<p>I’m still driving my '04 Pilot, which I got after two minivans.</p>
<p>Pattyrick, I hate for it to seem like I’m piling on, but I can’t agree with your recommendation, either. Sorry.</p>
<p>I like my Pilot. I make my kids drive it because I think it’s impractical for them to be completely uncomfortable driving a vehicle that size. But I would never pick it for a new driver.</p>
<p>The visibility out the front is very good–if you’re tall enough, or you can raise the seat high enough. But the visibility out the back? Not so much. You just can’t see as well out the back of your car when the back window is as high off the ground as it is in a minivan or an SUV. Things far behind you, you can see, but not things that are close behind you and near to the ground–where a child, a pet or a tricycle could be. I’ve been driving this car since October 2003, and I’ve been driving since 1980, but I’m still nervous backing up in a school parking lot. The rear view from my Pilot and my vans is unquestionably worse that the rear view from the Subaru station wagon or the sedans I had before that.</p>
<p>And the center of gravity simply is higher. I had one scary event, a few years ago, in my Pilot. I swerved at highway speeds to avoid an obstacle (that I admit I should have noticed sooner), and the way my car swayed really frightened me. And I’m almost never afraid in my own car.</p>
<p>Additionally, I’d never deliberately choose a car with this powerful an engine for a new driver.</p>
<p>All this having been said, we probably will hand my wife’s CR-V down to the kids some day. It has some of the same defects as the Pilot, IMO, but we already own it, and we know it’s been properly maintained. Compared to the Pilot, it has the advantages of being somewhat more maneuverable, significantly easier to park, and appropriately powered. But I wouldn’t choose a CR-V either if I were starting from scratch.</p>