Auto review: Refresh keeps the Honda Pilot on pace with the competition

The good news about the refreshed 2019 Honda Pilot Elite is the nine-speed transmission operates without a hitch. The bad news is the top trim level costs more than $48,000.

What’s worse is that price is about average for a well-equipped three-row midsize SUV. A basic Acura MDX with the same powertrain costs less, but doesn’t have all the dings, zings and things. Compared with the top two contenders in the class, Pilot Elite is about $4,000 more than the top Subaru Ascent and a couple hundred less than the top Volkswagen Atlas.

These are the two newest offerings for America’s favorite family hauler, and they are arguably the best. The only knock against the Pilot has been fixed for the midcycle refresh, and it once again should be considered in the top three.

All three do the same things and serve the same needs, so the differences come down to personality. It’s what makes a Pilot a Honda and an Ascent a Subaru. Different personalities appeal to different people. That’s why most people who read car reviews (bless you) mostly want validation of that most unquantifiable thing: a feel.

Despite a revised fascia intended to be more aggressive, the Pilot blends into the midsize SUV space with bland styling and big overhangs. On old dirt roads strewn with rocks in the Colorado Rockies at 11,000 feet, the Pilot’s torque vectoring all-wheel drive system was surprisingly capable. It provided the kind of confidence needed for modest off-roading or short-cutting on questionable access roads.

On the inside it feels the roomiest of its competitors. Yet, the lighter-weight Pilot doesn’t drive like the largest; in AWD it gets 2 mpg better in the city, and 3 mpg better highway than the Atlas, which is a big deal. Ascent is about the same as Pilot, and they both come with three seats in the third row, whereas the Atlas only has two. All claim to have a towing capacity of 5,000 pounds.

The Pilot has solid acceleration and passing power from its 280-horsepower V-6 engine. Shifts are smooth and predictable from the nine-speed transmission, including startup in second gear for a lurchless launch. The start/stop system has been revised to include fewer restarts when the air conditioner is on, though we didn’t test this because, well, it's November. 

On the inside, the Elite trim doesn’t have that same premium feel as the surprising Ascent. It has leather-trimmed seats, a heated leather-wrapped steering wheel and mid-row captain’s chairs, but the control interface and dash and door panels feel like massaged plastic, not unlike the Atlas.

Could a $48,000 purchase come down to the all-important third row? Taking a page from the Odyssey minivan and the Acura MDX three-row crossover, the seat folding, shifting and configuring is about the easiest in the class without power buttons. Third-row seats are easy to collapse from the rear with pull straps that collapse the headrests; Ascent requires manual lowering of headrests to collapse the third row.

The refreshed Pilot pushes all the right buttons to keep pace with the newcomers in a segment that is rarely exciting but gives owners the kind of versatility, practicality and sophistication they prefer. When it comes down to which one is best, it’ll be the one that feels the best.