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April 3, 2008 http://www.thecarconnection.com/fullreview/honda_pilot_2003

  John Pearley Huffman
EditorJohn Pearley Huffman

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Honda plans on selling 80,000 of its new Pilot SUVs during the 2003 model year. Just 80,000. For an utterly competent, vice-less mainstream SUV that’s got a big “H” in its grille and shares bloodlines with the ludicrously successful Odyssey minivan and Acura MDX? Honda could sell 80,000 of these things in a month without distributing them outside Southern California’s Inland Empire. Count on the Pilot being yet another Honda in short supply – only the mothers of Honda dealers will get their Pilots at the sticker price.

Common virtues

The Pilot is built atop Honda’s “Global Light Truck Platform” which also underpins the Odyssey and MDX and it shares its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant with those two vehicles. In fact the only reason that there’s any production capacity at all for the Pilot is that much of the Odyssey production has moved to a new plant in Lincoln, Ala. Honda’s problems, during a worldwide production glut, aren’t the same as most manufacturers.

No surprise, the Pilot’s unibody structure with separate front and rear suspension subframes (MacPherson struts in front, an independent multi-link system in back), transversely-mounted, 240-horsepower 3.5-liter, SOHC, 24-valve VTEC V-6, and five-speed automatic transmission are all familiar from the MDX and Odyssey. Furthermore the Pilot shares it’s “VTM-4” (Variable Torque Management 4WD) four-wheel-drive system with the MDX – a system which operates in front-drive mode unless slippage is electronically detected and clutch packs in the rear engage to throw up to 50 percent of torque back there. At least at first, there will be no two-wheel drive Pilots.

GET CURRENT PRICING GET AN INSURANCE QUOTE   Honda plans on selling 80,000 of its new Pilot SUVs during the 2003 model year. Just 80,000. For an utterly competent, vice-less mainstream SUV that’s got a big “H” in its grille and shares bloodlines with the ludicrously successful Odyssey minivan and Acura MDX? Honda could sell 80,000 of these things in a month without distributing them outside Southern California’s Inland Empire. Count on the Pilot being yet another Honda in short supply – only the mothers of Honda dealers will get their Pilots at the sticker price. Common virtues The Pilot is built atop Honda’s “Global Light Truck Platform” which also underpins the Odyssey and MDX and it shares its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant with those two vehicles. In fact the only reason that there’s any production capacity at all for the Pilot is that much of the Odyssey production has moved to a new plant in Lincoln, Ala. Honda’s problems, during a worldwide production glut, aren’t the same as most manufacturers. forumNo surprise, the Pilot’s unibody structure with separate front and rear suspension subframes (MacPherson struts in front, an independent multi-link system in back), transversely-mounted, 240-horsepower 3.5-liter, SOHC, 24-valve VTEC V-6, and five-speed automatic transmission are all familiar from the MDX and Odyssey. Furthermore the Pilot shares it’s “VTM-4” (Variable Torque Management 4WD) four-wheel-drive system with the MDX – a system which operates in front-drive mode unless slippage is electronically detected and clutch packs in the rear engage to throw up to 50 percent of torque back there. At least at first, there will be no two-wheel drive Pilots. GET CURRENT PRICING GET AN INSURANCE QUOTE Honda plans on selling 80,000 of its new Pilot SUVs during the 2003 model year. Just 80,000. For an utterly competent, vice-less mainstream SUV that’s got a big “H” in its grille and shares bloodlines with ...