Little Things Add Up for Honda Pilot

There were no “wow” factors for my family in the 2009 Honda Pilot, but there were a lot of little touches that were noticed and appreciated.

First off, the third row splits 60/40. While that may not seem like a big deal compared to the 50/50 split in the other third rows we tested, it was a huge help. We returned home in a 14-hour trip over two days, and giving the kid in the third row that extra 10% of space made things much more comfortable. In addition, as my 11-year-old pointed out (and his siblings agreed with him), the Pilot had the most legroom of any of the four cars we tested. That meant a lot more peace and quiet for my wife and I up in the front row, I can tell you.

Up next, my 11-year-old also noticed a certain lack of pain when he climbed in the Pilot. This was because it was the first car since the Flex where he didn’t smack his head on the DVD screen hanging down from the car’s ceiling. It was a marked difference: In both the Journey and the CX-9, the DVD screen hung down dead center in my rearview mirror, making it harder to look back (of course, in the Journey it was a moot point because our luggage blocked my view anyway). In the Pilot, though, it was recessed into the ceiling, so my 11-year-old avoided injury, and it stayed above my view out back. Additionally, like the Journey, we loaded the DVDs into the center stack, while in the CX-9 the DVD had to be loaded into the player in the second row. If I’d had young kids, I would have had to do that before leaving, and would have had to pull over to change movies for them. That’s inconvenient.

The Pilot also had a USB hookup for an iPod, which was great, but Honda could learn something from Ford. Ford splits up artists, songs and albums into groups (such as A-F, G-L, etc.), while in the Pilot you have to scroll through what can be an incredibly long list to find a particular artist, song or album. Picking a playlist is very easy, but sometimes my family was in the mood for something more specific.

Finally, my wife was pleased that the Pilot had a separate power control for her seatback on the passenger side. That was also true in the CX-9 and Journey, but the Flex inexplicably only let her rock the seat forward or back. She really hated that about the Flex.

While the Pilot’s boxiness continues to annoy me, it certainly is a comfortable-riding SUV. Check back to see how it fared for gas mileage and packing ability.

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