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Reviews (6)
Aug 06, 2008
2003 honda pilot
2 of 3 found this helpful After much research and many test drives we bought a Honda Pilot LX.
'We' are your average family, 2 adults, to kids (3 and 6 yrs old) and 2 dogs (which counts as the extra 0.5 child!)
We've had the Pilot for about a month now, so I'll describe our buying experience and initial reactions.
The lease was running out on our 2 door Explorer. So we started looking. My wife wanted a big car, something that could hold all our family (and the dogs) and our gear. We do a lot of camping, skiing and we have 4 bikes to carry. We also camp in the desert and even take our kids to mountain cabins in the winter, thus we needed 4 wheel drive. She wanted a four wheel drive minivan, or a (Shudder!) Suburban. Myself, I tend to be cheap (i.e. I don't want a house on wheels) and the environmentalist in me just can't stomach a 10 mpg car.
So we looked. If you haven't been out there all the GM stuff is cheap, and way overpriced. Our relatives had caravans, but they had horror stories about broken trannies. I considered another Ford Explorer, but the dealer of our last Explorer treated us like *&^%!.
So, finally the local Honda dealer had a Pilot we could test drive. We took it on a long drive. The kids loved it. They each get their own cupholders and the passenger can climb into the back to 'help' them as needed. (This we did test while moving! A minivan would be better, but this task is much easier compared than in our Ford Explorer)
What really impressed me was the interior quality. The plastic doesn't 'give' and it doesn't squeak. It's roomy and light. The Chevy Blazer seemed claustrophobic. And the folding rear seats fold flat into the floor, unlike the either the Explorer or Blazer. Visibility is not as good as in our little Escort. The main front pillars are huge and I can't glance back to see if there are any cars in my blind spot. The pillars here are big too. You have to rely on your side mirrors, which is taking me little time to adjust too.
Another factor that sold me is that the 4wd of this car is all we really need. We don't go off road, just on dirt roads, and on snowy roads, so we didn't need low range,bush bustin 4wd.
In comparison, with all the rebates, incentives etc., both the Ford Explorer and the Trail Blazer would cost just as much, or even more!
So because of the quality, the EPA estimates and the Consumer Reports recommendation we decided to buy one. After much haggling via the phone with 3 separate dealers, we finally got MSRP but it had a 2 month wait. We decided on the LX version, but we got them to throw in a roof rack and keyless entry. This is the basic model, no DVD, no CD changer, no leather no climate control, no power seats. But it has just about everything else, cruise control, AC, CD player, Automatic, power rear view mirrors and power windows. (Does anyone remember when we had to crank windows open?)
We finally got the car. The first few times I got in, I hit my head on either the door or the door frame. The door is angled a bit more than I'm used too, but I figured it out and I haven't hit my head lately. The car drives in a nice neutral manner. It goes where you point it at the speed you want. It's almost forgettable, which is important when driving with kids. And it's quiet, a little road noise, but not harsh. All the controls are easy to use and understand, although I had to play with the CD player's tone/base/balance/fade knob to figure it out. And, the gas cap isn't tied to the car. It has a mounting spot to
Jan 25, 2008
A nice unit but with several limitations
4 of 4 found this helpful I bought this to replace an NEC 750c. This has a larger processor and the same size and form factor. It also has a different processor and a much larger pool of available software.
Pros:
Instant on. That’s the biggest advantage. Sit down, open the unit up and its on. No booting, as in zero seconds, as in instantaneous, the machine is on! This is very cool!
Very useable keyboard. Its almost full size which means touch typing is possible, and if you have smaller fingers, it works even better. No finger stretching.
Touch screen. This is very convenient. Because the keyboard is very close to the screen, you can use your fingernail to move and position the cursor. This actually speeds up typing as you don’t have to shift over to the mouse.
Long battery life. I’ve been getting 1-3 hours, but the batteries are old. New, the literature says these can get 6-8 hours.
Adding storage space is now cheap! Compact Flash (CF) cards are approaching $10 for a Gigabyte! That is huge, I defy anyone to fill that much space up on a unit like this!
A very nice color screen. Large enough to see 12-13 lines of text (single spaced) at the normal use distance, you don’t have to scrunch over the unit.
Rugged! There are no moving parts in the unit, and it uses a flash drive. It doesn't need to be babied like a laptop.
There are however some disadvantages
The sizable keyboard means that this is not a ‘pocketable’ unit. Its not huge, about 1/2 the size of a 'real' laptop and it's very light. (1.5 pounds?)
Parts are far and few between. You can’t even buy battery packs. But, with a bit of work, you can put new batteries in the pack. You’ll need 2, (~$5-6 each) but they need to be soldered in.
The screen is not useable outside. Not at all. Even sitting under a tree, the screen is just not bright enough to see. You’ll need to pull the shade down on airplanes.
The original OS is buggy, and has 'viewers' instead of programs that you can use to edit ms office files. Fortunately there are some folks who've found a way to make this thing better. Google 'cmonex' and you can get a program to replace the OS on the unit with a system that is much more stable, and has all of the 'good' programs from previous versions (i.e. the pocket word and pocket excel) and retains the viewers and explorer from the newest version. There are also lots of useful apps that you may or may not need. The process does require a bit of work (your rewriting the flash rom on the unit) but the instructions are very good.
In conclusion; This is the last of the NEC units with this form factor, which I like very much due to its portability, ruggedness and useability. I think that NEC rushed this to market and the stock OS was bad! Luckily, there is a way to fix it!
Oct 13, 2012
Strong Suction! Good for hardwood foors. Not for rugs.
First this puppy has very strong suction! Much more than any other unit I've ever used, even the humongous and heavy Rainbow unit that I can’t lug about anymore! It has an interesting filtering system. It has the 'turbo' feature which spins the dirt around in the semi-clear canister, but it also has a circular turbine-like filter with a mechanism to knock the dirt off the filter when you spin it. Don’t spin it with the unit opened or it will all fall out! Like any filter less canister, its best to take the canister outside and empty it directly into your garbage. Yes, it’s messy, but you don’t have to buy bags. Sometimes when I put the canister back on, I don’t get it on just right and it doesn’t seal properly. The loss of suction is noticed when the power head brush doesn’t spin.
The power cord is about 15 feet long and retracts into the vacuum. You need to hold the retraction button until it goes all the way in. I have a smaller house so the short length is not an issue for me.
The unit is light but seems sturdy. The plastic seems strong enough to survive the minor bumps of being dragged into walls and furniture. The hose is relatively sturdy, it’s all plastic but I don't think it will fall apart, and has strong connections to the vacuum and extension tube. The extension tube is steel. The extension feature is sticky.
The power head is also strong plastic. The brush is not electrically powered but uses the suction to rotate the brush. I've never been a fan of this kind of brush, as they always get clogged and quits spinning. However, it's still working after a half dozen uses. It has a ‘quick release’ to remove the beater brush for cleaning, but it is neither quick nor easy as it takes some manipulation to put the belt on and off. Part of the reason it works is because of the tremendous suction.
That said, this unit is not super effective on carpets. First, because of the strong suction it will pick up throw rugs which makes it hard to vacuum. It’s physically hard to push the head across the rug. And the beater brush just doesn’t have the power to pull ground in dirt out of carpets. On hard surfaces, the massive suction works great!
All in all, I think I'll keep this vac. What sold me most is the strong suction and the overall sturdiness of the unit. It just doesn't feel like it will fall apart in a month like some of the Sharks and Eurekas I've had.