A dissatisfied owner is more motivated to write a negative review than a satisfied one.

Me personally, I've had zero issues with my '16 after a year and a half of ownership, which makes me less motivated to write about the non-issues I've had with the car. That being said, I've given my recommendation to quite a few friends and acquaintances who were in the market for an SUV.

 

My wife and I are 68 years old and own a 2016 Pilot Touring with 27,000+ miles on it for 18 months. The main car we compared when we were researching was the Highlander. The Pilot was the best driving between the two. We travel to see our 3 kids 1,100 miles, 400 miles, 325 miles. It has been great with no flaws or dissatisfying qualities. Best care we have ever owned!! We have been on trips lasting 15 hours only stopping for gas and or food . . . . . . no problem.

 

..... 10% give the pilot 1 out of 5 stars and say theres well known tranny problems! ....

I also realize that this is 318 2017 Pilot owners out of how many thousand???

.....Is the new generation 2016-2017 Pilot a vehicle you recommend?

Take a look at the thread(s) on tranny problems. Most have been focused on the 9 speed tranny. There were a couple of early failures that got a lot of press. When I was shopping for my touring I read the entire thread. There was nothing there of real consequence. Honda sells roughly 10,000 Pilots a month. How many failures have been reported this year, maybe 3 or 4. Statistically insignificant and if you have a problem Honda will fix it.

In todays world if someone experiences a problem with their new Pilot they will likely find this site and post about it. Problems get blown out of proportion. The Pilot a solid vehicle as are most vehicles sold today. If you check every other website devoted to a specific model you will likely find similar issues.

 

I agree with the others..... you can stay at the best hotel in the world but there will be a bunch of folks who will give it 1-star on TripAdvisor. Maybe these folks just happened to catch things on a bad day. And some would give a new Ferrari a 1-star rating because it wouldn't hold their Big Gulp. You're going to get some significant segment of dissatisfied customers, no matter how good your product.

That being said, I don't think the new Pilot is a slam dunk in its segment by any means and if the Highlander has much better overall end-user reviews in the same forum, then that's worth paying some modest attention to and seeing whether the reviews ring true to you. The new Pilot has its faults and the 9-speed is still getting sorted. Personally, I think the sweet spot in the Pilot lineup right now is one of the six-speed EX models with a lot fewer problematic gizmos and a lot better value. At $35K, I like the Pilot, but at $45K I'd go a different direction.

I'd take long test drives in several competing models, particularly the Highlander, CX-9, and Santa Fe. I drove a CX-9 Signature two days ago and while it didn't have quite the utility of the Pilot, it was in a whole different class from a handling, responsiveness, and luxury standpoint. Compared to the Pilot Touring I test drove a month ago, it was like I stepped out of an Accord into an A4.

- Mark

 

I don't think I really qualify as a "hater" cuz I'm still driving my 2016 Pilot Touring AWD at about 50k miles and 1.8 years, and for the most part the vehicle still suits my needs. It's an especially good road-trip vehicle. But I have owned over a dozen Honda/Acura vehicles over the past 30+ years, and I have had more problems with this one than with most of the rest combined. Including a replaced 9-speed transmission. Maybe I was overdue for a lemon, but given the spotty reviews elsewhere I think it's fair to say Honda's quality control has slipped. I think it's still a good value relative to the competition, but I suggest factoring in the cost of a HondaCare warranty if you plan to hang onto one past factory warranty.

 

Our '16 Touring model just turned over 30,000 mostly trouble free miles and I can honestly say it's the finest vehicle I've owned over the past 50 years of purchasing cars & trucks. It hasn't been perfect, but oh so close... We had the update done on our radio even though we weren't experiencing any problems with it, (proactive dealership) and we had the update to the transmission because we thought it was just a bit jerky in the lower gears around town. The update did eliminate the jerkiness. There was also a recall done on it early on, (Can't remember off hand what it was for, but it was something simple) but other than that, it's been add fuel & change oil. It gets better fuel economy than our past 2 Odysseys did and rides & drives just as well.

You might want to do a bit of searching & check out the threads on this forum about complaints & satisfaction to draw your own conclusion. I can tell you it's been my experience in looking at different forums that people do generally post their complaints rather than their praises. Here's one of the threads to read that list many of the complaints & some of the praises. There are a couple of other extensive threads sharing both sides... http://www.piloteers.org/forums/114...ms/114-2016-third-generation-pilot/104561-reasons-not-buy-2016-honda-pilot.html I really believe there would be far less complaints if all the dealerships were as good as our dealer. There seem to be quite a few out there that could care less about customer satisfaction. Maybe a search for good dealers would do people more good than a search for the perfect vehicle...

My best guess is that if you do purchase a new Pilot, you'll be just as pleased as the majority of owners are. Forget about all the reviews, go test drive a few of the comparable vehicles out there, and come back to let us know what YOU think.

 

............ I really believe there would be far less complaints if all the dealerships were as good as our dealer. There seem to be quite a few out there that could care less about customer satisfaction. ..........

There is a lot of truth in this statement. I read a lot of the reviews on Edmunds and many of them were primarily dealer issues.

There are a lot of folks that are unhappy with many aspects of the dealer experience and blame Honda for it. The reality is that most all states have stringent laws protecting dealerships and Honda has little direct control over how they operate their business.

There are some very good reasons why Tesla will not sell their vehicles through dealers.

 

Pilot vs. Highlander..that's a tough decision. My wife and I were in the same boat when we bought our '16 Elite. We chose the Pilot since it was the new vehicle and some friends had already gotten Highlanders (didn't want to follow the pack). It's been one year since we purchased ours in April '16. Aside from a flat tire a few months back (ran over a crazy bolt), absolutely no issues.

I'll echo what other respondents have said that most forums or personal reviews on websites are pretty biased towards the negative. The fact that 40% gave 5-stars and 20% gave 4-stars is a pretty decent indicator of an overall good review.

What I would recommend is jotting down the list of negatives (and positives) and then start researching or considering how important these items are to you. As an example, so many people on this forum do not like the armrests on the front seats. You can find so many complaints about this. But, for me at least, it's not a big deal. So, I ignored that complaint. The tranny was a big one during the time of our search, but as another mentioned, the percentages are low (overall) and there is a bit of "if they have it, mine will probably have it" mentality (you'll find that some threads become contagious).

You have a pretty touch choice ahead of you (Pilot vs. Highlander). I can't help in that decision as the underlying vehicle you choose needs to fit your needs, etc. I can say that we have not looked back on our Pilot Elite purchase and are very happy with it. It's not perfect, but no vehicle is. But, it checked our main boxes which was something big enough to safely haul around our two kids and their gear with a few creation comforts.

Good luck!

 

I agree with Wanderer's take. My Pilot got a complete diff replacement at 8 months old around 11000 miles. I've took it to the dealership 8 times in my 10 months of ownership. It's at the dealership right now for a number of other issues. My Pilot is the overwhelmingly most troublesome car I've ever owned.

 

We have posted our fair share of issues here, but it hasn't stopped us from loving our Pilots. We started with 2 of the 2016 EX-L's. One has been ultra reliable after 15 months and 12k mi. Radio update and now a slight buzz from the blower fan is all. The other one is now gone after multiple issues documented elsewhere in this forum, and some not, after 10 months and 13k mi. We love the Pilot design and ride so much that we opted to get the 2017 EX-L as a replacement. Could not be happier. So far so good.

Odds of getting a car with more issues than normal are higher for the first model year. Everyone tells you this. We knew it, but still bought two. More issues combined than other Honda experiences, but those were 3-5 MY into those production life-cycles. It is worth it to us, for what we wanted and what we needed in the past year. The Pilot is a fantastic highway road trip car and daily 100mi daily driver. We expect long term reliability and good resale value. We also bought the 8yr/120k mi Hondacare warranty on the remaining 2016, just in case.

 

For us the Highlander didn't have the utility the Pilot had. The 3rd row is too small and there isn't enough space behind the 3rd row for luggage. The Pilot really is in a unique place in the market for fuel economy, price, and utility.

We only have 5,000 miles on ours but FWIW it's been flawless and is a great drive. We've driven it in 10" of snow on our access road, solid ice, driving rain, strong wind, and temps near 0F.

Like others have said, if you don't trust the 9-speed, get an EX-L with the reliable 6-speed.

 

I just traded my 2016 EX-L with sensing in for a new 2017 Touring. I had 45000 miles on the 2016 in 22 months of ownership with no problems to speak of. But, it was now out of warranty and my wife (love that woman) suggested we get a new red pilot. Who was I to disagree? :wink::wink: I would recommend and have recommended the Pilot to any who would listen. MY 2016 was the very first one delivered to our dealer on 18 June 2015.

We decided on the Touring this time around just to try out the 9 speed and all the bells and whistles. It is being built this week and the dealership desperately wanted my 2016 (they have NONE in stock) so they gave me a new 2017 Accord V6 to drive at no cost, till my Pilot shows up. So, right now I am one happy camper.:grin: Guess we will see what happens?

 

I just traded my 16 Pilot EXL for a 17 Ridgeline because I needed more room for cargo . I had 30000 miles on and never had any issues at all I would highly recommend it!i really can't say anything bad about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I will echo the sentiment of most people- a lot of the negative reviews were for early MY 16s Touring/Elites with the 9spd transmission. This was my biggest concern when I bought my wife's 17 elite, but as of right now and 3k miles, no issues. In fact, I haven't been able to replicate any of the issues that early reviews had (surging at low speeds, significant lag, noises etc). My only gripe is that the Adaptive Cruise Control is very abrupt with acceleration/braking, so we have turned it off.

 

I'm very happy with my Touring, though at 4000 miles it's still early. I also have had no issues with the transmission.

Really, my only beef so far is that it is absolutely incapable of holding speed when using cruise control. It will drop several (way too many) miles per hour before it finally decides to downshift and get back to the set speed. So if someone is passing me because I'm going 70 instead of 75, I look like a b-hole who is trying to prevent them from passing me (which is something I hate and would never do) when the Pilot decides to get its act together and accelerate.

That's minor, though. Pretty much everything else works as it should and, aside from the minor paint blemish that was fixed right away under warranty, I haven't seen any QC issues.

 

I'm very happy with my Touring, though at 4000 miles it's still early. I also have had no issues with the transmission.

Really, my only beef so far is that it is absolutely incapable of holding speed when using cruise control. It will drop several (way too many) miles per hour before it finally decides to downshift and get back to the set speed. So if someone is passing me because I'm going 70 instead of 75, I look like a b-hole who is trying to prevent them from passing me (which is something I hate and would never do) when the Pilot decides to get its act together and accelerate.

That's minor, though. Pretty much everything else works as it should and, aside from the minor paint blemish that was fixed right away under warranty, I haven't seen any QC issues.

I've also been happy with our AWD Touring (8000 miles). Though I haven't noticed the cruise issue you're experiencing. The majority of time I use cruise is on level ground and switch to S-mode on hills. Do you use econ? Also, is it possible to turn off the "adaptive" feature from the cruise control?

 

VERY happy with mine!

We're very happy with our Elite and I would get another one in a second. I haven't had any of the issues that people have complained about, and you have to remember that people will go online and complain about something but they rarely will make a comment if they're happy and not having issues, so take any forum like this with a grain of salt.

 

That's what we bought. A '17 EX-L. No Sensing or Navigation. The less fancy electronics, the better. We have our own Garmin GPS or iphone if need be. I've driven 50 years without assisted driving features. I'm not a distracted driver and I try to watch out for others who are. I admit, with texting and whatnot, it's definitely more of an issue.

 

I think out 2016 Touring is garbage for the money paid.

There said it!

There are many parts of the car that are good but the annoyances drag it down to the garbage category. It soured me enough that I won't look at a Honda again for a very very long time when it is time to get rid of it.

The annoying thing is that there flaws should never have been there in the first place. I've listed the woes before on this site so I'm not going to do it again.

Unbelievably l think our 2005 Ford Freestyle was a better car when it was new and that says a lot.

 

I think out 2016 Touring is garbage for the money paid.

...

Unbelievably l think our 2005 Ford Freestyle was a better car when it was new and that says a lot.

No Ford is ever going to be better than a Honda.

Take off your 'fool hat' or sell your Pilot and crawl back into the Ford swamp.

BTW - My BIL is on his second Raptor and also has a Shelby Gt500 - he's Ford stupid - not that they are not 'fun' but the issues he's had with his Fords over the years are, literally, comical - but he's 100% a 'blue oval' kind of guy...

 

Totally agree. Traded a 2012 Pilot EX for this 2016 EX piece of trash. Did NOT expect to lose features with the same trim level.
- tail gate window that opens - gone
- normal FM stereo - gone
- subwoofer that actually adds base - gone
- normal arm rests - gone
- quality seating fabric - gone

Of course there are improvements with the 2016 but I did not expect to lose basic features from prior model year. Will definitely be checking out the VW Atlas.

 

I'm confused. The car you looked at when you visited the 3rd gen Pilot had those things but the one you left with didn't? Come on folks -- if those things were so important, why did you take the car off the lot or give someone your money?

 

I have 35K on a 2016 Elite. This is my third Pilot the last one was a 2012. I've had no problems with mine which I drive mostly high speed highway. one thing I miss from the 2012, the high center console that was the armrest. That's it, the 2016 is a better vehicle IMO on every level. road and wind noise, brakes, comfort, safety, handling, speed, engine, 'transmission, headlights, interior room to name a few.

 

These posts are hilarious. I dumped $40k on "garbage".... I hope you don't skimp on your research in other avenues of life.. ?

17.7k miles here on a Touring bought on 10/2015. A delight that I drive hard and LOVE it!

 

I just finished a 5700 mile road trip, and we averaged 25.2 mpg. The pilot was an excellent road vehicle that was a true pleasure to drive.

Our other vehicle is a 2014 rav4 limited, and the pilot is better in every way, with the exception of small parking spaces.
We now have over 13,000 miles on it and its been excellent . Zero problems.

I am into this suv for right at 40k...I seriously thought about buying an Mdx, but decided to save the 10k difference.

 

Wow, just wow.

Forums are an interesting beast. They can be very useful tools for those of a common interest to share tips, tricks, ideas, knowledge, and insight. Conversely, they are also places where people come to rant about various things which are causing them grief. Most of the time, its luck of the draw. I for one, have a 2016 Pilot that I feel has been amazing and given me much more pleasure than grief. Others have had some issues with their Pilots and that's to be expected on a simple statistical basis as there are always going to be a few with issues and its those owners which go online and complain the most. Fair enough, they spent A LOT of money and expect their new product to be exactly what everyone else got, in perfect working order. For those owners, I'm empathetic to their plight as the dealers they are dealing with don't seem to care as much as they should, and that would piss anyone off.

However, for those that go online and rant about a product, any product, because it doesn't have a feature or does something differently than you expected is more reflective on the author than the subject. If you bought an apple and expected it to taste like a burger, is that the apple's fault or the purchaser's fault? If you don't open all the doors, take a vehicle out for a drive, do some reading online, and kick some tires, do you really think it is the vehicle that is faulty? Going online and proclaiming the product is "garbage" or "trash" because it doesn't have a feature that no one ever said it did (read: opening rear hatch glass) is so udderly ridiculous that all I can do is shake my head. This also goes for those who choose lower trim levels and then complain about the lack of features.

We all have access online (you're reading an online forum) and we all have access to the same brochures at the dealers and websites. We all compared the prices versus features and chose the trims level we wanted based on our needs against what the extra toys will cost. So again, to choose a lower trim and proclaim to the world the Pilot (and not the model you bought) has a crappy sound system or has poor fabric versus the leather interior.... I just do not get the mindset.

I hope you do more research when making future purchases otherwise smiles may be hard to come by in life. You'll enjoy your apples more if you expect them to taste like apples.

 

We have had our Touring AWD for about a year and 18k miles. Second Honda Pilot we have owned, the first one (2011) we drove for about 85,000 miles and generally liked it a lot. Definitely our least favorite thing about our 2016 is the 9 speed tranny. It was not one of the "Early" 2016 ones that have reportedly had really bad issues with the tranny. I just hate the way it shifts like a 18 wheeler when accelerating, running obnoxiously up through so many gears just to get going at a leisurely pace. I also find it is very jerky when trying to drive slowly around 20 mph through our neighborhood streets. Very hard to drive it smoothly at those speeds, as the pressure on and off the gas creates a real lurch, regardless of how light it is applied. Also we have found that the push button gear selector is something that we quite dislike and has not grown on us. The auto stop / start should have a method of permanently being deactivated, rather than switched on / off each time, that is annoying to say the least. Finally, the adaptive cruise control could use some refined tweaking, but it is a nice feature to have. Overall, we like it enough to not look elsewhere (yet) but are not really in love with the car at all for those reasons.

 

I just hate the way it shifts like a 18 wheeler when accelerating, running obnoxiously up through so many gears just to get going at a leisurely pace.

Are you in D or S when driving? Is Eco turned on? Mine doesn't run up at all, and I don't think it ever goes over 2K rpm.

 

It is in D, not S. My issue is not that the RPM's go super high (they probably never exceed 3k either) but the fact that it takes about 5 trips up & down the RPM range because of all the gears in order to get going about 35mph is super annoying, and the slow speed behavior of the throttle & transmission are maddening.

 

This sounds like you need some adjustments done. I have to really pay attention for me to even notice the shifts as they're so smooth. Sometimes I'll hit the paddles up and down again just to see what gear I'm in as like I said, I can't detect the shifts.

 

"she has a deep head"

Sorry, but once you said that, I got distracted and stopped reading. :grin:

 

Dude, I had to really try to not respond to that one myself!! What exactly is a "deep head"?? Somehow, I think it's something totally different than what I have in mind. >