2012 Honda Pilot Overview Change Vehicle

This 2012 Honda Pilot review explains changes for the model year, provides a summary of the 2012 Pilot, and includes Honda Pilot safety, reliability, and fuel economy ratings.

The Pilot is Honda’s largest SUV, one that splits the difference between a midsize and a large model. It’s a crossover SUV designed primarily for use on paved roads, features a third-row seat for up to eight passengers, and competes against vehicles like the Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Explorer, and Toyota Highlander.

Honda restyles the Pilot for 2012, replacing its industrial-looking grille with what it hopes is a more sophisticated three-bar design. The whole front end is new, yet familiar, with the reconfigured headlights still doing their best impression of a Michelle Bachmann Time magazine cover. New 18-inch wheel designs debut for all except the base Pilot LX models.

Inside, Honda has taken steps to resolve the Pilot’s cluttered dashboard and displays by refining colors, revising textures, and simplifying the layout for more intuitive operation. Bluetooth hands-free calling and audio streaming is now standard on all except the LX model, along with a 2-gig hard-drive CD library. The leather-lined EX-L gets a new full color multi-information display, a USB port, and a power tailgate. Pilot EX-L and Touring equipped with the navigation system gain high-resolution graphics, additional hard-drive storage with Song by Voice music file retrieval, FM traffic reports, voice-recognition for three languages, and a multi-view reversing camera.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the Pilot fuel economy rises this year thanks to engineering and aerodynamic enhancements, including the new front styling, low-rolling resistance tires, and other enhancements. Honda says the 2012 Pilots get better fuel economy than any other eight-passenger SUV*.

* 2WD models only

Honda sells the re-vamped Pilot in the same four trim levels as before: LX, EX, EX-L and Touring. Each is available with front-wheel drive or Honda’s Variable Torque Management four-wheel-drive system.

The Pilot LX is equipped with everything you need and nothing you don’t. Well, except for a nice set of alloy wheels, because the Pilot LX’s standard 17-inch steelies look pretty low rent. So does all that black plastic trim. But if this is all you can afford, you’re getting front and rear air conditioning, power windows, power side mirrors, power door locks with remote keyless entry, cruise control, and a tilt/telescopic steering wheel. The steering wheel has a CD/MP3 player, as well as an auxiliary audio input jack. Every Pilot LX also has a trip computer, illuminated visor mirrors, sliding sun visors, floor mats, a cargo light, rear privacy glass, and a Class III towing receiver.

Upgrading to the Pilot EX adds a triple-zone automatic climate control system with a humidity control, a 10-way power driver’s seat, body-trim trim, and 18-inch alloy wheels. Bluetooth hands-free calling and music streaming is also standard, along with satellite radio, a two-gig CD library hard drive, and a HomeLink universal remote. The EX also has an outside temperature indicator, a security system, roof rails, and fog lights.

The Pilot EX-L is equipped with a leather interior. Heated front seats, a power front passenger’s seat, a power sunroof, a power tailgate, an information and entertainment screen, and a USB port are also included on this model. Pilot EX-L buyers can add a Navigation Package or a Rear-seat Entertainment Package, but not both. Either includes a 115-volt power outlet. Additionally, the Navigation Package includes a high-resolution dash screen, a bigger onboard hard-drive with more music file storage space, Song by File song file retrieval, and a multi-mode reversing camera.

Touring models are fully equipped with both the Navigation Package and the Rear-seat Entertainment Package. Additionally, the Pilot Touring has a premium sound system, front and rear parking sensors, memory settings for the driver, integrated side mirror turn signal indicators, and a unique alloy wheel design.

Honda installs a 3.5-liter V6 engine equipped with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) technology in every 2012 Pilot. VCM allows the engine to operate on just three- or four-cylinders under low-load driving conditions. When maximum power is required, there’s 250 horsepower at 5,700 rpm and 253 lb-ft. of torque at 4,800 rpm delivered to the front or all four wheels through a five-speed automatic transmission with grade logic control. Honda’s Variable Torque Management 4WD is fully automatic, and features a Lock mode at speeds under 18 mph in first or second gears for greater low-speed traction.

According to the EPA, the Honda Pilot gets 18 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway with front-wheel drive, and 17 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway with four-wheel drive.

Honda says the 2012 Pilot benefits from an Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, which is designed to channel crash energy around the passenger cabin in the event of an accident. The Pilot also has six airbags including three-row side curtains, traction and stability control, and a four-wheel-disc antilock braking system with electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist. The Pilot EX-L with Navigation and the Touring models also have individual tire pressure monitor sensors and a multi-mode reversing camera.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rated the 2011 Pilot in every one of its strengthened test parameters last year, but for 2012 the government agency elects not to carry over the Pilot’s previous 5-Star side impact rating. That leaves us to report a 4-Star frontal impact rating and a 4-Star rollover resistance rating.

In tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the 2011 Pilot missed getting a Top Safety Pick rating due to a Marginal rating for roof crush strength. Since the updated 2012 Pilot is structurally identical to last year’s model, we don’t expect this result to change. In the offset frontal-, side-, and rear-impact assessments, the Pilot gets the top “Good” rating.

Reliability predictions are favorable. Consumer Reports says the Pilot is expected to provide better than average reliability, while J.D. Power and Associates thought the 2011 Pilot would deliver slightly better than average dependability over time.

With the optional navigation system and hard-drive music storage system, the 2012 Honda Pilot’s Song By Voice technology allows the driver to find music on the hard drive through voice commands.

The Honda Pilot can tow 2,000 pounds with front-wheel drive, or 4,500 pounds with four-wheel drive.

Cargo space measures 18 cubic-feet with the third-row seat raised, 47.7 cu-ft with the third-row seat folded down, and a total of 87 cu-ft with the second-row seat folded. There’s also a storage well under the rear floor panel measuring 2.8 cu-ft.

Honda has specifically designed the Pilot to accommodate items that are four feet wide. Touring models are equipped with a cargo net that can divide the cargo area horizontally and hold up to 20 pounds.

Roomy, well equipped, and designed for the way Americans live, the 2012 Pilot sure looks like a compelling package, especially with this year’s new-and-improved styling. Reliability predictions are also favorable. What worries us in that Marginal roof crush strength rating, and the fact that the NHTSA elected not to carry over the side-impact crash-test rating for 2012. Otherwise, the Pilot makes perfect sense.

By Christian Wardlaw