2025 Honda Pilot Review and Test Drive
Two parents with busy lives put the popular Honda Pilot three-row SUV to the test — then compare notes.
Christian Wardlaw
Families in the United States typically have too many places to be and too many things to do. Those busy lives might benefit from a vehicle like the 2025 Honda Pilot. Equipped with configurable seating for up to eight passengers, lots of interior room, and simple but practical technology, the 2025 Pilot is about going and doing with minimal muss and fuss.
It's safe, too, according to its Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Exciting, it's not, but the rugged TrailSport model adds a little spice with improved off-roading capability.
The TrailSport is part of a model lineup that includes Sport, EX-L, Touring, Elite, and Black Edition trim levels. Base prices range from the low $40,000s to the mid-$50,000s. That price range includes the destination charge to ship the SUV from the Lincoln, Alabama, factory that builds it to your local dealership. Some of the Pilot's main competitors include the Ford Explorer, Kia Telluride, and Toyota Grand Highlander.
For this review, Liz Kim and Christian Wardlaw, a married pair of automotive journalists with children, evaluated the new-for-2025 Pilot Black Edition and then compared notes. The SUV they test-drove had no options, and the manufacturer's suggested retail price was $55,975, including the $1,395 destination charge. Honda provided the vehicle for this Pilot review.
Christian Wardlaw
Is the 2025 Honda Pilot a Good SUV?
Chris Wardlaw: The short answer to this question is yes. It does precisely what a midsize three-row crossover SUV should and, mostly, does it well. But besides the thoughtful interior storage solutions, nothing about the Pilot surprises and delights its owner, particularly regarding the technology. And the city-driving fuel economy surprises and disappoints.
Liz Kim: The Honda Pilot feels like a throwback, with its inelegant handling and unremarkable technological features. But not every vehicle needs to be a modern, futuristic marvel. This SUV is a family-friendly choice for those who like to keep things simple and convenient.
Christian Wardlaw
Stashing Yourself and Your Stuff Is the 2025 Pilot's Strength
Liz: With the 2025 Pilot, Honda emphasizes its SUV identity, distinguishing it from the company's Odyssey minivan. It looks much more rugged than the previous-generation Pilot, thanks to a massive grille, burly fenders, and lower body cladding.
The Black Edition adds black exterior trim and red interior accents. At night, red ambient lighting makes the Pilot seem like an old-timey photo-developing room.
I was impressed by the thoughtful storage solutions throughout the cabin, such as the shelves on the door panels and the roomy center console. Our family uses large 32-ounce water bottles that frequently roll around in footwells, but the Pilot's generous front cupholders accommodate them.
Chris, do you know the reasoning behind Honda's abandonment of front-passenger seat height adjusters? I wasn't uncomfortable in that seat, but it's an oversight in a $55,000 vehicle.
Christian Wardlaw
Chris: It is a mystery why Honda and many other car companies do not offer a seat-height adjuster for a driver's favorite passenger. It doesn't need to be power operated. A lever allowing manual height adjustment would do.
Fortunately, the driver gets numerous power adjustments, and our test vehicle had heated and ventilated front and heated rear seats. If we lived in a cold climate, the Black Edition's heated steering wheel would be a blessing on winter days.
I agree with you about the Pilot's storage space. The accommodating front cupholders, the juice-box holders embedded into the rear door panels within reach of children, and the rear side window shades that cover nearly the entire window — helpful to people carrying infants in reverse-facing child-safety seats — demonstrate Honda's consideration of families. Our teenagers appreciated the USB charging ports and dedicated smartphone pockets.
I will say that the one-piece, second-row floor mats such as those in the Pilot are detestable. It is impossible to remove them without spilling the grit they've trapped onto the carpeting underneath, doubling your work when cleaning the cabin. Frustratingly, the mats in the Pilot also seemingly magnetize pet hair to their surfaces.
People who regularly use a third-row seat will like the Pilot. I fit fine as long as the second-row seat was in a middle position, though the flat cushion offered little leg support. The Pilot's cargo space is impressive.
Christian Wardlaw
Pilots Have the Essential Tech and Little More
Honda equips most 2025 Pilots with a 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, in addition to text-messaging support. Upper trims add navigation, HondaLink subscription services with Wi-Fi hot-spot access, and a Bose premium sound system. The Honda Sensing collection of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is also standard, equipping the Pilot with the expected safety features.
Chris: The Pilot's infotainment system meets minimum expectations, presenting the features you're most interested in through a simple, intuitive interface. The voice recognition system worked well but sounded especially robotic, and the Bose sound system was adequate in a segment where some rivals provide superior audio quality.
Unfortunately, after pairing my iPhone 15 and launching Apple CarPlay, it wouldn't stick with satellite radio when I switched back to SiriusXM. Instead, it would automatically switch back to CarPlay after a few moments. That was aggravating.
I got a new iPhone 16 the week we had the Pilot, and after pairing it to the Honda, the satellite-radio issue appeared to be resolved. However, CarPlay wouldn't load Pandora, and the display screen told me it couldn't load Apple Music despite simultaneously playing Apple Music.
Overall, I found the Honda Sensing safety tech helpful, though the lane-keeping-assist system is too obvious about its activity. The traffic jam assist worked well during a Sunday-morning slog into Los Angeles but has a literal blind spot. It frequently doesn't "see" other vehicles that cut into the gap ahead until it's too late, and I had to intervene on numerous occasions to prevent a collision.
Christian Wardlaw
Liz: Several tech glitches marred my forays around town. While the head-up display is helpful, it displayed the wrong speed limit on several occasions, showing a 35-mph limit on a 65-mph stretch of freeway and a 25-mph limit on a busy 40-mph street long after I'd passed the school that merited the slowdown. The lane-keeping assist also lacked refinement, decreasing my confidence in allowing it to do its thing.
Honda doesn't match the impressive tech features I've seen in other SUVs of its class, such as a larger infotainment screen and more robust ADAS features. True, those often turn out to be less valuable in real life, but this top-of-the-line Pilot seems rather rudimentary compared with other vehicles at this price point.
Christian Wardlaw
Diverging Opinions on the Pilot's Ride and Handling
The Honda Pilot has a tried-and-true 3.5-liter V6 engine making 285 horsepower, and a 10-speed automatic transmission powers the front wheels unless the SUV has the available all-wheel-drive system. In addition, you can choose from several driving modes that calibrate the powertrain for specific situations.
The EPA says the Black Edition should get 19/25/21 mpg in city/highway/combined driving, and the test vehicle averaged 18.6 mpg during the weeklong evaluation period.
Liz: Honda's stalwart 3.5-liter V6 offers plenty of power. In the Normal driving mode, though, the transmission takes its sweet time to downshift, making its responsiveness similar to a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Putting the transmission into Sport mode minimizes this feeling.
The Pilot's suspension tuning produced a trucklike ride, and the SUV displayed more lean in corners than expected. I like that Honda offers various driving modes, including Sand and Snow, for enhanced traction, but during a perfectly sunny Southern California week, I stuck to blacktop and concrete, as many Pilot owners will.
Christian Wardlaw
Chris: I don't find the Pilot to ride like a truck at all. Instead, it's a little too soft for my preferences, though the SUV's blend of ride compliance and athleticism is perfect for its suburban family-hauling mission. Like almost every Honda, each dynamic trait is smooth and fluidly refined, except for the irritating transmission.
In city driving, it hunts for the proper gear. In traffic, it feels as if the power surges. When passing, it feels sluggish. Choosing Sport mode resolves much of that, but who wants to drive an already inefficient SUV in Sport mode all the time?
More disappointing is the observed fuel economy. On my testing loop, the Pilot returned 18 mpg, falling short of the official city rating and well short of the 21-mpg expectation in a mix of city and highway driving. Electrification in the form of a Pilot Hybrid cannot arrive soon enough.
Christian Wardlaw
Liz Kim and Christian Wardlaw met when they worked together at a major automotive media outlet. A couple for more than 20 years, they are parents to children and pets, and have collectively test-driven and reviewed thousands of cars, trucks, minivans, and SUVs since the 1990s.
Written by humans.
Edited by humans.
Liz KimLiz Kim has been writing about cars, SUVs, and trucks since 1999. She started her career in news, features, and car reviews, and has crafted automotive marketing copy for several agencies. But what she enjoys most is ferrying her family to explore the nooks and crannies of Southern California, where she lives. She calls a 2020 Acura MDX Sport Hybrid her daily driver.
Christian WardlawMy first word was “car.” That’s what I’m told, anyway. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. I’m a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but I’m also most interested in the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. Anybody can tell you that a sports car is fast. What you need to know is whether or not you should buy that new SUV, and why. My life purpose is to help you make that decision.
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