2020 Honda Pilot

The Honda Pilot is a three-row SUV that can be configured to seat seven or eight passengers. It’s ideal for active families, but extreme adventuring parents should look elsewhere.

Though the Pilot offers a spacious cabin with 16.5 cubic feet of stowage behind the third row and a comfortable ride that will satisfy a long road trip, its all-wheel drivetrain and multi-terrain drive modes are more helpful in inclement weather or on twisty mountain roads or than off the beaten path.

For instance, the Pilot can seat, minivan-like, up to eight passengers, and the third-row is readily accessed via a one-touch button system engineered for child use. It has a hands-free power tailgate and gobs of cargo space. For those seeking tons of connectivity and entertainment options, the rear-seat screens are an option only in the top trims. For the most part these days, however, that’s fine—kids tend to be plenty entertained by their own devices, and dropping an extra grand into rear-seat entertainment can be a painfully useless gesture.

The Pilot also comes up a bit short with its front-seat infotainment system, which is similar to other Honda models in being clunky, unattractive, and generally difficult to use. For a lot of folks, that won’t matter, but anyone looking for a particularly modern machine will have to look elsewhere—at least in terms of infotainment.

In terms of safety, however, Honda is still very much the place to be, and the Pilot is no exception. It comes with Honda Sensing standard across all models, which includes adaptive cruise control, emergency brake assist, lane-keeping assist, and all manner of alerts and warnings. Some of them have hair-trigger reactions to perceived threats—more than once the Pilot slammed on the brakes when it wasn’t remotely necessary—but for the most part, they all work beautifully. The cameras seem to look in all directions, and the car always has a firm bead on its surroundings. 

This is important stuff, not just for the obvious safety reasons. Advanced driver assistance systems such as these also take the edge off driving. It makes commuting or long road trips less stressful when you’re able to click on active cruise control, and the lane centering is a reliable wingman for moments of human fallibility. As many family road trips can be somewhat crazed—along with the running of daily errands and shuttling of kids—having the car help out in this fashion is a godsend.

On the road, the Pilot is reasonably peppy and responsive—but not exactly a corner-carver. It remains poised enough, but Honda in general doesn’t bake bleeding-edge performance into its family-oriented cars. They bake in efficiency and economy, and there’s certainly no shame in that.

But even for owners who aren’t in a family way, the Pilot has much to recommend it, including solid cargo space for weekend road trips, a low-maintenance interior, and just enough composure on mild trails and snow to make it a reliable tool when you want to go live your life. On top of all that, wireless charging now accommodates your frequent exits and entries by relieving you of the tedium of constantly plugging your phone in while out hitting a bunch of destinations in a row. Just stash it on the platform under the dash, and it’ll top itself off.

Finally, check out the accessories available for the Pilot. Everything from seat protectors to cargo bin dividers to a folding cargo tray that you can spread across the rear floor when the back row is folded downward. It’s great for piling in muddy bicycles or sports gear, or stacking work supplies—all without having to worry about interior damage. The Pilot has been in Honda’s lineup since 2002, and clearly the company has learned a thing or two about what owners need to keep their rides going strong for the long-haul.