2023 Honda Pilot | Talking Cars #402
[Music] foreign [Music] hi and welcome back I'm Mike Quincy I'm Emily Thomas and I'm Mike Monticello So today we're gonna talk about Honda uh this company has been pretty busy redesigning redesigning five models in the past two model years uh we're talking about the Accord the Civic the CRV the HRV and Today's Car du jour actually that's redundant isn't it yeah okay so today we're going to talk about the Honda Pilot uh this was redesigned for 2023 uh it's a three row mid-sized SUV long history of good performance and CRS testing uh this is the largest most powerful SUV in Honda's history with an all-new dual overhead cam 285 horsepower 3.5 liter V6 engine I sound like I know what I'm talking about paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission uh this all adds up to about 21 miles per gallon overall according to the EPA it's available in seven or eight passenger seating configurations the pilot also comes with lots of standard safety features automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection Lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control are all standard and uh wow what a convenience we have doc M's here because the pilot also has a standard rear seat belt reminder and rear occupant alert system to warn of a child or a pet potentially left behind we purchased a touring version for our test program which Honda predicts will be you know the the trim with the highest sales volume the only option we got was a 395 dollar radiant red not just red radiant red paint uh which brought the grand total to uh fifty thousand two hundred and forty dollars not small change so um Emily I'm going to turn to you first in our in our first drive which um sweet Johnny Lynx took care of we still call them that right yeah okay at least Monty does we said um and I'm quoting here much of what made past Pilots a good choice for families Remains the interior is roomy third row access remains easy and passenger and cargo rumor generous this makes the pilot an ideal family vehicle and a perfect long trip companion would you agree with this true or false I know I feel like I'm on trial right now do you um where are you in the night I definitely would support those statements um I fun fact the Honda Pilot the previous generation was actually one of the test vehicles that we use in the child seat program it's one of our fit to vehicle cars or it was until we just recently transitioned it out because I got too old um the the model year that we that attached to some of us not anyone here obviously um but we use that primarily because you know the geometry made it a little challenging for fits but it's also a really common family vehicle the size of the vehicle the um the interior design Etc so the previous version and this version I think if you have a family it's still gonna deliver on a lot of those things I was able to do my fits in the car and to kind of do some of my rear seat assessments and it's really great for the families that need to be able to fit three across that second row bench um Honda does a great job with the pilot and the Odyssey of putting dedicated lower anchors in every rear seating position in that second row there's also um one set in the third row so if you need to be able to do a latch install there you could that allows for you to have more flexibility in terms of you know where you're able to install certain seats and things like that because a lot of times in that Center seating position it's really hard to get a good secure installation but with lower anchors that's much easier um especially if you're doing that three across like I said overall the fits for seat belt installations were pretty good in the second row third row is where it gets a little tricky because it's still kind of cramped back there so I would recommend putting forward facing car seats or boosters in the third row um another great thing that Honda does here is that they actually have tethers tether anchors on all the third row seats which is not common a lot of the oans only put maybe like one or two back there or none at all so another plus there and I think you know if you have kids and you're looking around a bunch of crap and you are looking around a bunch of humans it would be a really good car for that it would fit everybody it's nice and boxy you know what oh definitely definitely is a one of the highlights of for me for the pilot is is the great visibility and the you know the Airy cabin and all that stuff um but we can transition from crawling around the car inside to actually putting it out on the road or our track and and I'm gonna you know kind of transition over here to Mike and and say so what does it like to drive I mean I was just happy listening about the lower anchors into other anchors you know I love low rankers those things are awesome yes for all for all the stuff so you do you just you're just you're just going to sink this whole podcast with this anchor stuff so what I do uh oh my God okay so what's it like to drive um honestly not that much different than the last pilot it seems more like a more of a design you know styling refresh than anything you know it has the big news about the powertrain is that it's really not that big news and by that I mean they didn't it's still a 3.5 liter V6 yes it has 200 what is it 85 horsepower now when it had 280 before right so five more horsepower um and of course it does have a 10-speed automatic versus a 9-speed automatic but I think the big news is that they didn't switch to a turbo four cylinder like for instance the new Toyota Highlander has so that's that's that's kind of interesting that they didn't do that because that is the switch right if you've had a V8 you go to a turbo V6 if you've been using a B6 people are going to Turbo four cylinders so Honda did not do that yet uh maybe they will but there's some good things about that right so you there's something just very sweet about a naturally aspirated engine which means an engine that is not turbocharged okay not a supercharged or anything like that um and so you know it makes good power has plenty of power and it shifts pretty well what I would say is not so great is and I'm curious because sometimes I find you and I actually agree on some some things that uh some like details of Driving Experience we both agree on quite often and what I notice is that I don't know if it's a very short first gear but it can be kind of abrupt off the line which I found and so a little yeah and so because it seems like it's such a short first gear the engine ends up winding out pretty high and it gets kind of loud when you first like one two shift two three shift and that would be my only real downside with with the the powertrain is that it just comes across as kind of loud right uh which it did the thing that you taught me it goes and then it comes back down again yeah that's a technical term yeah yeah so he did it with the hand motions and everything yeah I mean that's usually I'm usually more talking about uh you know what CBT when I do that amazing impersonation of a continuously variable transmission but it does sort of seem like that because it does REV kind of if you get hard in the throttle kind of it just feels like it's going like why is it so loud uh but it actually isn't that isn't that loud of an engine uh and you know I think the upshifts are pretty smooth uh you feel occasional the downshifts they come with a little bit of a bump but nothing nothing too bad and then when you think about the handling well first of all you don't typically buy a mid-sized SUV 330 SUV for handling that's just not what they're about right so and this one is kind of like how it was before it does okay I was actually kind of impressed with the uh lack of body roll in normal to just slightly above normal driving which if you think about it is exactly the buyer they're intended it for right people are probably not going to push it that hard when you start to push it a little further wow then the body roll starts to set in and I I think you agree with me Quince the steering is just kind of lifeless and so that it handles yeah it handles okay kind of in spite of the not so great steering do you know what I mean yeah but it seems like that that's consistent with the approach yeah because the handling isn't isn't Uber sporty the steering isn't really well weighted but that's the audience yeah they're like in the middle kind of right but for the body roll I felt like it was too much for me because you know we we have some Vehicles right where it's really stiff you feel every bump and right in the road this one I felt like I didn't feel the bumps and ruts as much but it compensated by kind of sloshing me around as I was driving and I didn't like that I didn't like that it felt very kind of wobbly as I drove it and it's not like a hold on a second the term you used was was swoopy springy okay swoopy was the fact that it's not it doesn't have those like stylistic aspects of it where it's going to give you those you know pillars that are in your way and it's a box so it doesn't have swoopy styling but it does have wobbly handling springy springy handling springy yes um but so I'm sorry so I mean with the handling kind of really being not so satisfactory dude so you maybe wouldn't think of this as a as a great road trip car for me personally no because I feel like I I didn't like feeling like I was thrown around a lot and I wouldn't want that on a long trip short drives how hard were you driving this thing I wasn't driving that hard I took it around the back roads over here she's going for your job for your job Michael wants to do the interior it's done by the way um I'm sorry yes I would say I wouldn't necessarily like it for that reason but everything else about it makes it a good road trip car right the non-swoopiness the box-like shape of it makes it great for having to pack it up with a bunch of stuff you'd easily be able to fit all your luggage in there you can keep that third row down or have it half up you know whatever you want either way it's very accommodating and very flexible interior design which is great because depending on what you're doing you might only need some of the seating positions you might need more cargo space whatever it is so for that aspect of it totally the driving part for me personally I don't think I would go for this pilot okay so so Mike you're not going to load up the pilot uh with with kids but you're going to take take in account other other stuff yeah I might load it up with bicycles right uh so so is this is this road trip yeah I mean I've taken a pilot on road trips before and it's totally fine for if you're just you know if it's mostly Highway and you're going you know you're going to be sticking to the highway and straighten and whatever uh I think it works great for that and this one in particular works well for me because the driving position is well sorted for for me and what I mean by that is that has plenty ahead room I don't have any I'm gonna talk about it right knee center console intrusion she loves when I talk about that um and it doesn't have that and so to not feel squished in is and a well-placed armrest those are the things that are important to me for a road trip car right but the one downside with that is that for whatever reason the seat just doesn't work for me it's I found it overly firm and the it kind of runs out of of side bolstering on the seat back so it kind of up in my rib cage it kind of lets me just maybe that's what you're doing you're feeling you're flopping around in the seat because it wasn't supportive enough I mean I need a hug every once in a while and I like the seat that hugs me you know and this one doesn't really do that and it's too firm so for me that would be a reason why I probably wouldn't buy it because the seat's got to work for you and the seat is so obviously dependent on on body type and preference right some people like a really firm seat some people want a really squishy seat uh some people don't want any side bolstering I want tons of side bolstering so for me this seat doesn't work uh but lots of other aspects of the car of the of that I will say the driving position is so much better yeah if I had to we have a Pathfinder I know a lot of you guys love the Pathfinder I can't stand driving that because the Pathfinder I don't like to pass [Laughter] other people say they really like the past partner but it's really difficult for me because the driving position is terrible for me I cannot get my seat adjusted high enough so that I can see over the dash properly and I feel like I am like trying to drive with like the tips of my toes on the pedals and like peer over the dash that's not good it's terrible it's very uncomfortable but the pilot is a similar class vehicle right and I was fine I could see really great the visibility is wonderful I could reach everything that I needed to I could be as close as I needed to reach the pedals and seal the dash and do all the things and I was like so much happier about that I think it's so cool that you brought up the Pathfinder because this morning I drove in with the Infiniti QX60 which is you know basically the the twin of the Pathfinder and I had the same criticisms because I can't I can't I can't raise this seat high enough in the QX just like you can't in the pathfighter I mean obviously same sort of company same design stuff like that um so I'm totally with you on that it was terrible but no but and Mike I I like your assessment of the the pilot I'm I'm like almost 100 on I like the seats but I get how you say that they're stiff the the last Honda um uh CRV and the Civic I thought the seats were stiff sort of a Honda thing yeah I didn't find that as much with the pilot but the visibility the Headroom everything to me totally works I spent about eight plus hours driving this vehicle up in Vermont New Hampshire it was a my wife was working it was like a Saturday or Sunday or whatever and I just like I'm gonna just put my eyes on this car it was awesome um I I I really like this car a lot uh and the thing that stands out to me is the controls we drive so many high-end cars that have Uber ridiculous controls that are super hard to figure out I maintain that if you let your neighbor borrow the new Honda Pilot they could figure out everything and again you know and that that's to me because they're physical they're physical right buttons and knobs and that's they're not you know touch capacitive or uh you know on a on a panel or a touch screen right it's so so intuitive so I I I I you know hats off to Honda for for doing this and uh one of the great comments that John linkov made about uh the the new pilot compared is that that sweet Johnny Lynx guy but he was he was talking about the Acura MDX which is is is his family has and he's like you know the Acura has this stupid touch pad that doesn't work at all right the pilot which is a lower cost and you know a lower Prestige kind of thing has much better controls than the higher end version right so I thought that was that was awesome and I think he's right on the money with that and um you know just just a reminder these are our first impressions of the Honda Pilot uh check out our first drive at consumerreports.org for more we're going to be doing all the wrapping up the testing soon and we'll have the full test results so definitely check it out if you're a fan of this car because a bunch of us actually are which leads us to our audience questions we love your questions text 30 second videos send them all the talking cars at icloud.com that's talking cars at icloud.com
first uh the question we've got today is from Jeff who writes what happened to two and a half and five mile per hour bumpers I just watch your excellent review the new Lexus RX 350 and it looks like a body Shop's dream car it appears there isn't any sort of front bumper or protection if you accidentally pull too close to something same for the rear it looks like the hatch will get damaged if you back into something even very gently so what's the story no government requirements anymore I get that there's crash protection but how about everyday oopsies so we're going to talk about uh about these oopsies and um we call them love tests moment of silence for the Eagles I'm sorry I'm gonna get you started with it with the bumper so so Emily you looked into this uh what What's the current state of of bumper protection in cars these days so I did look it up and the bumper standard is alive and well it's still in effect it's not that the regulation has changed or that the requirement for vehicles to meet the bumper standard has changed bumper design has changed and I would say that even bumper function has changed whereas before your classic bumpers were meant for little oopsies or love Taps now they have a lot more things that they need to do that's where a lot of the sensors are for the various safety systems that we have in our vehicles and they have to they have more aesthetic to them now they have more function more design your traditional bumper the kind that he's looking for is likely still there but it's behind the superficial part that has also these other pieces to it right but but I mean in terms of just even a a little you know a supermarket you know little incident backing into somebody or something this could be a lot more expensive to probably replace these with Those sensors right yeah we had one instance where well I had one instance where I was at a stop sign and the person coming up on the ramp behind me like they thought I was going and I hadn't moved yet I forgot to stop yeah and then kind of and so they tapped me and it looked like it was only minor damage to one of the test cars but then when John took a look at it and he sent it to the repair shop it ended up being a higher cost because the sensors had to be recalibrated and so you think that it's not going to be that much now but it actually is more because we have a lot more technology that's integrated into these designs so so but but you and I remember you know the the Chrome can I can I go to camera one I'm gonna do my old man voice in my day you could sue the bumpers on cars and they were either Chrome or they had this like rubbery stuff that's my old man voice oh anyway they were metal they were Chrome they had maybe a rubber type material and so you could actually bump into something and often there'd be no damage or maybe just a little scrape to that black material uh or worst case not worst case scenario but also potentially the bumper just maybe gets you know like bent up slightly and what do you do we live with it for the rest of the time we own a car we don't ever do anything with it right because it's just ultimately or down slightly but the point is you know in terms of like you don't have to worry about did you break uh the plastic that uh is covering the bumper on the modern cars did you uh scrape the paint uh did you chip it scratch it whatever none of that's on there it was just metal and or this rubberish material and so I kind of missed those although aesthetically you know all you kids care about now is Aesthetics and aerodynamics for some reason and so the days of the actual you know seeing the bumper and the days of uh you know almost no damage or potentially no damage if you do have an oopsie those are those are gone all right but you can you can't you can't go out driving anywhere without seeing a car that's been like duct taped together with one of the new bumpers because it's falling off right the front clip as we call it is is someone bumped into something so now the front clip of the car the basically hanging down prop it up you put some duct tape and that wouldn't have happened that wouldn't happen back in the old days when I stood up for my interview at the track in my 96 Corolla had a little had some issues with this bumper but what did I do flip the 96 and you know and as as long-term fans of consumer reports May know we used to have part of our test protocols was a bumper Basher that sounds fun yeah it's not like the bumper cars at at Disneyland or anything but um we we had uh this apparatus that was uh that was built into the concrete floor of our garage that simulated a a like a a tap on on a bumper and uh the reason we got into this and it's a whole thing but it's like the government one time required no damage to Bumpers and impacts up to five mile per hour miles per hour but then they lowered it to two and a half miles an hour because car companies complained so so yes the government kind of caved to the car companies uh but but we continue to test for compliance and report it on the repair cost for Consumer information but only for vehicles where that were classified as passenger cars right right and then as we know in the in the like the late 80s and 90s the the market was shifting to to SUVs and pickup trucks which weren't subject to these kinds of regulations um so it kind of created a double standard for us because most people aren't buying the sedans and sports cars they're buying trucks but we're not testing oh I see so you because you weren't doing the bumper bashing on everything it didn't make sense to only do it now so we so we began a process of doing away with this uh because partly because the public was confusing with crash test safety which it really really wasn't wasn't a thing and and um and it was really costing us like about 50 000 a year to bash some of these bumpers how much it cost and then we go get it repaired and so so we really kind of we said we really don't we don't feel that we need to do this anymore and I got to give a shout out to Gabe shanahar he's he was a really great historian when it came to this and and kind of told the the rise and and eventually fall of the of the bumper I thought you were about to tell us that he was really great at bashing into things well you know that's you ran the test that's a different issue how we treat our test cards news at 11. um uh no he was he was he was really good about about kind of uh uh talking about how we we started and how we eventually kind of phased out of it and who knew that we had so much to talk about when it came to Bumpers I know I mean really yeah seriously all right well big thing we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna put a halt to that and try to wrap this up uh uh this awesome podcast was of course produced by super producer Dave Abrams edited by Andrew I still play guitar Belize and of course Anatoly the great chimsky uh just a reminder keep this keep the questions coming the talking cars at icloud.com and check the show notes if you want more information on the vehicles and the topics that we discussed just thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you next week foreign [Music]
2023-03-16 21:58
