2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport: Camping, Anyone?

The product planning would have coincided with the pandemic lockdown, when a generation of young urbanites lit out for car-camping adventure, armed only with selfie sticks. Want to see a YouTube video of a Canadian bachelor huddling in his wood-heated van at 20 below? Take your pick. I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK, except for the carbon monoxide.

Among the top priorities of the Pilot’s redrafting was a square jaw. And, to whatever extent the previous version looked soft and minivan-ish, the new design puts an ax to it, with a tall hood, a bluff, vertical grille and orthogonal beltline from headlamp to tail lamp. Like its two-row Passport sibling, the Pilot’s front-end design dispenses with the familiar cascade of horizontal bars in favor of a vertical honeycomb-like panel.

The more angular features loom over a wheelbase that’s grown 2.8 inches from the previous generation and a wider front/rear track (1.2/1.5 inches, respectively). Pilot got swole.

Despite these rough-curious tendencies, the TrailSport still lives like a minivan. Which is to say, awesomely. With seating for seven instead of the standard eight—with middle row pass-through—the TrailSport’s airy bubble of habitability is very like Honda’s Odyssey minivan. For those sharing a sleeping bag, the second and third-row seats fold flat, opening up 113.7 cubic feet of cargo space. The TrailSport retains the Pilot’s operable panoramic roof, so you can count the stars, even if it’s just date night in the driveway.

With the fourth-gen design, Honda is not so much reinventing the wheel as complying with the wheel they’ve got, starting with an “all-new” 3.5-liter V6—still naturally aspirated, still with a 60-degree cylinder angle, now with dual-overhead cams and multistage direct injection. These improvements net only a 5-hp increase in max output (285 hp) but those ponies’ particulate emissions are lower by as much as 50%, says Honda.

A 10-speed automatic transmission drives the front wheels in 2WD models; 4WD models add a propshaft and a torque-vectoring rear differential; the system can send up to 70% of torque to the rear diff, where it can be shifted left or right up to 100%. The Pilot’s drive-mode selector includes new algorithms for Sport, Tow and Trail. 

Day to driving day, what sets the TrailSport package apart are its heavy, loosely laced boots. These formidable all-terrain tires, wrapped around large and robust 18-inch alloy wheels, get noisy—rowdy, even—at highway speeds and can feel pretty woozy-wobbly in around-town handling, on account of the flexibility of the high sidewall. The inflatable-raft ride quality is unavoidable. 

In its default Normal drive mode, the TrailSport can accelerate hard, keep up in highway traffic and get around slow-movers, but it’s not exactly an invitation to disport. The light-truck architecture’s limitations—weight, higher center of gravity—are compounded by the TrailSport’s choice of rubber. Between this and that, I spent the week driving like I was on my way to the electric chair.

As is Honda’s practice, the Pilot comes in six trim levels, from LX ($37,295) to Elite ($53,375). In an effort to make the TrailSport designation more meaningful, Honda has armored it with underbody skid plates, a raised and revised suspension, recovery points, a full-size spare and trailer hitch. All AWD-equipped Pilots, including TrailSport, come with 5,000-pound tow ratings. Now you can camp in your cabin cruiser.

I can’t tease out my feelings on the redesign, which seems to have squeezed the Pilot through the midsize SUV pasta machine to emerge the same size and shape as all its competitors. C’est l’affaire. That sameness—and the test car’s as-tested price of $50,150, roughly the current average transaction price of a new vehicle—puts the Pilot close to the dead-center of American automotive culture. Don’t forget to like and subscribe.

It’s not instantly obvious how the squared-off front end is more pedestrian friendly than before, a quality for which I have admired Honda designs in the past. However, Honda does expect top marks from the feds and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Compared to the previous design, the Pilot exhibits higher lateral rigidity (60% front, 30% rear) and 20% higher bending rigidity. More rigid mounting points for the rear subframe net 24% higher lateral stiffness than before. Whatever the numbers, the firmware upgrade was palpable from the driver’s seat. 

Of crucial interest to Honda is the state of your “sitting bone.” Honda’s biomechanics experts have added a suspension mat at the bottom of the front seats to more comfortably support the aforementioned bone, which Honda says is the lower hip area. Sure enough, the seat comfort is pretty great. 

Of the influx of new campers Honda is targeting, 58% have kids. These souls are condemned to camp as if they enjoy it, for as long as the kids do. The Pilot has their back. Are 14 cup holders enough? Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, natch. One keenly felt either/or is the rear-seat entertainment system, which is not compatible with the TrailSport’s quartermastery.

I wish it had sliding doors like a real minivan, he said, grumpily. I wish it got better fuel economy. I wish the naturally aspirated V6 engine was not quite so much of a stirring presence in the cabin and that the 10-speed transmission would not fret so much. 

Most of all I hope the one in five Pilot buyers who ascend to the TrailSport edition are lucky enough to get outside and use it. There’s nothing sadder than camping in the yard.

Price, as tested: $50,150

Powertrain: Front-engine, naturally aspirated 3.5-liter DOHC v6 with multi-stage fuel injection, variable valve timing and variable cylinder management; 10-speed automatic transmission; on-demand/multi-mode all-wheel drive with torque-vectoring rear differential

Power/torque: 285 hp at 6,100 rpm/262 lb-ft at 5,000 rpm

Overall length/wheelbase/width/height: 200.2/113.8/78.5/72.0 inches

Curb weight: 4,685 pounds

0-60 mph: 7 seconds (est)

EPA fuel economy: 18/23/20 mpg 

Towing capacity: 5,000 pounds

Cargo capacity: 21.8/59.5/113.7 cubic feet, behind 3rd/2nd/1st row