A small bit of Motor Trend SUV of the Year trivia for you: The Honda Pilot wasn’t just a finalist—it finished second. The Pilot impressed us with its high-tech features, spacious and easily accessible cabin with seating for eight, comfortable and quiet interior, and all-around versatility. When Honda offered a long-term tester, we didn’t think twice.
Its strong showing at SUV of the Year aside, a few months with the Pilot have revealed some weaknesses. Automakers routinely prep vehicles for high-profile events like our Of the Year awards. We must keep in mind that our testers have been screened prior to arrival. I’ve been thinking about this lately, as our Pilot, which is functionally identical to the one in SUV of the Year, has shown itself to be less impressive than that SUV.
The most noticeable difference is in the transmission. Shifts happen slower and less smoothly than with the nine-speed Elite I drove at SUV of the Year. Of particular annoyance is the transition from Reverse to Park, which takes long enough that Honda programmed a message to appear on the dash instructing you to keep your foot on the brake while the transmission ambles its way into Park.
The Pilot can feel really heavy at times, but when it does, Sport mode throttle mapping fixes it right up.
The Honda Sensing suite of driver assistance systems also performs below previous expectations. Rather than holding the relative center of the lane, it ping-pongs between the lane markings and must be constantly adjusted.
On the plus side, our Pilot has been as reliable as we’ve come to expect. So far, it’s gone in for one routine service as prompted by the onboard computer, which set us back $94.84. The dealer also performed a recall that involved a software update to the instrument cluster. We hadn’t noticed any problems, nor have we noticed any improvements, since.
All in all, our impressions of the Pilot to date are positive. We think it’s a really good SUV, and we’d still recommend it over several of its direct competitors. It’s just not quite the excellent SUV we thought it was.
More on our long-term 2016 Honda Pilot here:
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