I bought my 2025 Honda Pilot Elite on Black Friday 2024.
The good:
Nitpicking:
It's a confident vehicle that makes me and my family feel safe. Its simple interior will be resistant to aging. I'm surprised it rather felt very luxurious compared to other Honda vehicles at the same Elite trim. The seats deserve a mention again as to how luxurious they are. 9.5/10.
Today, my dealership hooked me up and give me a free early oil change at 1,700 miles. Now that the engine break-in period was over, I did some spirited driving. That V6 and the transmission feel smooth and powerful.
The good:
- The big, burly, sporty exterior. It's a great design language over Telluride/Palisade. I think this fourth generation will age very well with its conservative yet distinctive design.
- Naturally aspirated V6 and no turbo. It feels strong and confident, especially when accelerating from a stop on a steep hill and you have to make a quick turn to overtake with the AWD.
- The Sports and Econ modes do make a huge difference in the driving feel. So far, the Sports mode's higher throttling ratios seem plenty quick enough to overtake cars at 50 mph. Yes, it could be faster, but it's fine if you let the V6 roar harder.
- The ride feels luxurious and smooth, yet you're always reminded of the V6's roaring with its distinctive rhythm. I actually had to get used to this sound/feel, coming from a four-cylinder. I thought my tires were wobbling... nope, it's the V6 rhythm.
- Real torque vectoring vs. Hyundai's 'fake' brake vectoring. I notice it. From a stop, you have to turn and accelerate sharply; the torque vectoring allows for a bit of oversteering. This makes the gigantic vehicle feel more nimble.
- The exterior lights are great. The interior's six LED's are absolutely amazing. They light up the entire cabin brightly.
- I just love the remote starter, coming from an older 2013 Tucson (that car served me well, quite an acceleration too).
- Keep Lane Assist & Adaptive Cruise Control combined work very well to reduce driver fatigue during the long stretches of highway driving. This thing is basically a self-driving holy cow.
- The leather seats are absolutely luxurious. They're fully wrapped to the bottom in the back too! Even some BMWs don't do this.
- The brake pedal has become noisier already than I'd like at six weeks. It's already making some minor thuddy & pingy sounds when pressed or released quickly. Before, it was deadly silent and smooth when new. I'm a bit miffed that it's already behaving like this. Is this Honda Rock solid quality?
- If you look at the undercarrige of Atlas, Palisade, CX90, Telluride, they all have a big flat cover that protects the undercarriage from all the rocks and crap that could and WILL kick up. The Pilot doesn't have this. Upon inspection, the exposed belly shows these three thin cables running along the drive shaft completely exposed. I mean, the Trailsport trim goes an extra mile with the steel skidplate and the fuel tank. Why skimp on the plastic cover vs everyone else?
- Nothing is ugly here. Good job.
Nitpicking:
- This is minor, but it impacts my daily use. The climate control blower fan is pretty loud at its lowest setting. It has this awful droning hum. I cross-checked it with another new Pilot at the dealership. 'Thankfully', it's not just my vehicle. All Pilots are like this. I cope by using the second highest speed. All my previous cars had quieter cabin fans too.
- The elite trim has a bench seat in the second row. You can slide the second row seats back for additional legroom, but you cannot slide back the detachable middle seat. So, it ends up awkwardly protruding, and you have to recline the center seat a bit to match the rest of the second row seats. All in all, I'm happy it's not captain seats.
- The charging pad painfully slow. You can't rely on that when in need. Thankfully a $9 rapid charger fixes this.
- The Bose sound has impressively strong yet clean bass. The mids are completely absent though. Even if you jack it up, it's just not there. The Bose's artificial surround mode called Centerpoint is fun, but it messes with the bass clarity. Overall, it doesn't sound cheap and it's great for bassy music.
- The turn signals and backup lights are woefully weak halogen bulbs. Come on, Honda. But then again, I saw the latest Audi Q5 backing up, and even Audi did the same thing to their 'luxury' customers. I spent $40 to swap those two pairs.
It's a confident vehicle that makes me and my family feel safe. Its simple interior will be resistant to aging. I'm surprised it rather felt very luxurious compared to other Honda vehicles at the same Elite trim. The seats deserve a mention again as to how luxurious they are. 9.5/10.
Today, my dealership hooked me up and give me a free early oil change at 1,700 miles. Now that the engine break-in period was over, I did some spirited driving. That V6 and the transmission feel smooth and powerful.
