Back to the corners
After about seven years, Honda renews the Pilot. The new Honda Pilot debuts as a ruggedly dressed TrailSport and, like its predecessor, is again an SUV with three rows of seats and therefore seven seats. With a new design and a more powerful heart, the Honda Pilot has to beat competitors like the Toyota Highlander and Hyundai Palisade.
In the Netherlands, the CR-V is Honda’s largest SUV, but on the other side of the pond is the Pilot. The Pilot is an SUV with three rows of seats that just doesn’t get what it wants for Honda. Last year Honda sold 143,000 Pilots. A whole fleet, but the Pilot’s competitors are much more popular. For example, the Ford Explorer was sold 220,000 times last year and the Toyota Highlander even managed to sell 264,000 copies. The new Honda Pilot should make American SUV hearts beat faster.
The outgoing generation Honda Pilot (2015-2022)
For starters, the new Honda Pilot is a size bigger than the model it replaces. The car is 5.08 meters long, winning by 14 centimeters from its 4.94 meter long predecessor. The wheelbase also increases by 7 centimeters to 2.89 metres. The outgoing generation Honda Pilot debuted in 2015 and went under the knife in 2018. Compared to that model, the new Pilot has acquired a completely different character. Where Honda has created a relatively chic-looking SUV with the Pilot that will soon disappear, with the new Pilot it harks back to the more angular design of the Pilot that it sold for 2015. That is of course not just, Honda hopes with the chunky design to win the customer who leaves the rounder Pilot for more angular alternatives from other brands. The TrailSport is a new version for the Pilot, which makes it a bit rougher. That version has all-terrain tires, a different chassis and skid plates for the oil pan and the bottom of the car. Incidentally, the rear of the new Pilot reminds us somewhat of that of the Ford Everest, but that could be just us.
Second generation Honda Pilot
Honda only parks one power source on the engine list for the time being, but that is immediately a completely new one. The Honda Pilot gets a new 3.5 V6, a six-cylinder that produces 289 hp and 355 Nm. Shifting is done via a ten-speed automatic transmission. Inside, the new Pilot is completely ‘Honda 2022’, which means that the SUV will have a relatively calm-looking dashboard in which horizontal lines determine the image. Behind the wheel is a 7-inch digital screen with a virtual tachometer and an analog speedometer. More expensive versions have a digital clock shop that is a lot bigger with a diameter of 10.2-inch. In the center of the dashboard is a 7-inch multimedia screen. Here too, there is a larger copy in the higher positioned versions, which measures 9 inches. Unfortunately, it remains unchanged that the Honda Pilot will not come to Europe. The CR-V remains Honda’s largest SUV in Europe, but it will soon be completely renewed. In addition, Honda will bring a new SUV to Europe next year that it places between the HR-V and the C-RV: the ZR-V.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl