Comfortable Third Row, tons of room and drives well

Author's Rating:

Pros: Large third row
Extremely comfortable
Handles well

Cons: Uses a lot of gas
No separate rear hatch window
Not room for 8 people and luggage

The Bottom Line: 
Fantastic choice if you want lots of comfortable seating without driving a semi-trailer.

Author's Review
We purchased a used 2007 Honda Pilot in at the end of March 2010, and promptly shipped it overseas to meet us at our new home in Italy.  I have been driving it for about six months now and I am delighted with this car.

I identified the Honda Pilot as a good choice for our family of two adults and four nearly teenagers because I wanted a true 8 passenger car that could accommodate our family plus two guests.  After reading dozens of reviews, it seemed that the Honda had the most comfortable third seat of it's peers.  In addition, it was essential to me that the middle seats have shoulder harnesses - our old minivan only had lap belts in the middle seat and I never wanted to put anyone there.  We did not want to purchase a full-size SUV because streets in Italy are remarkably small, and gas is expensive.

I am so happy with our vehicle that I look forward to keeping it even after we return to the States in a few years.  The third seat is adequate for even tall adults for short trips, and more than large enough for my kids.  The 60/40 fold down seats in both rows mean that I can configure the space to fit whatever load I have.  There isn't a ton of room behind the third row, and we have used a roof-top luggage bag, but we generally just tuck the luggage in around the kids.  I have hauled 7 people and 45 cases of Girl Scout cookies without significant difficulties.

The seating is remarkably comfortable.  Our model has an in-dash navigation system (useless here) that also includes a back-up camera (quite helpful here.)  We have heated front seats, which are amazing.

The car handles quite well for a vehicle that is so large on the insiide.  I have driven it down small village streets, been lost in downtown Naples, and driven the Amalfi coast on a busy tourist Saturday.  Many times it was quite tight, but I haven't hit anything yet!

I do have a few things that I would change about this car if I were the designer.  The climate control in the back seems less powerful than the climate control in the front, and my kids are forever complaining that it is too hot/cold/humid (sometimes all at the same time, so who knows how accurate those complaints are.)  I wish the tailgate had a separate flip up glass window so I could extract fallen over glass bottles without risking crashes onto the pavement.

Knock on wood, we have not had an maintenance issues with the car since we purchased it.

Overall, this is a great car.