Here's a good read, they put 40,000 miles on their 2009 Honda Pilot and go over the results....
Ground Control: Another pilot as reliable as Captain Sully.
At Harry Houdini’s funeral, Broadway producers Charles Dillingham and Florenz Ziegfeld agreed to be pallbearers. As they hoisted the coffin out of the church, Dillingham said, “Ziggie, I bet you a hundred bucks he ain’t in here.”
So popular was our long-term
Honda Pilot Touring 4WD that, during the summer vacation months, you could likewise bet that its keys weren’t hanging on the sign-out board but were, instead, somewhere out of state. We should have called it the Honda Houdini.
Our Pilot logged its requisite 40,000 miles in 53 weeks, during which spell its 250-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 was rarely cool. The Pilot visited Ohio, New Jersey, Minnesota, both Dakotas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Hershey swap meet, Yellowstone National Park, a Kruse auction, and Manhattan Island. It also carried maybe 350 pounds’ worth of camera and camping gear to Montana in support of our “
The Hard Way to Hemingway” feature [December 2009].
In Big Sky country, the Pilot bumped its way along roughly 100 miles of Forest Service roads, where we failed to knock off the chin spoiler but repeatedly scraped the twin chrome exhaust tips while exiting gullies and washouts. We never fully tested its 19-inch wading potential, but, as capabilities go, it was comforting.
Honda has blessed the Pilot with practical design cues aplenty. There’s a useful storage bin beneath the rear third of the cargo bay, cleverly proportioned so that it can still be used when the third-row seats are upright. The backlight opens independently of the rear hatch, and its wiper sweeps about 80 percent of the glass. The IP gauges are paragons of clarity, although the 50 center-stack buttons, dials, and switches are daunting, especially the identical radio volume and tuning knobs, which are confusingly mounted directly atop one another. And here’s something you don’t often see: The automatic temperature control can be set as low as 58 degrees and as high as 86 degrees.
During its life with us, the Pilot was as reliable as congressional spending. It required routine servicing four times, for oil, tire rotation, a variety of inspections, one new cabin air filter, and, strangely, two fresh loads of rear differential lubricant. Those four stops cost $566. Along the way, we replaced the front-wiper-blade inserts ($10), and the V-6 consumed but a half quart of extracurricular oil. The lone item to malfunction was a two-inch plastic trim piece, which fell off during Week One, but we’ll be damned if we can find what it was attached to. Automobiles don’t get more reliable than that.
We did, however, experience a faint, intermittent pulsing through the brake pedal, as if one rotor were mildly warped. It never rose to any appreciable level of annoyance, and, in any event, the pulsing would reliably vanish just before each servicing.
Curiously, the Pilot’s gray leather seats, fore and aft, took on a somewhat disgusting beige patina of, oh, say, the towel that hangs above the french-fry vat at Irvel’s All-U-Can-Eat. This Honda’s leather has a pebbled surface, and the interstices between pebbles apparently are uniquely talented at collecting grime. We scrubbed the cushions first with Griot’s Interior Cleaner, then Armor All Multi-Purpose Auto Cleaner, then plain old Windex. Each worked equally well, which is to say not very. The seats still look as though they should be steam-cleaned with Clorox. In addition, the liftgate’s interior plastic panel appears to have been mauled by a wolverine wielding a cheese grater.
Otherwise, the seats in the Pilot approached perfection: firm but never confining, with an aggressive lower-back bolster much appreciated by the over-50 crowd. Our pilots piloted the Pilot on dozens of 10-to-12-hour slogs. For such spells, the seats drew nothing but praise, and, on at least two occasions, we loaded the vehicle to its eight-passenger capacity. Briefly.
Other complaints? Well, the Pilot’s V-6 produces less power than five of its close competitors, a trait that occasionally drew attention during passing maneuvers and on-ramp sprints. When new, the Pilot required 7.9 seconds to get to 60 mph; a year later, it was 0.2 second quicker. Editors who deployed the Pilot as a tow vehicle—trailering, for instance, a 6-by-12-foot U-Haul box, a 600-pound catamaran, and a Honda S2000 race car—resigned themselves to leisurely motoring, with fuel economy dipping as low as 9 mpg.
The other major criticism was that the Acura MDX–based Pilot always felt, well, a little more truckish than SUVish. In part, that perception can be blamed on the slightly heavy steering. But around town, in particular, the Pilot felt a tad slow-witted, larger than its actual dimensions, and less than eager to make directional changes. Squirting in and out of holes in traffic—and zigzagging through crowded parking lots—required care and forethought.
There were also a few beefs about road noise. The Pilot’s firm suspension was adept at yielding to scabrous pavement, but the Michelin LTXs and the 17-inch wheels too audibly telegraphed their outrage with various ka-thunks and ker-blams. On the other hand, the knobby tires were terrific in the snow.
For the rest of the article follow the link;
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/10q1/2009_honda_pilot_touring_4wd-long-term_road_test
2011 Product Changes:
Honda’s inventory for light trucks is low – a sign of revitalized consumer confidence, according to Executive Vice President John Mendel. In an interview at the Moving Ahead sustainable-transportation conference, Mendel said that inventory is very short on the light-truck side, “whether it’s Pilot or Ridgeline or Odyssey or CR-V.”
2011 Honda Pilot LX 2WD
Pilot's Size and Practicality Hard to Beat
Honda's Acura luxury brand introduced an all-new version of the MDX 2007 model, and now along comes the all-new 2009 Honda Pilot. Mechanically, these two crossover utility wagons share many elements — though Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive remains an Acura exclusive.
The FINANCIAL -- The 2010 Honda Pilot crossover combines car-like road manners and around-town driving ease with the most sought-after SUV traits by virtue of its spacious interior, rugged character and all-weather confidence.
The times have certainly changed for the sport utility market. While SUVs enjoyed tremendous sales success in recent years, the rising price of gasoline coupled with a weakened economy has driven down SUV sales more recently. As a result, dealers are struggling to move SUV inventory these days, even with attractive incentives. The hardest hit by this trend may be domestic automakers as they have relied on the sales successes of gas guzzling midsize and large SUVs.
Honda announced today that it will cut production of the Odyssey minivan and Pilot by 10,000 units total at its Lincoln assembly plant. Honda produced 158,316 Odysseys and pilots at the plant in the first half of 2008, down by 2.4 percent during the same period last year.
By Richard Russell
For all us Canadians, keep in mind that the gas mileage numbers are in US gallons, the mileage if it is 1mpg better should look like this, 21mpg city/29mpg hwy. Eh.
Let's cut to the chase. Setting aside the Pilot's appearance, the new unit is generally a much better vehicle than the 2008 model. Under the hood, propulsion still comes from a 3.5-liter V6 with a slew of upgrades. The new engine spins out 250 hp and 253 pound-feet of torque, increases of 6 hp and 13 lb.-ft. respectively. Fuel economy picks up 1 mpg across the board, thanks in part to a new version of Honda's variable cylinder management (VCM) deactivation system. Previously, VCM would simply shut off one bank of cylinders. The new version can run on three, four or six cylinders, with four-cylinder mode available by disabling one cylinder on each bank. 
The unibody has seen one of the most significant upgrades, with high strength steels growing from 13-percent of the body structure to 52-percent, resulting in seriously improved rigidity. Honda has also implemented what it calls Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) into the structure. According to Honda, ACE provides better protection for occupants in the event of a crash involving vehicles with different bumper heights. The extra inch of body width on the new model also meant that Honda was able to fit a third LATCH position in the middle row for mounting child seats. A fourth kid seat can be mounted in the third row. The second row seats are split 60/40 and each can slide forward independently to provide some extra leg room for those relegated to the back forty. 
Speaking of that rear-most row, hip room in the back-back is only 48.4 inches. With the middle seat pulled forward, there's a reasonable amount of leg room, but using all three nominal seating positions will require either super model-thin passengers or some extreme coziness. The seat is mounted high off the floor, so passengers won't be sitting "knees up" like they do in the much larger Chevy Tahoe SUV. However, if you go back to the 48.4-inch hip dimension for a moment, you'll notice that is slightly more than four feet. That means if you fold the second and third rows of seats, you can lay the proverbial 4'x8' sheet of plywood flat.
As always, the prime seats are up front and here Honda shines. Just like the Accord, the Pilot's seats are wonderfully comfortable and supportive. The instrument cluster has an interesting new look. The gauges have transparent front faces and the needles are reminiscent of a vintage radio dial. The shift lever has moved from the steering column to the center stack, below and to the left of the audio system. Where the new Pilot falls down is the materials and assembly of the dashboard. The plastics are hard and the textures look cheaper than those in a Honda Fit. Perhaps worst of all is the fit and placement of some the seams. Compared to the current version, the new model looks distinctly cost reduced.
Fortunately, that's really the only area that feels cheaper. The driving experience is vastly improved, beginning with engine noise. The new Pilot has both active engine mounts and active noise cancellation. Combined with the much improved structure, the interior environment of the Pilot is downright serene in everything from the base model up to the new, top-end Touring model. Another advantage of a stiff structure is that it allows the suspension to work more efficiently. The Pilot feels more compliant, soaking up the heavily patched pavement in a controlled and compliant manner. In transient maneuvers, the 4,500-pound Pilot feels lighter and more responsive than the GM Lambda crossovers. That's because, in spite of increased dimensions and equipment, all that previously mentioned high strength steel allowed the weight of the body to be reduced and the overall heft held about even with the old model.
Acceleration feels adequate for the type of vehicle this is, but it certainly won't be confused with some of the more sporting crossovers like Audi Q7 TDI 4.2. On the other hand, the Pilot is skewed more toward the utility side of the equation and those looking for better performance might want to check out the Acura MDX that shares a platform with the Pilot. Still, even a family-oriented utility vehicle needs to be able stop quickly, and the new 13-inch brake rotors front and rear provide a claimed 11-percent reduction in stopping distance. The stability control on the Pilot also compares favorably with other Hondas we've tried. An informal lane change maneuver on a gravel road just off the official test loop showed the stability control to be extremely smooth and effective. The only dynamic issue we found with the Pilot was some torque steer on the front-wheel-drive model.
The test route we drove didn't provide an opportunity to try out the new hill assist system, so we'll have to wait for a longer evaluation period to play with it. Hill assist uses a longitudinal accelerometer to detect when the vehicle is on a hill. If you apply the brakes while the Pilot is stopped on an incline and then release the brakes, the traction control system will hold the pressure in the brakes until you hit the gas pedal. As soon as the throttle opens up the brakes are released.
The shifter is now located on the dash as opposed to on the steering column which is just more of an update than anything. I am glad that Honda didn't put the shifter in the middle console like alot of other vehicles, this leaves the Pilot with a full middle console. The Pilot also finally gets dual zone climate control and a auto day/night mirror.
One this last photo, it's nice to see dual exhaust finally make it's way to the Pilot.