2025 Honda Pilot

Pros

• The first and second rows have big seats.
• There is a lot of room for goods and storage inside.
• It is easy to use the controls.

Cons 

• The touchscreen display we’re used to needs to be bigger.
• It’s hard for an adult sitting in the third row.
• We need to improve at stopping and speeding up.

What does a driver do to move a vehicle? A lot of different things are controlling the driver. When you press the gas pedal, the V6 makes a growling sound, but it doesn’t move very quickly. It took our Pilot TrailSport test car 7.8 seconds to go from 0 to 60 mph on the Invoice Pricing test track. It’s a very busy broadcast, especially in town. Also, when starting to move faster from a stop, the Pilot may feel too eager and responsive to the gas pedal. The Pilot’s brakes work well, but the pedal is soft and sticky, and it takes longer than usual to stop in an emergency.

Some three-row SUVs can handle light off-road use for active families better than others. The Pilot TrailSport is one of them because it has a higher ground clearance. With all-wheel-drive technology, you get an extra benefit. It can spread out the V6’s power, which makes the Pilot much more agile around corners and gives it the extra grip it needs on wet or icy roads. The driving, on the other hand, is light and lacks feel, so you can’t tell how the road is changing.

How much does the driver feel at ease? Both the front seats and the optional captain’s chairs in the second row are very comfy and offer enough support. However, you can’t change the front seats as much as some rivals can, so some people might not like them as much as they could. The Pilot’s suspension easily smooths out most bumps, but on some types of uneven ground, the ride can be loud and rough inside.

There is less noise inside than in top competitors like the Kia Telluride, but there is still low noise from the wind, the road, and the engine. The big cabin has a powerful temperature control system that is simple to change. There are vents in all three rows, but the vents in the second and third rows could be in better places. Vents have been put near the armrests in the third row so that adults can get air flow for their hands.

How is the state of the inside? The Pilot’s cabin is roomy and useful for the first two rows, with enough storage space and a little better vision than other cars in its class. While the latest Pilot’s interior doesn’t have a lot of buttons, we like that Honda made the most-used settings easy to find instead of hiding them behind a touchscreen menu like some other SUVs do.

There are buttons on the second-row seats that make getting in and out easy. Even very small babies can use them. Because the seats move a lot, it will be easy for most people to get to the third row. The Pilot has enough room for the people in the front seats, and the second row is very roomy with lots of space. The Volkswagen Atlas and Kia Telluride, on the other hand, are similar cars with better third seats. There is little space for adults’ toes under the second-row seats, and the floor is very high. Users will feel squished.

What’s wrong with the tech? When it comes to general performance, the Pilot falls short, even though it has some useful technological features. The infotainment system is quick and easy to use, and it even lets you connect your cell phone. However, the roomy car makes both the base 7-inch and improved 9-inch screens feel small. The Accord’s 12.3-inch screen is not offered here, which is a shame. There are many places to plug in, including a pad for charging wirelessly. There is, however, only one USB-C port. Because the remaining USB-A ports are weaker, laptops, tablets, and phones have fewer options for fast charging.

There are a lot of basic Honda driver-aid features in the Pilot. Lane-keeping assists keep the car in the middle of the road even at low speeds. Adaptive cruise control can follow at freeway speeds, but it gives drivers less trust when there is a lot of traffic. During tests, we saw that it responds too slowly to sudden brake traffic, which makes the driver have to stop. It also doesn’t save much work because an accelerator pedal or steering wheel button has to be used to tell it to keep going after even the smallest stop.

What’s going on with storage? The Hyundai Palisade, Kia Telluride, and Buick Enclave all have more cargo space than the Pilot. However, the Pilot is still a great family car because it has enough adjustable cargo room and small item storage. The 50/50 split third-row seats are easy to set up and make a large, but not very roomy, area since the third row doesn’t power-fold. It is easy to load and unload because the higher floor makes it easy for big things to slide in and out.

One of the best ways to store small things is in the Pilot. There is an extra-large center console tray and box for the front passengers, as well as a few extra cubbies for smaller things. Each seat on the front and back doors has a number of boxes, pockets, and cupholders. Each of these can hold a 40-ounce water bottle.

This is the second-row bench seat in our test Pilot TrailSport. The middle seat can be taken out and put in the trunk under the cargo floor, a great feature that makes it easy to move the chairs around as needed during the day. It’s important to note that the Pilot is one of the few SUVs with LATCH hooks for all three second-row seats.

How much fuel does it use? The EPA says that the Pilot can get 20 mpg combined (18 city/23 highway) with all-wheel drive and 22 mpg combined with front-wheel drive, but this depends on what options are chosen. We got an average of 22 mpg in our Pilot TrailSport test car on Invoice Pricing’s real-world test route, so drivers should be able to meet EPA figures. Some of its competitors have better V6 engines. Still, this one doesn’t even come close to the fuel efficiency of the Toyota Highlander’s supercharged four-cylinder engine, and it doesn’t go any faster, either.

Does the Pilot have any value? The inside of the Pilot is made safely with thick, solid plastics, and it’s very comfortable and useful. The Pilot seems to be made for family use, while competitors, especially those with better trim levels, use more soft-touch materials. You can use any wipes you have on hand to clean the inside.

Most of their rivals, on the other hand, offer more features for the same price. You have to pay more than some of the top competitors to get to the top level, and even then, you will have fewer features than Telluride. Hyundai and Kia also have guarantees that last a lot longer.

The TrailSport is more appealing because it can go off-road better, but the Pilot is easier to live with in general. Still, it looks like it’s having an identity problem. Honda has tried to make an SUV that is both sporty and tough, as well as good for families. But because it tries to be good at many things, it could be better at all of them. In the end, The Pilot is a good movie, even though it doesn’t have many standout moments.

Our pick is the EX-L trim level because it’s the best deal in the Pilot family. You can add a few thousand dollars to get leather-trimmed seats, a 9-inch tablet, wireless smartphone charging, and a motorized liftgate. The TrailSport is something you should think about if you live in an area with small mud holes or an odd dirt road.

Various types of Honda Pilot

The 2025 Honda Pilot SUV has three rows of seats, which can accommodate up to eight people. Six trim levels are available: Elite, Black Edition, Sport, EX-L, Touring, and TrailSport. All have a 3.5-liter V6 engine with ten automatic transmissions, 285 horsepower, and 262 pound-feet of torque. All-wheel drive isn’t standard; front-wheel drive is. The TrailSport, Elite, and Black Edition trim levels are the only ones that offer it.