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The mid-life refresh of the Honda Pilot is a wake-up call to others selling midsize, three-row SUVs. Honda has doubled down on standard safe offerings, with Honda Sensing included on every trim line and blind spot detection effectively standard. The cabin has been gussied up with a new instrument console and some improvements to infotainment. Honda likewise wants y'all to know this is an SUV, not a minivan, so it toughened the exterior wait somewhat. You can traverse uneven clay roads and rocky paths, a feature the Airplane pilot already had simply Honda hadn't emphasized. If you opt for all-wheel-drive, y'all can tow v,000 pounds.

The but silliness with this dazzling SUV is the high-end Honda Elite, or what's exclusive to the trim line. Honda pimped the Elite with a standard Blu-ray role player and rear entertainment system (remember when that mattered?) and made Elite the just Pilot trim line allowed to provide Qi wireless charging. These frills bring the Elite to your dealer at $49,000-plus, or three grand more than the starting point for an all-bicycle-drive Acura MDX. Thankfully, Honda chose to implement existent blind spot detection, and non the offbeat LaneWatch right-side camera, for tracking the vehicle's side blind zones. Add together up the Pilot'south pros (lots) and cons, and you take the mainstream midsize SUV to vanquish heading into 2022.

For the refresh of the third-generation Pilot, Honda kept the 280-hp V6. There'south a six-speed automatic transmission standard. The nine-speed in the peak trim lines, Touring and Elite, was tweaked to be more than responsive; it starts in second gear for smoother stoplight departures. Inside, the Airplane pilot's musical instrument panel clones the look of the Honda Odyssey. All but the entry model become CabinControl, a telephone app to let those in the second and third rows command sound, HVAC, and the rear entertainment system if then equipped. Pilots with the latter as well get CabinTalk, a front-seat-to-dorsum-rows intercom organization that pauses the infotainment while mom or dad tells the kids to comport. I would buy a Pilot in an instant if the push button were labeled STFU.

Most of all, every 2022 Pilot gets Honda Sensing, the safety suite comprising full-range adaptive cruise control, lane keep assistance, road departure mitigation, forrad collision warning, automated emergency braking, and collision mitigation braking. Honda'due south blind spot detection system lives exterior the Honda Sensing suite, only no matter: It'southward on all but the toll-witting Pilot LX that exists to have an advertised price under $33,000 ($32,445) and is but 3 percentage of sales, Honda says. The range-topping Elite comes in at $49,105. In brusk: Whether y'all're buying, or recommending to a friend, you know that if you go to a Honda dealer, odds are 97:3 that your chosen Pilot has every last bit of rubber Honda makes available.

Honda Pilot climbing a man-made loma. Honda's off-route exam rail also had a bed of rocks, a steeply banked dirt curve, undulating bumps that could get one or two wheels in the air, and a dusty, high-speed sweeping turn. The new Airplane pilot handled all of them.

Off-Roading? Got That, Too

2009-2015 Honda Pilot.

The second-generation Pilot looked like a brick, albeit a rugged one. The third-generation is solid, too, simply "rugged" was something that didn't stick in the minds of buyers, or and then Honda claims. The test drive included an off-road course carved into Epona Estates, a manicured Southern California vineyard. It included a hill climb, steeply banked U-plough, undulating tracks that got ane or (briefly) two wheels in the air, a rock crawl, and a loftier-speed, duststorm-inducing plow. This was not Jeep Rubicon levels of off-roading, only information technology'south well beyond gravel-road-to-ski-chalet off-roading that any all-cycle-drive auto could negotiate. A console button shifts Pilot among normal driving, snowfall, sand and the like. On the colina climb (photo above), the olfactory organ blocks frontward vision. You lot'll wish the Pilot had a olfactory organ camera for hills, or ameliorate 360-degree surround video, simply all that'southward available is the rear photographic camera now mandated in the US. Lack of surroundings vision on the Pilot volition be a selling indicate for when Nissan tries to shift you to the crumbling Pathfinder.

The Pilot likewise employs mechanical torque vectoring, or intelligent Variable Torque Management (i-VTM), substantially what Acura provides every bit Super Handling-All Bike Drive (SH-AWD). i-TVM and SH-AWD overdrive the outside wheel around slippery or snowy turns, or whenever it needs additional traction. Honda-Acura torque vectoring is heavier, costlier, and preferable in tough going compared with electronic torque vectoring, which brakes the inside rear bicycle and speeds up the outside wheel.

2019 Honda Pilot Display Audio has an 8-inch screen and supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Infotainment Gets Meliorate, Telematics Available

Display Audio's lone concrete knob or button: the volume control.

Anyone who cites the 2022 Honda Brandish Audio every bit improved should practice so with a "but." Display Audio took Honda cars into the era of larger color LCDs with fewer buttons/knobs, plus Apple CarPlay, Android Machine and the like. The second-generation Pilot center stack had almost l buttons and knobs. In its sleekest instantiation on the third-generation Pilot, 2022-2018, the display's buttons, volume knob, tuning knob, and command wheel morphed into touchable points on the 8-inch glass console. Owners rebelled. Honda restored some of the physical features with the 2022 mid-life refresh…but it's the volume knob only. Information technology'due south a start. I don't like it, personally, but it's workable once you lot spend time making voice commands work.

Ignoring the entry 60, with its pocket-size color display and unmarried USB jack that won't handle Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, the more desirable trim lines — EX, EX-L (projected to be half of sales), Touring, and Elite — all have an viii-inch brandish, Hd Radio, support for Android Car and Apple CarPlay, three USB jacks, and CabinControl. The EX-50 tin can be had with or without the $2,000 combo pack of navigation and DVD-based rear-seat entertainment (plus CabinTalk). The Blu-ray player is in the front middle stack, where mom and dad can oversee amusement for the very immature. That makes the EX-50 sans nav/RES the go-to auto for virtually buyers at $40,655 (with freight) for all-wheel-bulldoze, $1,900 less for front end-drive. With Apple allowing Google Maps and Waze into the CarPlay ecosystem, there's less reason to pay for onboard nav unless it'south dirt cheap (under $250).

The college trims, Touring and Elite, integrate RES and nav and put ii more charge-but USB jacks in the dorsum seat. You can't take just navigation. You lot also become premium audio with 10-speaker sound (as opposed to seven), OnStar-like HondaLink telematics, and onboard Wi-Fi (a offset for the Pilot). There is also wireless (Qi) charging on the Aristocracy.

The i safety feature of notation offered but on upper trim line is parking sonar, standard on Touring and Elite. Really, it'due south less safety, more parking-damage-avoidance feature.

2019 Honda Pilot cockpit looks and feels good. It volition have some people wondering what they gain by going to an Audi, BMW, Lexus or Mercedes.

Other Pilot Improvements for 2022

With seating for seven or eight, the Airplane pilot is an splendid family and youth-sports ("soccer mom") hauler. The Honda Odyssey would exist better, but many people still shy abroad from even the best minivans in favor of SUVs. From the Odyssey (new a yr agone), the Pilot uses the aforementioned or similar steering cycle, instrument panel, CabinControl, and CabinTalk. The Pilot is quieter and smoother with a better-furnished interior than the previous Airplane pilot. Some may feel Honda gave up likewise much of the visitor'south sporty feel with the refresh so it is now the contrary of the indigestible 20229-2015 Pilot.

You'll get nigh 22 mpg in overall driving. The EPA rates that diverse Pilots — front- or all-wheel-bulldoze, half dozen- or nine-speed automatic — at xviii-20 mpg city, 26-27 mpg highway, 21-23 mpg combined. The ix-speed has a push- and pull-button shifter that takes some getting used to; it is not, equally some consumer magazines merits, infuriating. Just learn to employ it.

The first ii rows are good for adults. On the EX-L, Touring, and Elite, seats are leather, the second-row gets side-window sunshades, and a unmarried push button provides third-row access, folding the seatback and sliding the seat forward.

The Airplane pilot cargo chapters ranges from 16 cubic feet (all sets occupied) to 84 foursquare anxiety (2d, third-row seats folded downward).

Should You Purchase the 2022 Pilot?

The 2022 Honda Pilot is improve in 1 significant and many small means from its predecessor. The big thing is that all the safety a heir-apparent could want is on substantially every Pilot you'll look at: adaptive prowl control, lane keep assist, forrard standoff warning, automatic emergency braking (city and highway both), bullheaded spot detection, and rear cantankerous-traffic alarm.

Most buyers will opt for the EX-L, $39,660 for all-wheel-drive, $1,900 less without. Our recommendation is to take it without navigation because that is coupled with rear seat entertainment, mostly of interest to families with kids 5 and under. You'll exist tempted by the Touring (25 percent of sales) because of telematics, LED high beams (all pilots take LED low beams and running lights), the nine-speed automatic, premium audio, parking sonar, and a easily-free tailgate. But the Touring runs $ii,760 more than than the EX-50 with navigation/RES and $4,760 more than than EX-L without navigation/RES. A vii-passenger version with captain'south chairs is but $300 additional.

The Elite (nearly 10 percent of sales) has a dual-pane sunroof and extra ambient lighting to assistance explain the $iii,300 bump over the nearly like Touring. AWD and captain'southward chairs are standard. It's the only Pilot with Qi wireless phone charging, as stated above, plus power-folding side mirrors, a heated steering bicycle, rain-sensing wipers, and ventilated front end seats. About of those features — Qi, heated steering bicycle, rain-sensing wipers certainly — seem as if they belong on the EX-L and Touring as well.

Other midsize SUVs to consider include the Toyota Highlander, an aging and reasonable choice for stolid transportation with a dainty hybrid variant that is well-nigh a year from a new generation; the Kia Sorento (new model for 2022); the Hyundai Santa Atomic number 26 (new model for 2022); the Nissan Pathfinder; the Volkswagen Atlas; the Subaru Rise; and a pair of two-row midsize SUVs, the Ford Edge and Nissan Murano. The three-row Ford Explorer is technically a midsize, but information technology feels similar a large midsize even if it'due south barely an inch longer than Honda's 196.5 inches. If you value quietness, as well look at the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, and GMC Acadia.

The 2022 Pilot is a solid SUV, nicely improved halfway through the current generation. It rides and handles well. Some may wish it felt sportier on the road. Information technology has splendid cargo and towing chapters, and handles some off-roading. Spend time with the infotainment earlier y'all purchase to make certain information technology'southward workable for y'all. With its upscale interior, the higher-end Pilots are starting to exist competitive with the likes of the BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLE, and — uh-oh — the Acura MDX, which gets a new version shortly.

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