C100: Anybody using a Honda Pilot as their production vehicle?

Sliding doors is very very useful. I have a Caravan (I promise myself long time ago to never buy a Dodge...oh well, never say never) with Stow n go, and I'm loving it. It has about 60k miles on it and I will probably sell before the 100k mark because I still don't have confidence in Dodge products. If I were to buy a pick up it would be a Ridgeline or maybe a used Avalanche.
 
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Super happy with my 2014 Ford Transit Connect (extended cargo) .Fantastic gas mileage and storage.... and it fits in a parking garage.
 
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Run&Gun said:
Man, lots of Ford hate. That's all I've bought since the late 90's. Before my first Ford, it was a Grand Cherokee. Now THAT is a POS. Jeeps are overpriced, overhyped and well… you can figure out the rest.

I have a few friends with tricked out Sprinters and they are convenient as hell, but you can't park them in any parking decks(or at least VERY few) and they don't seem like a vehicle I'd want to make a long trip in(I constantly do 2:30hr to 5:00hr+ trips).

Another buddy had a mini-van for years back in the 90's and had so many problems he swore off Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth for 10 years. He then went with trucks and is the reason I eventually went that way. Recently(the last year or two) he has gone back to a mini-van and swears by it. He built some very basic shelving in the back, but the thing he loves the most is having sliding doors on both sides.

There are so many choices out there and if all I did was 'local stuff', within an hour of me, I'd probably customize some type of cargo van. But I do a lot of out-of-state shooting and even long trips within my own state and I want something that is comfortable, drives & rides well and I feel at home in so that I don't mind spending half a day or more in it.
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Years back I used an 89 Range Rover with roof racks. It didn't hold a lot of kit, but it would go anywhere. And being able to shoot from the roof platform was a huge bonus at the time.

Worst ever.... A 1977 Ferrari 308 GTB. Due to vehicle issues it was the only thing available at the time. My old partner Mark Benz and myself along with enough kit to shoot a series of political ads stuffed into a Ferrari. We must have looked like one of those clown cars when all that gear miraculously came out.


As far as the Sprinter goes, long trips are no big deal. I think I have close to 400K miles on it, and comfort has never been an issue. It gets good mileage, and once the turbo spools up it goes very well. Hence the name Sprinter. My Sprinter is the tall version, which as mentioned eariler, can be a ***** around parking decks and the like with low overhead. Now on the plus side, being the tall version I can stand up inside, which is huge for me. I'm not a young pup, and having to scrunch and bend to load in/out in a normal height Van was killing my back. Now if parking is an issue, but you are still hot on a Sprinter, there is a normal height version that will fit into parking decks.





My dream... Being able to pare down my kit to be able to fit into the boot of a Porsche 911 Turbo. :thumbsup:
 

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Hey Reelworksmedia- I now live in a maintenance free "planned community", a subdivision on a golf course, lots of retired peeps, so I will have to see if their draconian home owners assoc will allow a Ford Transit with biz plates to be in the drive on days my garage is full. Also, I once had a Chevy 20 cargo van and it seems the Transit will be just as noisy when making a 5 hour drive to neighboring states? Every bump sounded like being in a coffee can full of bolts, even when I laid down carpeting. You pack a lot of stuff and I am going the opposite direction. I haven't had an Anvil case in 20 years. Getting too old to shlep that weight. Soon I will be selling my 3 Pelicans after having worked with a client who turned me onto Lightware cases:

http://www.lightwareinc.com/site/index.cfm

Of course they won't float in the ocean like a Pelican case after our boat sinks, but I'm not planning for that anymore.

As for the Avalanche and other pick ups, I don't get how one uses them for production. Here in Chicago anything left in the back will be stolen by the time you get out of Starbucks.

So...since I started this thread I have been to about 8 dealerships including CarMax, online with Truecar, etc. and I think what has to happen is to PARE DOWN the gear and/or it's cases, plus make a really efficient shelving system, even if I have to hire a cabinet maker or carpenter, after removing as many seats as possible. What I would really love is something like the Ford Flex made by a Japanese company. I feel a little queasy buying Japanese since I was raised by a Pacific War vet and always felt it unpatriotic to not buy American, but my life experience sitting on the side of the road waiting for tow trucks has changed my tune. The only thing worse than breaking down is breaking down with a vehicle full of all your gear! Maybe one thing is worse: it happening in a bad neighborhood at night, which was the first time the radiator hose blew last August. So all you Caravan & T&C owners out there: Change all hoses, belts and clamps around 80K even if they look cherry.

For the education of all you shooters: DO NOT TRUST THE CAR MANUFACTURERS SPECS ON "CARGO SPACE". It's total BS, Google it. There are no federal laws or industry guidelines as to how they calculate it. They can say whatever they want. Really! I now know this and want to let you all know. The only way to tell is to place a big piece of foam core behind the two front seats, fill the entire back with ping pong balls, then count how many balls fit. Really! It's a "stretch the truth" industry. My trick is to enter the dealership through the service department and check how modern, clean it is, imagining sitting there for three hours. Oh wait, if I buy Japanese I won't have to!

As to slimming down, I haven't brought out the C-stands in quite awhile because I now have the gobo heads and arms in my Versaflex stand bag and make a C stand from that. I have 12 shot bags in my garage that I don't bring out anymore because I just hang heavy cases by their straps on stands. I have become OCD about miniaturizing. Going more LED helps. Telling the soundman and client to drive separately helps. WWAAD? (What Would An Astronaut Do?) I have spent a lifetime bringing back ups to the back ups, thus needing a large vehicle. I always have way more lighting firepower than we'll need, perhaps this is because when I was starting out it was 16mm film, the ASA (ISO) outdoors was 16-64! I come from a background of bringing a small grip truck packed into my vehicle but now, no more. The C100 looks great at 6000 ISO. And besides, the clients are getting cheaper so I am becoming the Soup Nazi about bringing stuff they're not paying for.

In sum, looks like a new or slightly used Honda Pilot or Tahoe, scraping together the down payment now by hassling all my slow payers. You can tell by the length of my posts if I am busy or slow!

Later,

Ned
 
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nedcam said:
I feel a little queasy buying Japanese since I was raised by a Pacific War vet and always felt it unpatriotic to not buy American, but my life experience sitting on the side of the road waiting for tow trucks has changed my tune.
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most of the "japanese" cars are actually made in america nowadays. the honda pilot is assembled in alabama.
 
Bruce Watson said:
Why not? Ford's dealers wouldn't stand behind their product then, what's changed that they will now?
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Aside from the entire global car market, the reworking of their whole executive branch (including hiring Alan Mulally - arguably one of the best American CEOs of the last 30 years, possibly longer), and consolidating their vehicle engineering and design under one ethos, pulling largely from Ford Europe's vastly superior catalog of the last two decades?

Not much I guess.

And most importantly, why should I believe them now when they lied to my face back then? It only makes sense to let my memories of their deceptions, lies, and endless quality problems protect me from ever buying a Ford again. Not. Going. To. Happen.
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Because they are a company offering a quantifiable, verifiable, and testable product. Not an ex you had a bad falling out with. Spending upwards of $25k on a product and not testing everything on the market seems at best financially foolish.

And you are aware that a dealers are franchised and not owned by Ford? Find a new dealer if you don't get along with your current one.
 
nedcam said:
I feel a little queasy buying Japanese since I was raised by a Pacific War vet and always felt it unpatriotic to not buy American,
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All major car companies are global companies at this point. Their portfolios and manufacturing are so diverse every car is a "world" car. Not to mention the diversity of their engineering teams.

Remember - Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, Ikegami - All Japanese.
 
David W. Jones said:
Years back I used an 89 Range Rover with roof racks. It didn't hold a lot of kit, but it would go anywhere. And being able to shoot from the roof platform was a huge bonus at the time.

Worst ever.... A 1977 Ferrari 308 GTB. Due to vehicle issues it was the only thing available at the time. My old partner Mark Benz and myself along with enough kit to shoot a series of political ads stuffed into a Ferrari. We must have looked like one of those clown cars when all that gear miraculously came out.


As far as the Sprinter goes, long trips are no big deal. I think I have close to 400K miles on it, and comfort has never been an issue. It gets good mileage, and once the turbo spools up it goes very well. Hence the name Sprinter. My Sprinter is the tall version, which as mentioned eariler, can be a ***** around parking decks and the like with low overhead. Now on the plus side, being the tall version I can stand up inside, which is huge for me. I'm not a young pup, and having to scrunch and bend to load in/out in a normal height Van was killing my back. Now if parking is an issue, but you are still hot on a Sprinter, there is a normal height version that will fit into parking decks.





My dream... Being able to pare down my kit to be able to fit into the boot of a Porsche 911 Turbo. :thumbsup:
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Looks nice, but really left and top heavy. If you don't already have them, you should add 5000lb. air bags to the rear for leveling and spring airbags up front for braking. I have this system on my F350 van and the ride is stable and super smooth.
 
William_Robinette said:
Aside from the entire global car market, the reworking of their whole executive branch (including hiring Alan Mulally - arguably one of the best American CEOs of the last 30 years, possibly longer), and consolidating their vehicle engineering and design under one ethos, pulling largely from Ford Europe's vastly superior catalog of the last two decades?

Not much I guess.
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Not much indeed, you got that right. They still have countless thousands of middle managers who carry on the "You bought it, it's your problem" theory of customer service. One guy at the very top isn't enough. Even if he's a car god. Even if he brought his entire team with him, it's still just a drop in the bucket. From what I can tell, hardly anything has changed at ford.

And if it helps, my trouble car was a Contour, one of the first pulled "largely from Ford Europe's vastly superior catalog" and I did say it was a nice design. Just awful execution of that design, resulting in 14 recalls in the eight miserable years I had the car.

If I didn't like it why didn't I sell it? Because it had no resale value. Lost value so fast it made my head spin. Because it was a POS ford I guess -- that's what the market was saying to me anyway.

William_Robinette said:
Because they are a company offering a quantifiable, verifiable, and testable product. Not an ex you had a bad falling out with. Spending upwards of $25k on a product and not testing everything on the market seems at best financially foolish.
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Einstein said: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I can at least learn from my mistakes, and not repeat them. And buying that ford, that was a mistake not to be repeated.

William_Robinette said:
And you are aware that a dealers are franchised and not owned by Ford? Find a new dealer if you don't get along with your current one.
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Yeah, I heard that fallacy too. Turns out, all three dealers I tried to get some help with that POS car were less than helpful. And all ford corporate would tell me is "we stand behind our dealers". So no, changing dealerships isn't much help when they know that ford doesn't care and there aren't any repercussions.
 
Dodge Caravan - stow and go seats. I've used one for years and they just work. Lots of configurations are possible with the seats, shooting out side doors with plenty of room, check- shooting out the back, check- comfortable to travel in, check- decent highway mileage, check- does well in snow, check. I grew up in Wisconsin, so I've got snow in my veins. All my Caravans have been super reliable, I've had 3 in the last 20 years.
 
I had a couple Dodge Caravans but never put more than around 70K miles on them. Neither of the Dodges "felt" new after the miles. For my last 5 vehicles I've used Honda Odysseys. Odysseys still feel new when I'm finished with them. Perfect for all but my biggest jobs except when overloaded. I lease them for 36 months but almost never keep them that long. I don't go that much over the 12K/yr miles, just pay the difference on the new lease. I beat up the cargo area pretty bad but they don't care if you lease another. The dealership always wants them back after about 2 years and I skip a payment and drive away with a new one for the same or almost the same payment. I thought about buying one of them at the end of lease but didn't because when I had a mechanic look it over he said the transmission fluid was burnt. When I do the math on buy vs leasing it only favors buying by a small amount when I know I want to get rid of them around 100K miles. They aren't "work trucks" and can't handle my load like a "work truck". I love the power, comfort and great fuel economy. My current 2015 gets 28 or so on the highway on regular fuel. Also, the low load height is what got me started with "family vans". I don't know of any "real" production vehicle that has that low of a height except grip trucks with hydraulic gates.
 
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After high school (late 90's), rather than going to college, I started working for a guy driving decor to construction crews that were remodeling Kroger stores in other states. I did that for about 6 years. Most of the time we used cube trucks rented from Ryder or Budget. But my boss also had three Ford Econoline vans he owned for smaller runs. Two unleaded and one diesel. He kept up on regular maintenance with them (oil, tires, etc.) and man did those things keep going. Even carrying thousands of pounds of weight up and through the mountains in Tennessee and sometimes pulling a trailer as well. I once took one from Detroit to Dallas and it had 500K miles on it but it drove like it was brand new.

I earned a new respect for those vans after doing that job. Say what you want about Ford cars, but their vans are built to be work vehicles.
 
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We ran up to 5 camera shoots out of a short wheel base Ford Econoline van back in the '80s and '90s. The two front seats turned around to face the gear. We used to drive the van inside hotel ballrooms up the freight elevator. The str8 6 motor in that van was indestructible.
 
I have a '15 Jeep Cherokee Limited and for me that's the perfect combination of storage space while still being comfortable as a daily driver around town and for road trips and long work trips. 6-cyl, good mileage, well-stocked w/tech features and the pass seat folds flat for extra storage on one-man-band gigs. Also, has a mini-trunk if you remove the spare, which I use to house dirt, reflectors, fold-up 4x4 frames and diff.

Works out nicely.

I test drove the CRV, CX-5, Rav4 and Forrester and couldn't find anything that fit me quite as well as the Jeep. 4-cyl engines in vehicles that size just don't bring enough power for my taste.
 
roxics said:
I earned a new respect for those vans after doing that job. Say what you want about Ford cars, but their vans are built to be work vehicles.
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I've heard many people say almost the same thing, that Ford should forget the passenger car market and just build trucks. I won't comment on that one way or the other, but I will say that my diesel F-250 is like a luxury vehicle that can tow 15K lbs.
 
Well, decided on a new 2015 Pilot and will buy next Saturday. Not much else choice wise, I stopped by Chevy, told them I'd really rather have a Tahoe, and comparing apples to apples it would be $20K more. Stopped by Dodge to compare the Pilot with the Durango and that was about $10K more. While there I did discovered a new contender for us shooters which is nicer than a Transit or NV, but I ruled it out because it's just 170HP and 4 cylinders, it's nice enough looking that my wife would allow it on the drive:

http://www.ramtrucks.com/en/ram_pro...06632425412&TR=1&channel=paidsearch#wagon_slt

Did you Caravan lovers know it is being discontinued? That's one reason Dodge is bringing over the Promaster City from Europe. See:

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...t-spa-is-killing-the-dodge-grand-caravan.aspx

The Pilot leads in Consumer Reports test crash ratings and resale value. It recently made the top ten list of cars you can expect to make 200K miles. Most cars will make 200K if you keep repairing them but how many times will they BREAK DOWN WHILE YOU'RE ON THE WAY TO A SHOOT, like my POS Chrysler has done? I found out how to remove the Pilot's middle row seats and will have to research if the rear seats can be removed. Getting a roof rack for seamless paper and such. So in sum, my OLD way of thinking was to figure out how much gear could I squeeze into the largest vehicle I could get, but now my NEW way of thinking is how to pare down the gear to fit it into the smallest vehicle I can get. About 25-30% of my shoot days seem to be "just talking heads", maybe with "some simple b-roll" so the days of having to bring the kitchen sink are less and less plus the clients are getting so cheap why bring all this gear they don't pay for? In fact, I may get rid of my big boy, adult teleprompter, which requires a Pelican case, for the new way of doing it with an iPad, which I consider Mickey Mouse buy hey, they don't want to pay for a "real" prompter, right?

BTW, someone should start a thread on SHELVING, we can call it Shelf Porn. I am always trying to get the max out of my cubic cargo space and could use some fresh ideas. I tend to use wood, stain it, maybe put outdoor carpet on it, but am interested in modular wire shelving but I don't know how to adapt it for different shapes. Anybody doing it?
 
Coincidentally I filmed the reveal of the 2016 Pilot at the Chicago Auto Show a couple of months ago and am very disappointed. It is now a total crossover so it is sloping at all angles and looks like it won't hold much. Looks like a MDX or RDX, very curvy. The current Pilots have been criticized for looking too boxy but this is an over reaction. Opposite of what I need. I need a box on wheels.

I took my wife to look at the Pilot with the seats down and she feels I will never fit all my stuff in it, even if I remove seats. So the sales lady started pushing the Odyssey but when I found out it is front wheel drive only I bailed. I feel in our winters that is dangerous and I have been stuck in drifts because the rear wheels wouldn't push, so I need 4WD.
 
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