Review: 2024 Honda Pilot

An all-new Pilot has arrived!

Review and photos by Tom Sedens. There are always more photos at the end of my reviews.

Pricing: 2024 Honda Pilot

Base price (TrailSport trim): $58,450

Options: $300 Diffused Sky Pearl paint

Freight: $2,126

A/C tax: $100

Price as tested: $60,976

From commuting to carpooling, from weekend getaways to road trips, Honda’s Pilot has always been able to do it all in style. The all-new version continues that trend, offering up a good-looking mid-size SUV that can handle everything you throw at it.

Exterior

Although the sheet metal is all new, the new Pilot isn’t breaking any ground in terms of styling. It’s a clean and straight-forward design which won’t get a lot of second looks – although this one’s paint colour did! – but it will age very gracefully in my opinion. It’s boxier and more utilitarian looking than before and I’m going to say it – I am getting a few hints of Toyota 4Runner here – which isn’t a bad thing.

All exterior lighting is LED – it works effectively and looks great!

My review vehicle’s TrailSport trim is purely aesthetic, adding nothing in terms of actual performance on or off the road. The sleek black grille looks fantastic. They are shod with beefier 265/60-sized rubber and you get a full-size spare unlike the mini donuts in the other trims. Mirrors and door handles get gloss black finishes too.

I really like the TrailSport-specific 18″ Shark Grey aluminum wheels – they really complete the aesthetic package.

Interior/Tech/Convenience

Stepping up into the Pilot’s cabin, you will find a clean, modern styling exercise, if not particularly inspired. Ergonomically everything works nicely. The materials are OK, but not world-class. The upholstered panel on the dash is nice, but there’s a surprising amount of hard plastic throughout as well – the nice thing is that it will be easy to clean.

In front of you is a fantastic heated steering wheel – it feels great in the hands – Honda just gets steering wheels right all the time. Behind it is a hybrid dash comprised of some digital space and some analog gauges as well.

The seats are clad with leatherette specific to the TrailSport trim, with bespoke copper-coloured stitching that includes the TrailSport emblem on the seats and continues from the seats to the door panels all the way through the vehicle. I’d prefer real leather, but these will be easy to clean.

Centered in the dash is a 9-inch touchscreen featuring Honda’s latest user interface – it looks great and works very well. Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available and the 9-speaker sound system sounds lovely.

There’s a panoramic sunroof with powered sunshade overhead.

The Pilot includes a wealth of driver assistance technology including adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and lane keeping assist, traffic sign recognition, forward collision warning and collision mitigation systems, road departure mitigation, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera with a washer.

Second and Third Row Seats

This is a 7-seat configuration, so the second row is made up of two captains chairs. They’re very comfortable, allowing for reclining and they slide fore and aft as well. The seats have plenty of headroom, are heated and have adjustable armrests.

Second row passengers get a climate control panel and side sunshades, a 110V household plug and two USB-A plugs. Between the seats is a hard plastic shallow storage tray, and of course you can squeeze between them to get to the back. I loved the pockets on the back of the front seats, specifically the cell phone slots.

Ideally, accessing the third row is done by pressing buttons on the back or side of the second row seats, which tilts and slides them out of the way. It’s not too painful to get into the third row as an adult, and once you’re in, the two outboard seats are workable for adult passengers – there’s a third seat back there too, but it would be for emergency use cases. Although the seats are quite low to the floor, the second row can be moved up enough that there is adequate leg and foot room in the third row. Each side gets two cupholders and adjustable air vents.

If you’re transporting little ones, you’ll find one set of anchors in the third row, as well as two sets in the second row, allowing for a total of three child seats.

Storage

You’ll find USB-A and USB-C plugs on the centre stack – below that (at the front of the centre console) is a large rubberized open storage area with a wireless charging mat.

There’s also a large rubberized storage bin under the armrest lid and a hard plastic slot in the centre stack which I find nearly useless since anything you put in there will easily slide out while driving. Lastly, there is a rubberized storage cubby in front of the passenger.

Popping open the power tailgate reveals a large-ish 618L trunk. Tie down anchors, a 12V power port and underfloor storage make it very usable. The third row splits 60/40 and folds flat to bump this up to 1685L.

If you want to go crazy and fold down the second row as well, you’ll be rewarded with a cavernous 3219L space.

The TrailSport’s trunk capacities are slightly reduced compared to the other trims.

Under the Hood

The venerable 3.5L V6 powers the Pilot, putting out 285 HP and 262 lb.ft of torque. Mated to a 10-speed automatic and a variable torque-management all-wheel drive system, the Pilot is rated at 13/10.3 L/100 km (city/highway).

The Drive

As one would expect from this tried and true powerplant, acceleration is fantastic. It takes off smoothly and feels like it has plenty of power in every driving situation.

The Pilot gets Honda’s push-button gear selector, which I don’t love, but you get used to it quickly. I found the transmission to be excellent – it feels like it is almost always in the right gear and shifts smoothly. If it’s your kind of thing, you can shift manually using paddles.

Drivers can choose from numerous drive modes – Normal, Econ, Snow, Sport, Tow, Trail and Sand.

The ride, while firm, is excellent in handling any road imperfections. I didn’t do any major off-roading, but I did hit a few very minor trails and the suspension soaked those bumps up nicely. Handling is fine, although there is plenty of body roll around corners – more than I expected, to be honest. The all-wheel drive system is outstanding – it’s invisible during normal driving, and kicked in nicely on wet and sandy surfaces.

If you’re planning on heading off the beaten path, as I noted earlier, there really isn’t much difference between the regular trims and this TrailSport when it comes to performance. As a matter of fact, while this trim has a slightly better approach angle (19.8 vs. 18.3 degrees), it actually has a worse departure angle (19 vs. 20.3-21.1 degrees for the other trims). Ground clearance is 210mm versus 185 for the other trims. Again, neither of these things really matter off-road, since the rest of the vehicle isn’t designed to do anything serious like rock crawling, etc.

Braking felt powerful and well-controlled. Visibility out of the Pilot is pretty good – there are a couple of minor blind spots, but nothing untoward for a vehicle this size.

Towing capacity can go up to 5,000 pounds (if properly equipped).

Details

Honda continues to include remote starters in their vehicles, and I’m going to continue giving them a shout-out for this. It’s a nice touch, and a very useful feature in hot or cold weather. Thanks Honda!

The Verdict

WAF (Wife Approval Factor) was quite high. Although she didn’t love the butch TrailSport trim or the loud colour, she liked how it drove. We have since seen a few of the Touring and Black Edition trims and she really likes them.

The Pilot has always been a good choice for families that need a little more room than the CR-V offers. It has plenty of power, well thought-out features and utility, modern tech and comfort for up to 7 people.

I found the Pilot exceedingly attractive on the outside, and very easy to live with in terms of the interior and the driveability. The Pilot is back, baby!