Only Pretending It’s a Brute

IF Honda’s designers feel they have been double-crossed by American consumers, it would be understandable.

But I think it is really just a matter of bad timing, not treachery. Several years ago, when Honda was planning the redesign of its Pilot utility wagon for 2009, drivers told researchers they wanted the next generation to look more like an S.U.V.

So Honda did it. But now as the trucky-looking Pilot is reaching showrooms, American consumers are panicking over gas prices — and shunning trucks as if they were bank-account devouring monsters, which isn’t all that far off.

The truck share of the overall light-vehicle market in the United States fell to 47 percent in the first five months of this year, from a peak of nearly 55 percent in 2004, according to J. D. Power & Associates. And sales of large S.U.V.’s, which the new Pilot now resembles more closely (intentionally, but unfortunately) are shriveling as pump-dazed car buyers shift to smaller vehicles.

Honda’s considerable task, then, is to persuade shoppers that beneath the Pilot’s brutish sheet metal is a crossover that uses car-type construction, powered by a V-6 engine that can save fuel by backing down from six cylinders to four or even three when conditions permit.

This is the first redesign of the Pilot since the original was introduced in 2002 and quickly became a hit. The second generation was developed in the United States and is built in Lincoln, Ala., where its 3.5-liter engine is also made.

The Pilot is available with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive and comes in four trim levels. Prices of two-wheel-drive models start at $28,265 for the LX, $31,065 for the EX, $34,265 for the EX-L and $37,465 for the fancy Touring version. All-wheel drive is about $1,600 more.

I tested a Touring with all-wheel drive priced at $40,625.

The market has changed considerably since the first Pilot. There is much more competition from a formidable gathering of other crossover (that is, car-based) utilities like the Saturn Outlook, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia, all from General Motors; the Toyota Highlander; and the Mazda CX-9.

While the exterior of the Pilot has been toughened up for ’09, the interior follows a theme of thoughtfulness and practicality. That includes a huge, multisection storage compartment between the comfortable front seats that leaves no excuses for disorganization.

The second- and third-row seats are split 60-40, and the second row also moves fore and aft almost three inches. All this combines to provide a pleasing amount of flexibility for the payload, whether human or otherwise.

The 2009 model’s overall length (and wheelbase) increased 2.9 inches. Honda says that translates into about an inch more legroom in the second row and almost two inches more in the third row.

As the result of this growth, Honda declares the new Pilot to be a “true eight-passenger vehicle” designed to provide “an equal and enjoyable experience” for each passenger. This attempt at a Family Motoring Bill of Rights is an admirable goal, perhaps, but one that the Pilot does not really deliver on.

Eight people will not be happy in the Pilot unless three of them are adolescents willing to endure prolonged flank-to-flank contact. Carrying eight adults and achieving happiness will require sedatives and a predeparture application of silicone lubricant.

During the week I tested the Pilot I also had a Toyota Highlander for comparison. In the same spirit of boastful optimism, Toyota says the Highlander is a seven-passenger vehicle. The Highlander feels far narrower and tighter inside than the Pilot, and there is also less legroom in the Highlander’s third row.

Under way, the Pilot is slightly troubled by wind and road noise, a longtime weak point for Honda. After the superquiet Buick Enclave came out last year, Honda engineers added soundproofing materials to the Pilot, but it wasn’t enough to match the Enclave’s interior tranquillity.

All Pilots come with a full complement of safety equipment, from side-impact air curtains to electronic stability control. The front seats have active head restraints designed to move forward in a rear impact and minimize the chance of neck injuries. The Pilot has not been crash-tested by either the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Cargo capacity behind the third row is rated at 20.8 cubic feet, twice as much as the Highlander holds. The Pilot has a plastic-lined compartment below the floor for temporary storage of messier cargo. For carrying even more, the Pilot’s third row easily folds down. Doing so increases the cargo capacity to almost 48 cubic feet, compared with 42 in the Highlander.

All those features are fine and even dandy, but the driving experience is where the Pilot really excels.

The steering of the old model felt loose and somewhat disconnected; on the ’09, it does a far superior job of making the driver feel linked to the vehicle. The steering is also much better than that of the Highlander.

While the Pilot tries to look like an S.U.V., its ride is not trucklike. Even on roads through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where the ride in some family sedans can be abusive, the Pilot sheltered me from all but the worst impacts. Despite this gentleness, the handling inspires confidence, and though no vehicle so tall and heavy can be described as agile, on one challenging mountain road the Pilot had no trouble, even when a turn suddenly proved tighter than it had appeared and the road dipped.

The Pilot’s parking-lot handling is equally remarkable. It is able to turn far more sharply than one would expect for such a large vehicle. All in all, the Pilot offers a splendid balance of ride comfort and handling — a sign that the engineers really know their craft and were given the budget to carry through their designs.

The Pilot feels solid, too. There were no quivers even on a rough surface, a result of the increased use of high-strength steel in the redesigned chassis.

The cylinder-shutoff system of the V-6 has been updated for 2009. Now the engine can switch from six to four or three cylinders, depending on how much power is needed. Previously, it could only go from six to three cylinders, and the feature was available only on two-wheel-drive Pilots.

Honda engineers said that allowing the engine to go to four cylinders significantly increased the chances that the V-6 could run on fewer than six; quite often, three just weren’t enough even when six were more than needed.

Fuel economy is improved compared with the old Pilot, despite the new model’s being larger and heavier. The two-wheel drive version is rated at 17 miles a gallon in town and 23 highway. The all-wheel drive version is rated at 16/22.

This six-to-four-to-three switching was impossible for me to detect. There is a handy green “eco” indicator light on the dash that illuminates at times. I thought it might signal the change to fewer cylinders, but no — Honda says it tells the driver that the vehicle is being operated in the most fuel-efficient manner at that moment.

One thing I did notice in back-to-back driving of the Pilot and the Highlander was the smoother operation of Toyota’s 3.5 liter V-6. I suggest two possible explanations. One is that Toyota usually does an exceptional job quelling noise and vibration. The other may be that the Toyota engine is always a V-6, which makes it easier to manage noise and vibration than on an engine that switches from six to four or three cylinders.

Despite Honda’s cylinder-shifting, the Highlanders carry E.P.A. ratings that are one m.p.g. better than the Pilot in both city and highway driving. In return, of course, you get more space in the Honda for both people and cargo.

In normal cruising, the all-wheel-drive model operates in front-wheel drive. But under acceleration, some power is shifted to the rear tires even if the front tires are not slipping. Even so, there is sometimes a minor issue with torque steer, a little tug at the front wheels on acceleration.

Honda says the Pilot was designed with “intelligent family adventure” in mind, which would preclude serious off-road driving. Like many crossovers, the Pilot, which lacks low-range gearing, is not designed for particularly challenging terrain.

It also doesn’t have a hill-descent control, which is standard on the four-wheel-drive Highlander. That helps slow the vehicle when going down steep, slick slopes where too much braking could cause the vehicle to slide.

The new Pilot isn’t perfect, but it is impressive in its flexibility, road manners and safety equipment. Its biggest problem is that although it is a car-type crossover, it masquerades as an S.U.V. brute, a look that may scare off Americans looking for a vehicle that won’t savage the bank account.

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INSIDE TRACK Looks can deceive.

 

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