honda does really well here and that that really transfers over to the entire cabin space from steering wheel Heat Fe on the steering wheel like logical placement clicky controls like you you're never going to figure out oh where where's the volume switch it's like right here it's clicky you know when you interact with stuff and the same thing goes with HVAC controls and I Jer around a lot about you see many cars moving to HVAC into the in the touch screen well if you're getting yelled at by three different people in the car and you're overwhelmed with life and somebody's in the back complaining they don't know how to adjust the temperature it's literally it's physical like it's I just turn a knob I hit rear and I turn a knob that's it I don't have to interact with the screen so a lot of this again is about the thought to Interior Space usability where to put things and the abundance of space you haven't been shortcut and we look at a vehicle like the cx90 uh and just like the Cayenne we just got out of because they have to be rear wheeel drive to be great driving cars you have a transmission tunnel or a differential tunnel that eats up all your center console space that's not the the problem with something like the pilot you open up the center console and you're going to fit a purse in there you're going to fit a large amount of bottles if you have kids you can fit a lot of things in there and this these little things start to add up into your daily usability where it becomes far less frustrating to use and it just becomes part of part of making your life a little bit easier and that's what the pilot does really well despite it doesn't have a massive wow factor it does these things good the big update here to pretty much all this generation of Honda products is the new seat design the skeleton of the seat has been improved and the foams so this is a far less stiff and rigid seat than it used to be on the older products so even sitting in it for hours is is way better you don't have the pressure points as much on your back and your butt and I think it's going to be more Adept uh at supporting multiple body types as well if you're small you can still get up on the steering wheel within reason so you don't kill yourself with an airbag but if even if you're big you still have plenty of space and the rear seats and the way that the cargo space works in the back including removing the second row armrest to give you more space to to walk through all of this is very easy to use in physical while still being comfortable the one thing I will say is the removal of the center armr or seat while it does have a stewing place in the hatch uh under the floor which is great it leaves these massive anchors where the seat went these massive steel pieces that 10 to one a kid's going to fall or somebody's going to fall and break their leg or hit their head on it so I wish they had like a a trim piece that you could put over it like for storage that could still give you the fter ability but covers up those anchor points so they're less of a liability but other than that really everything about the interior space and the functionality of this is why we love it so much and in including the audio system the electronics work pretty well you can see there's a placeholder here in the infotainment the bezel is clearly designed uh for the new updated infotainment that they're putting in the Accords so unfortunately 2024 does not have that but you can see that it will get it probably in a midcycle refresh uh the the infotainment has been improved slightly a ver like the Civic it is quicker to connect it seems less crash prone uh with whatever updates they made so even that you know Android auto and uh Apple carplay wireless work pretty seamlessly in here which is what you're going to rely on in infotainment like this so basically most of that works pretty well and in future videos I'm going to get into the safety Suite uh some of the safety and functionality parts of how well they work and don't work and then including what it's what's been going on with adding some models but I'm going to put this on the road with Jack really quick and give you a quick story long-term Honda Pilot Mark Jack let me tell you a little story my friend I can't wait so you're uh 25 and clearly this isn't going to apply to everybody but you're 25 years old and you made the decision that you're going to have a relationship with a female and you go out for din dinner you go to see some movies you talk about science philosophy your life your dreams you even take vacations to places you normally wouldn't that you hate but you just enjoy each other's company and guess what happens 10 years passes and now you're 35 you're at dinner at a restaurant you used to love but now you hate every single word you say goes in one year and out the other and you start spinning up a conversation about the 28 different trim levels of 9/11 you're considering buying and how you're on the fence this applies to me I see that all right yeah so you you're thinking about spending about 20 grand on the leather Dash upgrade and you made one fatal mistake you're no longer in charge of this conversation the uterus is the uterus is now in charge of your entire life and you at that very moment you black out and you wake up in the hospital to twins being delivered and she's screaming at you did you get the car seats ready and you go outside and you put your rear faing car seats and your gr Corolla and you try to fit your diaper bag and your stroller and your formula bottles and your bottle warmer and your sterilizer and your wipes and every other little thing and you get to up get up to the front with the car seats and you realize your knees are in the dashboard there's no room there's no room for your lattes there's no room for anything and you look in your your little center console and you're like oh my God I can barely fit my wallet and an iPhone Cable in here Mark what am I going to do with my life well you get home and after about 2 months of no sleep and two screaming kids you get in and your wife's like hey or your fiance in this case she's like hey did you walk Wolfie he hasn't been walked in 8 hours you're like all right I'll go walk them you get outside and you forget it's 20 below zero and the dog doesn't want to take a so you walk outside for hours with this dog for him to take a dump you get back inside and guess what there's two full diapers waiting for you to change and the kids are sick and your wife tells you you don't spend enough time with me and the kids Billy what are we going to do this isn't working for me Billy at work listens to me he spends all the time in the world with me he talked to me at the right place and the right time and you don't treat me like how you used to and you go and you go back up in your office and you realize she's moving out the next day what are you gonna do you're stuck with the Honda Pilot and when you go into your next corporate job and your boss hates you he's going to say you know what he doesn't drive a sports car and your co-workers don't hate you because you drive a more expensive car you drove a Honda pilot and you decide you're going to keep this longterm for 30 years cuz you can't afford to keep anything else and it's still going to run it's still going to be comfortable and it's still going to work every day of your life your miserable fing life and now it's you and your pilot for the Long Haul when every every body else has left you well Mark I can't wait to revisit this Honda Pilot with you once you get some more miles and we get to see where your story now takes us I want to take it right on the back of this thing I know that was a bit unhinged but I think the roundabout point is that Honda has found a way to show you that we have not evolved all that much as Humanity physically and technology is moving much faster in the car market than we are as people and I'm not saying this to be like oh get with the times or whatever we still have the same physical constraints of having hands that we need to use we still have to drive cars with hands on the wheel so trying to over complicate some of these basic systems that are just tried and true like Honda proves it here having door handles that are real that you can grab onto the tactil the physicality of everything without having to overthink every single input is why this car really works great and the argument of like well is a luxury car better it really doesn't do anything better yes it delivers better drivetrain you can have 500 horsepower plus you can have crazy differentials and rear wheeel driving you can do a little bit of skids but nobody's doing that here so the things that a vehicle like this is supposed to do is essentially you're trying to turn this into a minivan without being a minivan and it does most of the minivan things great it's comfortable it rides quiet the hand in is really great with the differential they've made it really Nimble without feeling like it's just a total boat it's split the difference between almost every single brand at doing the ride quality thing the drivability great the only thing that really is not the best at is fuel economy despite it having a really smooth V6 naturally aspirated no turbos it you know you're still going to be stuck in the lower 20s and to be fair most of the bigger vehicles like this are doing the same thing uh the other negative really here is most people are going to look at this and they're going to feel kind of their stomach drop it's a little soulless and it's a little NPC and I know in this segment of vehicle that you may not be looking for a ton of uh passion and design and like just a wow factor so that that might drag this down for some people you might be willing to spend more for a luxury product just to get a little bit more personality um but I think after that wears off you really love driving this thing and that's the mo really what I appreciate the most and I'll be curious to see over time as we pile on with this and the the honeymoon phase wears off if my opinion will change so stick with us as we go through that Journey\n"