Overview & Reviews

Since its launch for the 2003 model year, the Honda Pilot has helped shape the market for crossover SUVs with three rows of seating. Offering V6 power, respectable fuel economy, a comfortable ride, plenty of interior space and seven-to-eight-passenger seating, the Pilot is exactly the kind of vehicle that appeals to growing families who are leery of traditional minivans. Other crossover SUVs might be sportier to drive or more stylish on the inside, but Honda's three-row crossover appeals to your practical side and packs in a lot of functionality.

Choosing a Pilot is straightforward, as Honda packages equipment in a few basic trim levels rather than offering countless options. Regardless of the year, all Honda Pilots give you three useful rows of seating and lots of storage slots, though early models are smaller and aren't quite as accommodating for teenagers in the third row. Cargo capacity has also increased over the years.

User Reviews:

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  Not ready for Prime Time... - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Thedogpack - April 10 - 3:44 am

  Wait another year until they figure out the quirks. There are some serious issues with the 9 speed transmission as well as a creaking issue the car has been back to the dealer for twice. I wanted so much to love this SUV but unfortunately there are some serious issues with the vehicle -Honda Engineering know about the creaking -The transmission accelerates when you are slowing (What the heck?) - Technology (radio) is very buggy - We have the Tech package. -Poor design when third row is folded - there is a big gap that makes loading difficult - No third row floor mat? Really, even on the touring? I paid 40K plus for a vehicle and I am treated as if I just walked off the street. I should have purchased the Infiniti! Buyers Remorse

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  2016 Pilot speedsUPwhen Stopping at intersections - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By John Barns - October 16 - 7:40 am

  I bought this 2016 Honda Pilot with around 100 miles on it. Almost after day one when you go to four way stop with foot off gas on on break it will take you into the intersection. This has happened too many times. The dealer would not comment on emails until I lowered their rating on dearerrater.com I took to a. Different dealer to check out three times. The touch screen radio also locks up. Tech said radio, breaks and gas to engine are all controlled by computer. It is thought to be throttle body censor and computer. I called American Honda customer sevice and they said checking into it. Reported to federal government safety agency, attorney general. Many with same issue online. This dealer may have too much knowable about auto before selling + not disclose anything.

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  First and last Honda - 2017 Honda Pilot
  By Channing - August 13 - 11:36 am

  It is apparent that Honda is living in the shadow of their reputation from the 90s and 2000s. We just purchased a fully loaded EX-L because of the bad reviews of the touring and elite having the 9 speed transmission. The suv had only 8 thousand miles, and was purchased from a very reputable dealer. After driving it for a few days, my wife noticed moisture in the front passenger floorboard. When I checked out the vehicle, the entire floorboard (All 4 doors)was completely saturated with water. The next thing we noticed was that the front passenger seatbelt was covered with mold. We took the vehicle to the Honda dealer to get it fixed. I called the service department after 24 hours to see what was going on. The service advisor said it was ready to go. I said wait, what was the issue? He said someone must have hit the button on the remote and made the windows go down in the rain. I told him that was impossible, because we would have seen water on the seats, door panels, and everywhere else. So they kept the car for a few more days and said they found some seepage on the top rail molding and put some filler in it. He said it was finished and ready to go. I said what about the mold on the seatbelt? He said they cleaned it off, and they would not replace it. I said I was in the mold remediation business for many years, and you cannot just clean mold from porous surfaces. So he said he would talk to his boss. I got a call later from the advisor saying he has never lied to his customers and he wasnt going to start. He said they found a significant amount of water inside the seatbelt retractor.and they were getting an engineer to take the vehicle to a rain machine to do tests, and he didnt know when we would get it back. So a few more days later they found some bad welds or seams under the vehicle, and said they repaired it and ordered new carpet. I ask what about the moldy seatbelt. They refused to replace the seatbelt, so I let him know that we were not going to take the vehicle back. We have a baby, and she would not be riding in a vehicle that we paid $35k for, and has mold and bad welds. We decided to try out a touring pilot since there were no others to choose from. As soon as we checked the carpet on the 2017 touring, it was soaked on the passenger side. That was the end of Honda for us. We traded for a 2017 Toyota Highlander and are very happy we are through with Hondas.

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  Dollar value comparison - 2005 Honda Pilot
  By rod - June 19 - 11:23 pm

  Having had a RX300 in the family, that we love we think this is still the best combination of interior space..overall design..price on the market....

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  Transmission getting replaced as I type on touring - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Amanda P - May 19 - 2:57 am

  I heard a chirping sound in my car the last 2 weeks & made an appointment at the dealership. They didnt know what it was, but thought it could be the transmission. They put me in a rental car & called today to tell me that they have to order a whole new transmission for the car!!! I just bought the car in October & this is such a disappointment! Do not recommend!

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  Honda Pilot from Hell - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Larry Simms - February 21 - 9:31 pm

  The Honda from hell. Bought a 2016 Honda Pilot Touring. Picked up my new SUV from Morristown Honda and took it on a road trip the next day. It failed me three times on a road trip with computer issues to So Fla. The power steering wouldnt work along with other issues on the dash board. Needless to say, It was left at the dealership in South Fla the following morning. After 12 days left the vehicle in So Fla. Its now day 25 without my new vehicle. Have requested another vehicle since it never worked safely the day after purchase. Honda Motors and Morristown Honda have only just given me lip service on that issue. They plan to ship it to me when repaired. Today I heard from the service department of the So Fla dealership and informed me the part has come in and if the SURGERY goes well I will get a call back. Never happened. Shame on Honda Motors for not stepping up to the plate and get me a replacement Pilot.

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  Death Trap - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By RD - February 10 - 2:50 am

  We bought the 2016 Pilot Elite in December since we were expecting twins in July. Due to owing previous Hondas in the past we though this was the route to go. Long story short, my wife was 9 months PREGNANT and pulling the Pilot into the driveway when it lurched forward, avoiding the other car in the driveway she went down our front lawn hitting a curb resulting in all side airbags to deploy. She was rushed to the hospital for testing, luckily nothing happened to the babies but $11k in damage. When we called HONDA to explain, there response was why didnt you have it towed to the HONDA dealership instead of the body shop. We got a case open with a lady named Marion, who is a complete IDIOT, finally after arguing with her for an hour she sent a rep to the dealership near me and he too k it for a test drive with me and driving it himself saw that the car tends to lurch forward, came back to dealership and ran a diagnostics and showed me that there is an computer malfunction that they need to reprogram it, after 4 attempts realized the unit is bad and need to be replaced and as I am leaving tells me "oh we got it to work". Back to American Honda, the rep Marion calls and says we didnt find anything that was wrong from the report that we received other then a software update. I requested a copy of the error code they found at HONDA and the local HONDA rep kept avoiding the question. If anyone has had a similar issue with there new 2016 Pilot, please post so we can build up a case against HONDA, before someone seriously gets hurt in these SUVs. American HONDA refuses to acknowledge these problems until enough people come forward with it.

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  2016 Honda pilot Elite - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Martin M. - January 6 - 8:58 am

  I would not recommend for anyone else to buy a $50k+ SUV or car that is an electrical hot mess. the radio, navigation and entertainment system do not work properly even after an update was done by the dealer recently; its 9 speed transmission makes noises when changing gears specially at around 27 to 30 MPH; it also some times while driving down hill with your foot on brake wants to accelerate rather than slow down... (not sure if it just another electrical problem and the dealer told me they are not sure is the noise is coming from the transmission) the dealer has not been able to find out what the problem is after 2 days and over 150 miles of test driving it; now they have a field engineer from American Honda coming to take a look at it.

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  Worst car Ive ever owned - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Kimberly Moore - July 2 - 12:21 am

  I drove around a CRV and loved it which was why I didnt spend much time researching when I traded in my 2015 GMC Crew Cab for the 2016 Pilot (I put a ton of miles on my vehicles so I trade them in before I hit 30k) I miss that truck dearly loved loved it!!! ... Anyway the first major problem I cant handle is the blue tooth ... It is terrible!!! I cant hold a conversation with anyone because they cant hear me and vise versa. According to them there is a ton of background noise I either have to pull over or take them off Bluetooth. 2nd the stereo is sub standard. My 2013 Kia Sportage was superior to this stereo system and that car was half this price. 3rd) the touch screen is VERY sensitive and Im always pressing too close to another option and it goes to something else (hard to explain) but I NEVER had any problem with my GMc touch screen. It also just seems too busy oh and fingerprints are a terrible issue!! In the gleam of the light sometimes I cant even see behind them (and I clean it all the time.. Because I have to 😉) Also, the third row isnt easy to put down and up. The system seems antiquated and cumbersome. THIS VEHICLE IS VERY SLOW. Even when I take the Econ option off its very slow. It drives like a van and you sit like your in a van (Ive driven a Nissan Quest and it was more fun than driving this) so if you have back problems I advise you truly test it out for awhile. If I drive it for over an hour my psyatic nerve starts to bother me. Im 57" and weigh 135. also, its not as quiet of a ride as I expected. My truck was quieter and so was my Kia. Honestly the only thing about it thats a plus is the gas mileage. I average 22.4mpg. But thats the only plus and over everything else I would pay the gas difference in a heart beat to drive an expedition again. (Ive driven them too) I hope this helps, everyone is different but Ive heard that there have been a lot of bad reviews of this vehicle and Im sure Honda will iron them out for the next years model or at least I hope so!! I will be trading this one in asap and its to the point I dont care how much money I loose in doing so. 😢 I also advise against the grey leather... My jeans stain it and Im having to clean the leather every weak Bc it shows wear very quickly.

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  Broken off the lot and in the shop for a month - 2016 Honda Pilot
  By Michael King - June 10 - 10:35 am

  Frustrating is the only word I can use to describe my experience with my brand new 2016 Honda Pilot. I don’t know if it was a freak occurrence or maybe I’m just unlucky, but I drove my Pilot off the lot and about 10 miles later the Touch Screen Infotainment system just stopped working. I was ok with that honestly, things break, car manufacturing isnt a perfect process. However the thing that is unforgivable and what warrants a 1 star review for my brand new car is the face that getting Honda to repair it has been an absolute clown show. I’ve owned the car for 25 days and I’ve only had the car to drive for 5 days because the last 17 days the car has been in the shop. So here follow my timeline and make your own decision about whether or not buying a new Honda Pilot is right for you. Day 1: I bought the car and drove it away. The sales process was clean and efficient. I drove 10 miles home and on the way my infotainment touch screen started fading to black. Day 2: Driving the car around town the infotainment screen just stopped functioning entirely. Just a black screen that would show lines. Made an appointment to get the car in the shop the next day. Day 3: After staying at the dealership for 3 hours Honda told me their computers found nothing wrong, and that I should leave the car there and take a loaner while they called Honda Tech support to figure out the issue. This wasn’t immediately possible as I was planning an out of state trip that weekend so I said I would bring it right back on Monday. Day 7: After driving the car all weekend the infotainment system never worked once. It’s a blessing that I could control the radio was from the buttons on the steering wheel. I took the car into the dealership, and drove away with my loaner. All in all I had put about 780 miles on the car (150 miles of which was driving it back and forth to the dealership) They told me they hope to have it fixed in “a few days”. Great. Day 10: Haven’t heard back from the dealership so I give them a call. The tech line said they should just replace the entire infotainment system, it’s on order and they should have the part some time this week. They hope to get me the car in “a few days”. Great. Day 14: The part didn’t come over the weekend. We’re investigating why the part order didn’t go through. We’ll get this cleared up and get the car back to you as soon as we can. At this point Honda has had my car longer than I have. We’re starting to get really upset so we call Honda of America Corporate to see whats the problem. They said the dealership should figure it out and there is nothing they could do about it. They gave us a case number incase there was a problem. Day 16: We’ve ordered the part but it’s on hold. They won’t release it to us yet. At this point we’re wondering if the part even exists. This is where we start pulling our hair out from frustration. Day 17: I get a call from manager for my region at Honda Corporate. He seems just as upset as I am at how this has been handled and assures me that he understands my frustration. He say’s he’ll talk to my dealerships service manager and get the part shipping expedited. He says he’s going to investigate and crack skulls and call me the following Monday Day 21. Day 22: The regional manager from Honda of America calls me back and tells me the part still hasn’t been ordered. That he’ll call me back with an update later this week. This is today. At this point all I feel is silent rage. The car was fun to drive, the features were amazing but how can I feel excited at this point. My brand new car that I paid for now just feels like its a refurbished lemon. We’ve been given nothing but the run around by Honda and NOTHING has been done. THEY HAVEN’T EVEN ORDERED A REPLACEMENT PART SUCCESSFULLY. I’m exhausted. This was the first new car I’ve ever purchased. It’s been in the shop for 17 days and at this point I hope they keep the car in the shop another 10 days so they will be forced to replace or buy it back via the lemon law. It’s just been a customer service catastrophy so buyer beware and pray if your Pilot breaks that the replacement part actually exists.