What's Your Most Successfully Recommended Car Purchase?

Even if they hardly ever listen, people always ask car geeks like you and I for purchasing advice. Sometimes they manage to avoid that $48,000 1-Series and follow our sage advice. What's your most successfully recommended car purchase?

Despite endlessly telling people to give up on that Chrysler Sebring for a Hyundai Sonata, pass on the 370Z for a Genesis Coupe or don't bother with a Mercedes C-Class, and get a VW CC instead, the car that I've recommended that the most people have ended up buying is far from being an enthusiast vehicle. Instead, I'm single-handedly responsible for selling at least a dozen Honda Pilots.

You'd be surprised who goes for it too. Families with young children, of course, they love the DVD players and the fuel economy. But empty nesters with a boat to tow too; they love the standard tow package, the excellent handling and the surprisingly capable off-road performance. People have given up Nissan Armadas and Cadillac Escalades to get one. I guess there's just something about recommending a car that's cheaper, more fuel efficient, better to drive, larger inside and more practical than everything else they're considering, even if it is woefully ugly.

What about you? What cars have you suggested people should buy that they've actually followed through on?

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