If you’re a car person, your coworkers probably ask you for advice every time they buy a car, then go out and buy a Japanese crossover. Who could blame them? Most people are really just looking for validation, and on paper, a Honda, Toyota, or Mazda is generally a fairly smart choice. Still, if you find yourself roped into these water cooler conversations, it helps to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in that space so you can at least somewhat attempt to steer the ship. This is the 2026 Honda Pilot, and the stylists have been at work making it look a little more macho.
The first thing you need to know is that there aren’t any major mechanical changes under the skin of the updated 2026 Honda Pilot, save for a revised insulation package aimed at cutting noise. It still features Honda’s 285-horsepower quad-cam 3.5-liter V6 with hydraulic lifters that finally did away with periodic valve adjustments, along with a ten-speed automatic transmission. The available all-wheel-drive system still has a torque-splitting rear differential that can overdrive the outside wheel for better on-throttle cornering, and the off-roady TrailSport trim still gets skid plates. However, Honda has re-tuned the electric power steering and added a post-collision braking system in case a driver panics after an impact and forgets to hit the brake pedal. Smart thinking.
While the pre-facelift model was handsome, its trapezoidal front grille and slim air curtains really aligned its look with that of the CR-V. Not a bad move for familiarity, but there’s a chance buyers in this segment are looking for something a little more macho. With that in mind, Honda’s pulled a page out of the Ridgeline handbook and made its three-row crossover look blockier and a tad more imposing thanks to a bigger, squarer grille. A new front fascia with a chunky bit of silver trim completes the look, and it works decently overall. The brand calls the revised styling “more aspirational” and yeah, there’s some SUV aspiration here. Considering much of the competition also sports huge maws, it stands to reason this is what the people want.
Things really change in the cabin, where Honda will gleefully tell you that the new Pilot gets a 37 percent larger infotainment screen and a 43 percent larger digital instrument cluster, measuring 12.3 inches and 10.2 inches respectively. This is essentially the same setup as you get in the Passport midsize crossover, and it’s a welcome improvement. Judging by experience in other models, the new standard Google built-in infotainment system is leagues more fluid than the old setup, and standard Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are pleasing additions.
Speaking of standard features, another highlight of the 2026 Pilot is that it just gives you a little bit more stuff per trim level. All trims now get a power liftgate and roof rails, the TrailSport gets heated second-row seats, the Touring gets a 360-degree camera system, and the Elite gains suede upholstery. Small gains, sure, but welcome nonetheless. Speaking of colors, materials, and finishes, a new blue paint joins the party, the TrailSport gets an available sage color and optional brown leather, and the Touring gets slightly different brown leather upholstery. You know, because greyscale is boring.
If pricing stays about the same as the 2025 model, the 2026 Honda Pilot feels like a no-brainer if you want a practical three-row crossover without the complexity of forced induction. While the styling is a bit brash, the extra features and noise-reduction measures should make this the best Pilot yet.
Top graphic image: Honda
So it now looks like an Acadia (not a good thing), still has the troublesome V6 (with a timing belt) , has the annoying and space-wasting electronic gear selector that was seemingly inspired by a kid’s toy (and with similar quality), and gains more gizmos that will fail.
Easy pass.
I haven’t been able to recommend a honda/Acura passenger vehicle for almost 2 decades. This hasn’t changed that.
I’m glad we didn’t hold out for the ’26 facelift. They made it uglier, and got rid of the best color, Diffused Sky Pearl.
“The Honda Pilot is a box for Dad Jokes.” – Regular Car Reviews.
A little more thorough of an update than I expected given Honda’s track record with MCEs lately.
We’ll be shopping in this class soon, but alas…no hybrid no care. This thing is still an absolute gas hog. As I’ve said in the past…my wife and I COULD put up with it, but why would we? Multiple competitors offer hybrids that average 30+ MPG combined. The 21 combined a non-Trailsport hybrid gets is just totally unacceptable in 2025 and makes these a non-starter for us and I assume a lot of other shoppers.
Yeah. Honda has more hybrids coming out, but it should be standard on all their SUV’s at this point.
The fact that they still don’t have a hybrid for their large platform in 2025 is a huge unforced error
21 is very optimistic too. Granted we have the Trailsport but the most recent road trip with cruise control set to 80mph we only managed 19.6mpg, slowing down to 75mph only netted 20.7. In town we struggle to get better than 17mpg. My wife loves it, but I have no idea how Honda managed to get so little fuel economy out of it.
Without the headlights and tacked on tablet inside, I would be hard pressed to find a substantial difference from a 2008 pilot. Near 20 years on its a bit more powerful, a bit more efficient, and a bit bigger. It hauls the same number of people, tows about the same amount, and has almost the exact same cargo space. As for tough = offroad, it has less ground clearance unless you by the offroady one. That gains you .3 inch more than standard in 2008.
Don’t forget Trailsport gets a slight lift and A/T tires (IMO, they’d be better off giving you two sets of wheels as a selling point, but most people want that rugged look 24/7). IIRC, it’s also has some transmission trickery to approximate a crawl gear electronically.
I still think it’s long overdue for a hybrid system because these things are all pretty thirsty, but good V6 reliability pays for a LOT of fuel. OTOH, it can be a hard sell against the slightly smaller CR-V Hybrid that absolutely destroys the Pilot in efficiency.
It’s also a hard sell against the a hybrid Highlander (grand or regular), the new Palisade hybrid, or even just a base CX90. Both hybrids get better CITY mileage than a regular AWD Pilot and the mild hybrid CX90 is only one MPG off from doing so as well. Choose the Trailsport trim and a Pilot or Passport is, somehow, less efficient than a lot of body on frame competitors.
How Honda managed to pull that off is a mystery to me. Anyway, I think these are nice cars, and if you only do rural driving the MPG benefit of a hybrid might not be worth the added complexity. But the fuel economy is just totally unacceptable in 2025 and that’s why my wife and I won’t be looking at a Pilot despite being in the market for a car in this class.
FWIW The Honda drives way better than the GH, and the CX90 packaging is atrocious. It’s why my wife picked it over those two. The gas mileage sucks, but at $8k less than the GH hybrid in a similar spec, while also being nicer to drive, it was an easy choice. It would take roughly 8 years at $3.00/gallon for us to break even with the GH based on the amount of driving we do. Based on our normal turnover rate for cars, we won’t have it longer than 5.
I get it but I am not a fan of looking tough and not being tough. I would rather have something that looks like a X-90 covered in pompoms that has actual recovery points armor, and 4 low and can actually go off road than a car with plastic trim around the wheel arches and no recovery points that “looks” tough.
At least this one actually has metal skidplates, which is better than most of the appearance package CUVs offer. The reviews of it were pretty solid. The lack of recovery points is weird, though — allegedly the front one is up under/behind the plastic air dam and would do some damage if you actually used it.
I’m not sure who thought suede upholstery would be a good idea for what is fundamentally a family car, but they should have left that to just the MDX.