Cars.com's Mike Hanley takes a look at the seating features of the 2009 Honda Pilot. It competes with the Toyota Highlander and Hyundai Veracruz.
Transcript
(Rock music) Hi, I'm Mike Hanley with Cars.com and I'm here with the redesigned 2009 Honda Pilot. This is Honda's mid-sized crossover SUV, and for 2009, the model is larger inside and it gets some unique cargo features.
One of the reasons people buy SUVs is to carry lots of people in 'em. And with the Pilot, it has come standard with three rows of seats and for space for up to eight people. Now in the second row, they've increased leg room by about an inch and the vehicle' second row seats can slide forward and backward to accommodate various leg room needs, and the seats also recline. There's a handle over this side. Now we kind of like the handles when they're down low on the side, they're easier to reach than having to reach over there, but it's nice Honda offers the feature in the second row. Getting into the third row of the Pilot's pretty straightforward process. There's a lever on the side of the second row seats, lift it up and you can slide the whole seat forward. Then, you can step through to the third row, pull the seat back. Honda says leg room in the third row has been increased about two inches. And while the third row is tolerable for someone like me for a a short trip, I wouldn't let us spend a lot of time here. The 2009 Pilot has a rear glass that opens, which has been used on other SUV's before, and it's on this one (rear window closing) What it also gains is a lift gate that can be power operated. And what's kind of neat on the inside is it has a pretty interesting cargo storage system. You can lift up the floor right here and secure it. And below the floor, there's a shallow well. And there's this net system too, that when it's hooked on both sides, you can use this to carry grocery bags or whatever you may have here. And then below, put in something larger, to store right there. And the third row seats, when you need even more cargo room than, than the about 21 cubic feet you have right here, including the well below it, you can just lift that lever here, the seats fold flat, and then you have quite a bit more cargo room. You have even more stuff you need to carry in your Pilot? Second row seats also fold flat and you can see here, it's a nice flat surface all the way from the back to the front. So little risk of catching anything if you slide it forward. So as you can see the Pilot has a fair amount of functionality and it does it in a pretty compact space. <v Male Speaker>For additional information on this car or any other go to www.Cars.com and our blog 'Kicking Tires'.
