Honda Pilot EX-L 2WD Navi

Author's Rating:

Pros: Seats 8, plenty of room, smooth ride, decent gas mileage, Honda reliability, easy-to-use navigation system

Cons: Generic styling, missing some features found on other cars

The Bottom Line: 
Definately consider Pilot when looking at other SUV's in this class like the Highlander, etc.

Author's Review
Purchased a new Pilot last year. After 10K miles I'm still happy with it.

I haven't had any mechanical issues with the car (it's a Honda after all). The ride is smooth and the engine produces plenty of power without being too gas hungry - I typically achieve 19 MPG with mostly local driving, and 23 MPG on the freeway.

The third-row seat is great for short trips around town or young kids. The 60/40 split is also convenient. Lowering second and third rows is convenient for trips to the hardware store.

The interior has plenty of cubby holes to store items. The interior fit and finish is very good, but some of the materials are hard plastic, like the dashboard.

Some "missing" features, even on the highest trim level, are things like trip computer/gas mileage readout, power adjustment on the passenger side, automatic mirror tilt on the passenger side (for parallel parking), auxiliary audio input on the radio for MP3 player connection (even though there is an AUX input button that doesn't do anything for the navigation equipped Pilots, although it does work for DVD equipped Pilots), no memory seats, and no power lift gate option. The steering wheel tilts, but doesn't telescope. It appears like Honda has addressed most if not all of these features on the new 2009 Pilots.

Overall I'm happy with the car, expecially considering an Acura MDX built on the same platform cost 50% more (albeit offering many of the missing features above). I expect to get many more years of happy driving out of the car, and would recommend anyone in the market for a mid-size SUV check oaut the Pilot.