Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

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  Major Transmission Issues - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By TGal - July 12 - 2:55 pm

  This is my third Honda Pilot and Im very disappointed in the quality when it comes to its performance. The transmission is all over the place! I noticed when the car is cold it has problems shifting gears for the first few minutes at various speeds. The freakiest thing is when youre driving downhill and hit your brakes the car lunges forward jerking everyone in the car. This can be reproduced almost every single time. Very noticeable lag time in acceleration between 20-40 miles an hour seems to try and find the correct gear. Called my Honda dealer and they say theyre unaware of these issues (of course) but said maybe they would have a software update that can fix it in the future. Thank God for the internet --glad to hear Im not the only one experiencing these same exact issues. Opening a report with Honda to submit my complaint and hopefully speed up the software update.

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  Poorly Engineered Driver Comfort - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By John cannella - June 5 - 9:19 pm

  If you like the comfort of sitting on an airliner in coach, you like driving this vehicle..The lumbar support is minimal. The leather seats are cheaply contoured and result in butt shifting/sliding on cornering. The center armrest is practically stuck to your rib and super thin so that I find my elbow constantly slipping off.. and Im thin.. If your a little chunky (like that annoying chubby guy often next to me on the plane) your arm/elbow will be swinging in the breeze. Honda in its infinite "wisdom" however gives you a nice wide center armrest in the backseat. And so if technology ever allows you to convert this vehicle to a driverless one , youll be quite comfortable in the back seat !!! Daaa!!.. what the hell is that about Honda "engineers"???.. Dont you guys ever drive these cars in prototype after those pin head engineers draw the pictures.. The steering is hair trigger and tends to wander on the highway.. When you buy a stepped up edition (like I did) youd expect a CD player to be standard...To my (stupid) surprise, not on this vehicle ! Thats extra and then only comes again in the 2nd row seat..???? The suspension sucks big big time.. Im a long time 4Runner owner and am used to a truck ride and so I certainly didnt expect a luxury car ride. However this vehicle takes bumps really really hard.. The truck (crossover?) is peppy but when driving stop and go in traffic it feels like its in a very low gear and I find myself checking to see if the lever is in fact in drive.. The 2nd row seat back portion folds forward with the push of a button. However thats when the work begins.. You then have to use a manual lever on the side of the chair and keep jacking and jacking it to get the seat to fold down to cargo level.. When the seats do finally fold down, theres a huge gap (hole) in the cargo area.. Whats that about Honda? The only positive thing I have to say about this vehicle is that I love the storage compartment in the far rear cargo area.. Overall I wouldnt classify this vehicle as a truck even though it rides like a cement truck..In fact its basically a bigger version of their CRV.. My advice if you want an SUV ..Look elsewhere... If I had it to do over I would have stuck with a 4Runner.

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  my review with short time of pilot - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By michael manfredo - May 8 - 5:59 am

  needs some noise reduce while driving when window are open

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  Not for a 64 plus height person - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Durham - February 15 - 4:58 pm

  We test drove an EX in July and went with the Touring model b/c of the features. Who would have known the seat belts were different from the EX to the Touring. I took the car into the dealership and they fixed what they could but I was told by American Honda the seat belts were mounted differently on these 2 models- so stupid!!! Youd think since you are paying more for a Touring it would have the better features in seat belts? WRONG! The passenger seat belt is 4 inches off from the drivers side, my husbands knees hit the dash on the drivers side but not the passengers side (yes the seat is all the way back), and the seat belt barely fits him (he is a bigger guy, broader shoulder guy) on the drivers side but every other seat belt in the vehicle, he can buckle just fine and not be "locked up". His brother is 66 and doesnt fit comfortably in the car either. We are already looking to trade it in within a year. Not the comfort we test drove in July.

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  Chronic problems with BlueTooth and Audio System - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By K Curtiss - January 20 - 10:40 am

  I purchased my Honda Pilot brand new in January. Within two weeks I started getting error messages on the audio system and the bluetooth system does not work regularly - frequently I get a message saying the the car can not find a phone to connect to - even though the BlueTooth on my phone is turned on and the phone is plugged into the car. I have spent 7 months trying to get Honda to fix this but they can not seem to figure it out - they have told me that many Pilot owners are experiencing the same issue but they do not yet have a solution. I purchased this car for the Hands Free Technology and since it is not working regularly I am in the process of asking Honda to refund my car.

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  2016 Touring Review- The Ugly, the Bad & the Good. - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Zman - November 1 - 1:33 am

  Hi, I had an older Mercury villager that still ran great but lacked the looks. Wife and kids wanted bling bling with Nav, DVD, AWD etc. We test drove the 2016 pilot. I drove an MDX a few times which is owned by a friend. That will be my benchmark. Well, The Honda Sensing package was the ONLY reason I was attracted to the 16 Pilot. The shape and other changes in 16 seemed frivolous to me. I wanted a SUV that works great & safe in Chicagos winters. I wanted to get the EX with sensing. Wife wanted leather (EXL), kids wanted the DVD, friends chimed in and we were looking at the Touring. A south side Chicago dealer quoted 2k below list on the phone. We drove 2 hours in traffic to get it. When we were ready to buy, he raised the price by $1799. When I asked he said there were some useless dealer added options (paint stripes and door molding..). I came home and complained to Honda USA Inc about the false advertisement. They said we hope you buy a Pilot from another dealer. That bothered me a bit that Honda Inc. didnt care about that dealer. The Touring MSRP is 43700. Chicago Tax of 10% and extended warranty put it closer to 50k. I still have a sticker remorse heartburn when I think of the price. This thing was hard to get. Lot of dealers added unnecessary options that bump the price higher and most were selling at the MSRP. A dealer nearby quoted 42k (1700 below list) and we decided to buy it. I came to know later that he made up some money on the overpriced ext warranty. Ahhh car dealers. I have been driving the touring now and these are my observations. THE UGLY: The things that I hate was that even Touring does not have blind spot monitoring and does not have parking sensors on the front bumper. Only on the rear bumpers. No blind spot monitoring on a 2016 SUV that people have to shell out close to 50K? You have to go to Elite for that. Come on Honda - Elite is your greedy option. They should have added the blind spot and the front bumper sensors on lower models. Even Subarus have blind spot detection. There is a camera on the passenger side mirror and not on the drivers side. In case it is counter intuitive to look at the right (console) while you want to go to the left lane, how come the MDX has cameras on both the sides? THE BAD: The steering wheel is light and I do not get a feeling that I am driving such a big SUV. Maybe I will get used to the steering. Navigation: I think google maps on the phone are much better, especially when you want to search. The remote start is disappointing. I have to park a bit away at my work and the range is not enough. There is no indicator on the remote to indicate if the car started or not. My old car has a 2 way remote start. Some times it remote starts and other times it wont. Honda saved $50 by making a 1 way remote start. Great Savings Honda;) Noise : We had a storm recently and it was windy. When I drove, the noise was very loud. Could have been better noise insulated. SNOW...ahh driving in snow. While moving the car from the parking spot, the rear parking sensors beeped. Maybe the bumper sensors think snow is an obstruction. The sensors beeped even when I wiped clean the sensors during snow. I was driving about 45 MPH on a highway during snow. There was no vehicle in front on me. Guess what? The auto brake mitigation was activated for a few seconds and the vehicle slowed down from 45 to about 30 MPH. I was able to push the gas and continue normally. It kinda bothered me that it incorrectly detected snow as an obstruction. What if it stops in the middle of the highway? Hope the ones behind you have good insurance. The sound is OK. They should have had a better sound system. FM radio isnt great. The leather seemed OK compared to the leather on the MDX. Mats - Cant they use weathertech like mats? Lane watch - It has its own mind when there is snow on the roads or if the roads are dirty (winter). I guess the lines are not clear enough for the camera. Warranty: For the price they should have at-least 4 year warranty like some other brands. There are too many electronics and you will be forced to purchase extended warranty. The good: Spacious, enough space in the 3rd row. AWD is good. Drives good. Looks good. Handles well. USB!!! Blue Ray DVD player. My wife thinks it is easy to drive even though it is big. The cameras help. Honda Sensing features are very useful. Bluetooth is good. Phone integration is good and fast. 2 drivers seat settings. auto lights. Fog lights. LEDs. Good family car. Mileage is decent. Regular gas. Heated seats. Lot of options on the steering wheel. Keyless start......and more Load it up and go places!

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  We like the Vehicle, infotainment not so much... - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Carguy - September 26 - 6:57 pm

  2016 EX-L AWD and the vehicle itself has been great overall. Mileage is good, power is good, interior cargo room is great. With that said they should have just not put a radio/infotainment system in at all and saved me some money. The EX-L has the middle of the road option for sound system for the Pilot, and if you were to put it into a stage coach it would be an insult to the stage coach rather than an upgrade. They focused so much on the form (look and cleanliness of Dash) that they forgot about the function. Having no volume knob is flat out annoying, but just when you think you can get used to that the system shows how slow it is. Then you have the actual functional/quality control problems. 1) FM radio signal fades in and out at random while the car is moving (in areas with strong signals, and verified with other vehicles). 2) The subwoofer is pretty much useless to non-existent, and attempting to change the signal level on the settings page does absolutely nothing (full minus setting to full plus plus). 3) Dumb stuff like giving you the option to move the clock to different corners of the 8 inch screen, yet when an option is selected nothing happens, our clock is and has always been on the top right side of the screen despite trying every option that is given with no response. Car has been to the dealer, and it resolved nothing other than documenting the problem. Contacted American Honda Customer Service, they just gave the number for tech support and didnt really seem interested in helping. Contacted Tech support and they stated all they could do at this time was document my concerns. I wish I was the only one having these issues but a quick internet search will reveal many are experiencing the FM fade and Subwoofer issues. My advice for anyone looking to purchase this vehicle is to do an extremely thorough test of the infotainment system and make sure it is performing to your liking before purchase. In my opinion it behaves and functions nothing at all like you would expect for a vehicle with a $40,000 price tag. Update 8/23/16: Pilot has been back to dealer several times and the tuner has been replaced twice per a Honda TSB. This seems to have resolved the FM fade for the most part, but reception sound quality is absolutely terrible with stations on the lower end of the spectrum sounding muffled and the higher end frequencies only having treble. Dealer Service Manager agreed the system sounds atrocious, but they dont know what to do as a pilot we tested on the dealer lot had the same symptoms. Subwoofer control still seems to have no response, and the clock doesnt respond to options selected. Infotainment system is pure garbage.

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  DO NOT BUY THIS CAR WITH THE 9 SPEED TRANSMISSION! - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Teri - September 5 - 5:56 am

  We traded in our 2011 Honda Pilot, and went for the top of the line this time. While the interior and amenities are very nice, they dont make up for the problems with the transmission. Two months after purchasing the car we noticed a whining sound while accelerating. Took them 2 months and me being very insistent on getting a fix, which was a new wiring harness. Recently the vehicle started having transmission problems, similar to other reviews. Transmission was glitchy, lurching, missing gears, this was most notable when climbing a hill. The vehicle then started with some sort of belt squeaking noise, engine then started overheating while idling. Back to Honda Service...."somehow" transmission fluid had gotten into the radiator, and the Honda service verified the transmission problem, the fix replacing the entire transmission. Found out at the Honda Service desk that they had to replace a transmission on another Elite just a few weeks before mine. After doing extensive research on this 9 speed transmission, it seems this transmission is not reliable. I too like other Elite owners, am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED WITH HONDA. Why would they put this transmission in their most expensive vehicle? I have called American Honda to open a case, with the hopes of getting out of this car and into a Pilot EX-L with the tried and true 6 speed transmission. Of course the dealer with "let" me trade my car in and accomplish this, and then I can loose twelve grand. SHAME ON YOU HONDA!!!

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  Our first Honda disappointment and likely my last - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Rjsale1 - June 25 - 3:23 am

  Dont think for a minute that all that glitz in the showroom means you are getting a highly engineered and tested product. I have owned Honda products since the mid 70s (cars, motorcycles, mowers, snow blowers, small engines) and had high hopes for their new flagship design. The good: mileage better than expected, solid feel, easy and accurate steering, road noise overall low. The bad: soft brake pedal when stopping. It reduces pressure itself and will physically move down away from your foot. Dealer says nothing wrong, (known issue with this vehicle) but they will tell you this is likely the yaw control activating. Have determined that it seems to be slaved into the transmission when it decides to downshift it reduces braking assist which is very unnerving. The radio cuts out sometimes and gives a warning that the "clarionextraframenetwork has stopped working". Apparently this is telling me that it has dropped the Bluetooth connection to my phone. Trying to use the hands free voice dialing system is infuriating sometimes. Its so unreliable that I mostly use Siri voice dialing on my Iphone. Honda dealer has advised the fix is to replace the radio. Honda corporate advises that there is no projected date for the replacement so I am stuck with a $42,000 car that doesnt have a fully functioning radio. Transmission now slamming into lower gear at around 40mph. Honda corporate asks for surveys and then doesnt respond to issues. Last lease was a Ford Edge with absolutely zero issues in 70,000 miles. Left Ford because of poor dealer service. Guess what I am thinking now?

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  Its OK. Some good. Some bad. - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By KidHorn - May 18 - 12:10 am

  Ive had my Pilot since March 2016. It replaced a Mazda CX-9 that was hit from the side by a red light runner who totaled it. I wanted to get another CX-9, but no one had any in stock locally and I needed a replacement car immediately, I didnt feel paying an extra $5k for the EX was worth it, so I got an LX. I basically needed AC/heat, power windows, bluetooth for the phone, and a backup camera. Everything else was useless to me. Paid $34k cash bottom line. I needed an 8 seater since I have 3 kids and they have friends who need rides too. I looked at the Traverse, Highlander, etc... . Theyre all kind of the same. Got the Honda mainly based on reputation. Its an OK vehicle. Gets me from point A to B safely and comfortably. I dont like it as much as my CX-9 though for a few reasons. It doesnt accelerate as well as the CX-9. It doesnt coast well. It downshifts quickly and I find myself having to give it gas when coasting to a red light since it goes from 35 to 20 in 5 seconds on a flat road due to unneeded down shifting. My CX-9 was better at sensing it didnt need HP so it stayed in a higher gear. it also has an issue with the break pedal that others have mentioned. If you stop, after a while, the break pedal will go down like its losing air. I always fear that if the red light stays red too long, I might hit bottom and not be able to stop. Not sure if it would ever actually happen. Its not a bad car. Im just not overly impressed at this point in time.