2026 Honda Pilot review: Small changes make a big difference

Mitchell Weitzman

3 days ago

6 min read

The refreshed interior should have happened three years ago

2026 Honda Pilot Elite AWD review | The Road Beat

2026 Honda Pilot review by The Road Beat

When the Pilot received its major and long-overdue overhaul in 2023, the interior was just not nearly nice enough to properly compare with some heavyweight rivals. It always drove really, really well, but the cheap and downmarket cabin was unbecoming of a brand-new SUV costing well over $50K in the trims tested.

Fast-forward three short years, and the interior has been the subject of a rethink. That transformation alone turns the Pilot into a serious competitor for a big family SUV, with just one remaining downfall.

Pilot

Headlining the 2026 Honda Pilot is, if the context clues hadn't already given it away, the interior. Its immediate forebear had a minuscule and disproportionate little screen perched atop its vast dashboard. Rivals were already offering larger displays, but this aging relic affixed up in plain view looked so wrong and out of place in the context of relative size.

Luckily, Honda's screen has grown considerably and looks much better and simply the right ratio.

Honda hasn't stopped short at just the screen, either, with a host of other upgrades and updates throughout that elevate the perceived initial quality wherever you find your fingers running. Not only does the Pilot look nicer and more modern, but it feels better in just about every aspect.

2026 Honda Pilot Elite interior | review by The Road Beat

Plus, I LOVE the fact Honda kept physical knobs and buttons for the climate control. Even the center console is better, and Honda has put a rubber mat inside to keep your stuff from sliding around endlessly, an issue on past recent Hondas tested.

Other Pilot traits remain, too, like the huge interior afforded by the 200-inch length that can easily transport most families, even the Scavos and their wild boys from Desperate Housewives.

I recently lambasted Volvo and the horribly clunky, difficult folding mechanisms for the second and third rows of seats in its luxury XC90 SUV, but the Honda is soooo easy in this regard. The rear seats and their release mechanisms are both effortless to use and feel shockingly high quality.

2026 Honda Pilot Elite interior rear seats

There's no slop in them, either, and it's little details like this that can go a long way toward making a big SUV easier and more pleasant to live with, especially when you need your SUV to be an SUV.

When wrung out to the max, the familiar 3.5-liter V6 underhood is a treat, with a great song that four-cylinders simply cannot replicate. The pull up top is strong, too, but it's just such a smooth and satisfying engine to exercise whether for a walk or jog.

Also deserving of praise is the 10-speed transmission, which, even if there were not any apparent changes since the last Pilot I tested in 2024, just seemed to shift quicker and more efficiently in every scenario.

The real treat of the Pilot, though, is how damn well it goes down a road. Whether curvy or perfectly straight, it really doesn't matter, because this is a driver's family SUV if there ever was one.

Now, don't take that as me calling this a sports SUV in the likes of an X5 M or a Cayenne, because it's not. What Honda does give you, however, is wholesome steering with actual feedback transmitting through the wheel, plus decent weighting that gives you extra command over the asphalt.

It's good on the highway, with easy confidence and straight tracking while eating up the miles. But take the Pilot down a curvy road for an unplanned waypoint and change of flight plan, and it excels to a surprising degree. Handling is both more playful and neutral than most other big SUVs, and you can carry surprising pace and dig into the brakes before the tires even start complaining. That's how dialed-in this chassis is.

2026 Honda Pilot Elite AWD interior front seats

You can also switch the car into Sport mode and take control of the gearshifts via the plastic paddles behind the wheel, and it's here in this combo that you can really get the DNA of Honda's all-stars. At a 7/10ths pace on Forni Road, down and back up the little canyon, it's a much more satisfying SUV to drive than a Toyota Highlander or Hyundai Palisade.

Despite the appetite for corners, the Pilot rides great, too. No sharp impacts or rattles are to be felt or heard—it's just rock solid and fulfills the perception of the expected Honda quality.

Nicks

This might seem like the perfect SUV so far and subject to a sudden thrust to the top of the SUV rankings, but there's a big issue holding it back: gas mileage.

With no other choice on the table, the only powertrain is the smooth and fun V6. And yes, I sang its praises earlier, but it consumes fuel at the rate of a Bostonian whose Red Sox were just eliminated from the baseball postseason.

19 MPG.

That's what I averaged in realistic and representative mixed driving, and that's a sore point for many potential drivers. Spend more time on level highways or country roads and the number may improve marginally, but the Pilot's thirst is still difficult to ignore.

2026 Honda Pilot Elite review exterior front three quarter photo

There's no hybrid option for the Pilot, putting it at a disadvantage against increasingly electrified competitors such as the Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid and the new hybrid versions of the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade. Even the Mazda CX-90 with its base inline-six averaged 25 MPG in my own testing.

No other way to put it: 19 MPG is pretty bad.

The engine itself has another small weakness. It's fun to rev up and get the most out of, but it's pretty weak below 3,000 RPM, which is where the majority of daily driving is done.

To top that off, I thought the cruise control was lackluster, often allowing the Pilot to exceed the set speed on downhill sections only to then apply the brakes on its own rather than simply coasting back down. That's another small but unnecessary way to waste fuel.

2026 Honda Pilot Elite cargo third row folded

Even if the Honda Pilot's interior is much nicer than before and easily on par with or better than a Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum, it's still a step below the initial quality and luxury of a top Kia Telluride, Hyundai Palisade, or Mazda CX-90

That said, it'll be interesting to see how they both fare long-term, as initial quality is the key term.

A great SUV just in need of extra MPG

If Honda can introduce a hybrid-assisted Pilot, it could have a preeminent champion on its hands. As competitors increasingly offer hybrid options capable of achieving 25 and even 30 MPG, a big Pilot averaging under 20 MPG is tough to swallow in 2026, especially with fuel prices where they are.

Yet, I like the Pilot. A lot.

It's a decently attractive-looking SUV with a generous and now high-enough-quality interior to be worthy of the year, but the real treat is how great the Pilot drives.

Not only that, but it outdrives spruced-up Korean rivals and also its arch-nemesis, Toyota. Only Mazda can really hang with the Pilot from behind the wheel, but Honda is right there.

The good news about the slightly archaic engine is that Honda has made versions of this basic V6 family for decades, so it provides a reassuring alternative for those wary of the small-displacement turbocharged engines that so many rivals now offer.

The Honda Pilot has a place in my heart, but it's up to you to decide if its binge-drinking can be looked past or not.