In today’s post, I’m going to be reviewing the 2025 Honda Pilot Touring. Huge thank you to Safford Brown Honda of Arlington, Virginia, for allowing me to do this review for you guys today.
Table of contents
Exterior Overview
Like I said, this is a 2025 Honda Pilot Touring, and this particular one has been painted in Lunar Silver Metallic. I wanted to preface this video by saying Honda has made no changes to the Touring trim level for the 2025 model year.
So with that in mind, as standard with the Touring, you get LED headlights with automatic high beams as well as LED daytime running lights, LED turn signals, and LED fog lights. This is what the front end of the Touring looks like.
Front End Features
You do get a gloss black front grill with your Honda Logo located at the center of the grill. Just above your grill and separating your turn signals from your headlights, you get some chrome trim.
You can see it runs all the way across the front end. On the outsides of your front bumper, you get this venting with the boomerang-shaped chrome trim piece.
Finishing things off up here at the front end, at the bottom of your front bumper, you get a satin black lower fascia with four integrated parking sensors. You also get this gray trim piece right here; I like to call that your gray chin. Finally, you get 7.3 inches of ground clearance.
Side Profile and Wheels
As mentioned, you get that satin black low fascia, and that satin black lower fascia leads into your satin black wheel arch moldings. The Touring gives you 20-inch gray with machine-faced wheels, and these wheels are wrapped in 255/50 Bridgestone Alenza Sport all-season tires. I’m going to give you a view of the tread pattern on these tires here real quick. If you are not a fan of the way these wheels look, there are three other wheel options to choose from.
Rear and Roof Details
Here is a front three-quarter shot of this thing. It kind of reminds me of the MDX design language-wise up here at the front end. You can let me know if you see that also in the comments down below.
With this trim level, as standard, you get body-color mirror caps with integrated turn signals, and they are heated manual folding. You will find your blind spot monitoring on the outer left-hand side of your driver-side mirror and on the outer right-hand side of your passenger-side mirror.
Door and Mirror Features
Last but not least, not only do you get two memory seat adjustment settings for your driver seat, those memory seat adjustment settings also encompass your side view mirrors as well. I’m going to take a step back and give you a side profile shot of the Pilot.
At the top of the roof line, you get the gloss black roof rails. Then you get the satin black window trim, body-color door handles with keyless access, and the keyless access function is on all four of your door handles.
I just did a video with a Trail Sport, and that keyless access was only on the front two door handles, so the Touring gives you it on all four of your door handles.
Fuel Door and Rear Details
At the bottom of all your passenger doors, you get the satin black door cladding with some of that gray trim—the same color that you would find for your gray chin and then for your gray valance when we get to the back end.
You also get a capless filler neck hidden behind your fuel door here, and 87 octane will do you just fine. Up top here, you have your body-color shark fin antenna, a body-color roof spoiler with your integrated third brake light, a rear window defroster, your rear wiper back here, and standard tail lights.
Trunk and Liftgate Features
Here is a rear three-quarter shot of the Touring, and here is a booty shot of the Touring. You can see you get some gloss black trim that connects your tail lights, and you also get the satin black Pilot lettering with that gloss black trim.
There are three chrome badges back here: the Honda badge, the all-wheel drive badge, and the Touring badge with black lettering.
Just to the right of your eye is where you will find your backup camera. The Touring trim level gives you a hands-free height-adjustable power liftgate. If you wanted to open up the hands-free liftgate, all you would have to do is kick like this, and the hands-free liftgate should open up.
Hands-Free Liftgate and Storage
Anyways, that’s what it says to do right here, so you can take a look at the hands-free liftgate instructions. I never like to use it because, for the most part, you’d be kicking, kicking, kicking, and it works on the third kick. It’s not just like that with a Honda; it’s also like that with other manufacturers as well.
If you take this out here, I believe these are your all-weather floor mats. You can see them down in there. With the third-row seats up, I’d say you get about 2 feet of storage space from about here to the seat back.
If you need more storage space and you’re not carrying around three passengers back here, you can pull on this and push forward, and you can do the same thing on this side. You get about an additional 3 feet of storage space as compared to this side here.
Trunk Details and Conclusion
Also, on the driver side of the trunk, you get a 12-volt power outlet. If you press this button right here and walk away from the vehicle, the liftgate will go down. If you twist this to the left, underneath there you will find your jack, and you also have a funnel that you would stick in the capless filler neck.
Let’s say you ran out of fuel and needed to fill this up with a fuel tank; that is how you would do it, and you would use that piece. Opening this thing up, this is where the magic seat is. Basically, if the magic seat was in its normal position, which is in between those two chairs there, then you would probably have honestly like 2 feet of depth down in here, followed by another 2 feet this way. You get tons and tons of storage space underneath the trunk here, which is awesome to see.
That’s about it for what we have going on here in the trunk area. I’m going to put this thing back in the trunk, and we’re going to finish things off here at the back end. Up top here, that is how you would set the height; if you press on that, the liftgate will begin to close.
Finishing things off here at the bottom, you get a satin black rear bumper with four integrated parking sensors, two reflectors, a dual exhaust system, and a gray rear valance. You can kind of see that underneath here is where you will find your spare tire.
Engine and Performance
Popping open that hood reveals the 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6 that makes 285 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. It’s mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission for a 0-60 time in 6.9 seconds. If you were wondering about fuel economy, you can achieve 19 mpg in the city, 25 mpg on the highway for 21 mpg combined with all-wheel drive.
I did want to mention that the Touring comes standard with front-wheel drive. If you wanted all-wheel drive, that is going to cost you an additional $2100. The only three trim levels of the Pilot that come standard with all-wheel drive are the Trail Sport, the Elite, and the Black Edition.
Interior Overview
Moving on into the interior, you get keyless access as standard. All you have to do is have your key fob in your pocket, walk up to the vehicle, put your hand behind the door handle, and it will unlock. You can also lock it if you run your finger across these three little lines right here, and it will lock back up. This is what the key fob looks like. It’s mostly satin black, with some gloss black accenting on it.
Going over the functions on the key fob, starting from the top, you have your lock function, your unlock function, your remote start function, your power liftgate function, and your panic function.
If you wanted to remote start this, all you have to do is lock it first, press and hold on this button, and she’ll fire right up. That is what it sounds like when you fire this thing up from the exterior perspective.
Door Panel and Seat Features
This one is painted in Lunar Silver Metallic. The only interior color combo you can get is the gray leather. The only exterior color that will give you two interior color options is the optional white paint. This is what the driver door panel looks like.
You get a leather-wrapped armrest that is nicely padded with some black accent-colored stitching. All of this area is also leather-wrapped. This is some vinyl, then you get some piano black trim. You have your two memory seat adjustment settings, your side view mirror controls here, your unlocking and lock functions.
This button is going to restrict your passenger window privileges. You get automatic up and down windows at all four corners. You got some nice phone storage here, a water bottle holder or a cup holder, and tons of storage space at the bottom of the door panel.
The Touring comes standard with a 12-speaker Bose sound system, so you get a speaker at the bottom of the door panel.
Seat Adjustments and Interior Access
As standard with the Touring, you get a 10-way power driver seat with power lumbar and memory, and you also get a four-way power front passenger seat. By the way, these seats are also heated as standard.
Stepping on into the interior, let’s get full access into the interior and take a listen to what the door sounds like when you close it. There you go. Now I’m going to walk you throughout the entire interior, starting with the functions over here.
As mentioned, you get a 12-speaker Bose sound system as standard, so you get the Bose tweeter up top there. Then you get an HVAC vent, and these two controls down here: this is to open and/or close your power liftgate, and this is going to turn the traction control system on or off.
Steering Wheel and Controls
The Trail Sport I just did a video with had a heated windshield, so the top button was the heated windshield button, and the bottom button was the traction control system on or off.
I just figured I’d let you know about that because the Trail Sport is just one trim level beneath this one, and it seems like it adds more features, by the way.
Flipping this down gives you access to your manual tilting and telescoping steering wheel, so you can bring the steering wheel towards you, push the steering wheel away from you, and it also moves up and down. Once you find your comfortable position, all you have to do is lock it right back into place.
Let’s take a listen to the turn signal. That is what the turn signal sounds like here on the Pilot. Not only is this your turn signal control stalk, but it’s also your headlight control stalk, your high beam control stalk, and your fog light control stalk.
Lighting and Indicator Controls
Right now, that is headlights automatic. That is headlights off. That is daytime running lights on, and that is headlights always on. I like to leave it in automatic, personally. Right now, that is fog lights on. That is fog lights off. Obviously, you pull on that to turn your high beams on.
Zooming back out, you get a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and just like any other vehicle, you have your horn at the center. Let’s take a listen. That is what the horn sounds like on the Pilot. You also get steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters, with your downshift paddle on the left and the upshift paddle here on the right.
Going over the functions on the steering wheel, these two functions are to go forwards and/or backwards on a track. Pushing up is to volume up, and pushing down is to volume down. Then you have the home button and this scroll knob here to control your TFT meter display, which is your digital display from here to the left.
That is what those two controls are for. This is to speak to the vehicle; basically, you can say, “Turn the AC to 60°” or something like that, or “Turn the fan speed up.” That is what that button would do there.
Adaptive Cruise Control and Gauge Cluster
On the right-hand side of the steering wheel, these functions are for your adaptive cruise control system. This comes standard with Honda Sensing, which gives you adaptive cruise control, a lane-keeping system, and basically all of your different driver assistance features.
You also get the windshield wiper control stalk here. Moving into our gauge cluster, from here to the left is all digital. This is your analog speedometer. At the center, you have your digital speedometer readout, your drive mode, the ambient exterior temperature, the odometer, the transmission status, the fuel gauge, and then down here it’s letting you know your driver assistance features are on.
That is the current time, and then you have your tachometer here. You can display what you want at the center.
Display and Infotainment System
Again, to control what you see over there, you have this scroll knob and the home button. Right now, you can click on that, and you can see the speed and the time, go into your audio stuff, your phone stuff, navigation stuff, driver attention stuff, all-wheel drive torque distribution, seat belts, maintenance, tire pressure, safety support, or you can have nothing there. You can adjust the brightness here.
You can go to the gauge display settings, where you can select what you want to see on this side, or deselect what you don’t want to see. That is what that thing does. You can go into warnings, range, and fuel. This is personally the screen that I would leave it on.
I like to see my fuel range and my average fuel economy, personally. Again, that’s just my personal opinion; you could be totally different.
Infotainment and Navigation
Moving into this screen here, this comes standard with a 9-inch infotainment system with built-in navigation and wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto connectivity. This is what the home screen looks like. You get the physical controls here, so these are not touch screens; these are physical controls.
You have your home button, your back button, your volume control knob, and these buttons here to go forwards and/or backwards on a track. This is what the home screen looks like.
You can see you have your audio sources there. Right now, we are connected to SiriusXM, so this lets us know our media source.
Then you have the current time, and this is the home screen. Down here, you have all of your different shortcut buttons into your navigation stuff, your phone stuff, FM, Bluetooth audio, smart shortcuts, or display mode, which is basically to adjust the brightness or turn the display off by clicking that right there.
Connectivity and Cabin Talk
If you wanted to connect to Apple CarPlay, you click smartphone projection, connect your phone, and if your phone is enabled for Apple CarPlay, you can connect to Apple CarPlay here because it is wireless. Same with Android Auto.
If you swipe over, you can see this has a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot. You can go there, or you can go into your different vehicle settings. I like Honda’s animations; it makes it a little bit easier to help you choose which screen you need to go into.
The little pictures, you know, it’s just little stuff like that that I appreciate. If you go over here, you get the same display mode button that is down here.
Cabin Talk basically transmits your voice from the driver’s seat over the speakers so your third-row passengers can hear you better when you’re driving 80 mph down the road. That is what Cabin Talk is for.
HVAC and Climate Controls
That’s kind of about it for the infotainment system; not too much going on in the infotainment system. I can show you what the navigation screen looks like. It might take a second to boot up, but I don’t feel like I need to spend too much time on this screen because it is rather easy to use.
I’m going to back out of that because I don’t really need to see it, but there is what the navigation system looks like. Coming down a little bit more, you get two HVAC vents here, your hazard button, and this is going to let you know if the passenger airbag is on or off.
You also get a tri-zone climate control system. These are your temperature control knobs, and this is the fan speed control knob.
You can see the temperatures, the direction of the airflow, and the fan speed. That is for your third climate zone, which is the second and third-row passengers’ climate zone for the front passenger.
Seat Heaters and Rear Climate
As mentioned, you get heated front seats as standard, and you get three levels of adjustability with your heated front seats. The heated seat is here for the front passenger. You can also control the rear climate settings. You can turn the rear climate on or off by clicking on that.
You can go into your rear settings; you can adjust the direction of the airflow, the fan speed, the temperature, etc. You can also turn the rear lock on, which basically denies access to the second-row passengers if they’re trying to adjust the temperature or the fan speed or anything like that.
Coming down a little bit more, you get a great spot to set your phone right there. You get a USB-A port, a USB-C port, a 12-volt power outlet, and a wireless charging pad as standard.
That is an iPhone 14 Pro Max. It fits in the wireless charging pad with no problem. When the wireless charging pad begins to charge your phone, you’ll see a green light right there illuminate, basically letting you know that the phone is charging in the wireless charging pad.
Transmission and Drive Modes
Coming back to here, you get two cup holders, a push-button transmission, and pulling up on this is going to engage your parking brake. Brake hold is basically the function in which the vehicle will hold itself in place by itself with its braking system if you’re stuck in traffic and you’re tired of holding your foot down on the brake. Then you have your drive mode selector here. I believe you have seven different drive modes: starting with sport mode, normal mode, econ, snow, trail, sand, and tow mode. So we can go back into normal mode up top here because that’s the mode that I personally like driving in.
Center Console and Storage
This button is going to turn your automatic stop-start system on or off. This is going to turn the hill descent control system on or off. Coming back a little bit more, you get a nicely padded armrest that is leather-wrapped with some accent-colored stitching.
When you open this thing up, you get a spot where you can set some pens. I’d say you probably get about 10 inches of depth down in there, followed by another 10 inches this way. There is no connectivity down in here; there’s nothing to charge your phone, nothing like that. It’s basically just storage space.
Glove Box and Overhead Features
Moving over to here, you get an upper glove box. I’m not sure how well it’s going to pick up on camera, but basically, if you wanted to, you could set your phone up top there. You could set some sausage McMuffins down in here, but it is not closing; it is always open.
You do get a lockable lower glove box. You can see your owner’s manual is in there. You can still fit your napkins, straws, snacks, you know, the essentials like that. Coming up a little bit more, as standard, you get an auto-dimming rearview mirror with your universal garage door opener.
If you own a house with three garage bays, you can open up those garage bays individually with those three different buttons there. Both of your reading lights are LED. When this is set to flush like that, when you open up the doors, the interior lights will turn on.
If it’s clicked to the left, the interior lights will not turn on when you open up the doors. If you click it all the way to the right, that is your instant dome light on button; it turns on all the interior dome lights. I like to leave it on door personally.
Sunroof and Additional Features
As standard with the Touring, you get a panoramic roof. This one on the right is to open up the roof shade, and the button on the left is to open up the sunroof itself. The sunroof not only slides, but once it gets to this position, if you pull back on that one more time, it’s going to open up a little bit more.
Not only does the sunroof slide, but it also tilts up as well. If you wanted to tilt the sunroof, all you have to do is push up against that, and the sunroof will tilt open.
If you wanted to close it back up, just push it forward; it’ll close. Push the one on the left, and that shade will close all the way. You have the conversational mirror here so you can see who you’re talking to in the second or the third row, or even the front passenger. If you go all the way, you have a spot where you can set your sunglasses up top there as well.
Driver and Passenger Comfort
Opening this thing up, you get a vanity mirror with a vanity light. The visor itself slides forwards and backwards depending on where the sun is shining. The driver gets an “oh poop” handle; the front passenger also gets an “oh poop” handle. I wanted to mention that these seats are very, very comfortable. You could do a very long road trip in this thing and be totally fine, totally comfortable.
Touring Trim Highlights
A couple of things I wanted to mention that the Touring gives you—just a couple of trim highlights—you get the Bose sound system, the hands-free power liftgate, the 20-inch wheels, and the built-in navigation. Comparing this to the trim level below this, the trim level below this is about $200 cheaper. It is the Trail Sport. They basically come as they are unless you spec wheels. Basically, the difference between the Touring and the Trail Sport is the Trail Sport has a heated steering wheel, a 360° view camera system, a heated windshield, and power side view mirrors that fold. This one does not have any of those features.
Rear Seat and Third Row Features
Now I’m going to throw the entire window sticker on the screen. You can take a look at exactly what you get as standard. You can take a look at the fuel economy stuff, whatever you want. I am just going to highlight the MSRP.
The MSRP of the way that this particular 2025 Pilot Touring is spec’d is $5,695. This is $200 more expensive than the Trail Sport I just did a video with.
The Trail Sport is kind of like the off-road version of the Pilot; this is more like the on-road version. However, between the two, I feel like the Trail Sport kind of gives you a little bit more. I love having a 360° view camera system. If you wanted a 360° view camera system, you would have to go up to the Elite.
Rear Passenger Features
I do want to show you what we have going on in the rear seats before moving into the driving portion of the video. When you open up the door back here, you get a peasant blocker.
You get automatic up and down windows back here, and the windows go all the way down. You get a nicely padded armrest, some storage space, some cup holders, two speakers, and more storage space down here.
This is what the rear seats look like. They are not captain’s chairs. If you press this button, it gives you ease of access to your third-row seats.
Rear Seat Comfort and Features
Let’s step into these seats because these are not captain’s chairs; you do not get the armrest. It is kind of a bench seat, so if you put the magic seat back in here, then you would have three people that could sit here rather than the captain’s chairs, which is just these two.
In the Trail Sport I just did a video with, the captain’s chairs had the armrest that folded down as well. Up top here, you get a spot to set your dry cleaning. You get an “oh poop” handle, an LED dome light, and the same stuff on that side as well.
You get a seat back pocket behind the driver seat and the front passenger seat. You get two HVAC vents, your tri-zone climate control system, and beneath that, you get two USB-C ports. I am 5’9″, and I am adjusted behind myself. I’ve got plenty of knee and legroom. Here’s another view of that knee and legroom. When it comes to headroom, I’ve got plenty of it.
Third Row and Rear Seat Features
There’s also a lever on the side of this seat. If I pull up on that, you can see these seats do recline, and they are very, very comfortable.
I want to show you what we have going on in the third-row seat. Sitting back here, these seats are actually surprisingly comfortable. I know that because I just got out of doing a video with a Trail Sport. Even in the third row, you get some nice recline ability.
I’ve got plenty of headroom. When it comes to knee room, I could slide this seat forward, and this guy and I could split the difference legroom-wise, and I’d still be comfortable back here even on a road trip. A couple of other things we have going on back here: you get two cup holders, an HVAC vent, and a USB-C port right there. You get the same stuff on that side as well.
Driving Experience
Alright, now on to the driving portion of the article. Take a listen. Great low-end torque. You don’t really have to get on this thing in order to get it where you need it to go, which is something that I definitely like. I like to have power that you don’t need, but it’s there when you need it.
This has that kind of power. It’s not going to be the fastest thing you’ve ever driven. However, it doesn’t feel slow by any means. It’s definitely very good power, you know what I mean? It’s not like great power. Actually, I would say it’s probably great power.
I would say it’s great power just the way that it puts the power to the ground. It does a great job. I’ve driven other vehicles that are at this horsepower level, and it feels like this one just seems to feel a little bit more powerful.
I don’t know if that’s because of the engine sound or what, but it sounds good. Here is a little acceleration for you. So nothing crazy, but just merging acceleration. Probably going to get some crazy looks here because I got the camera on my head, but you know what? I do it for you guys.
Vehicle Comparisons
Alright, well if we were to pick up some kids from school, I guess this would be a great vehicle to do it in. If you’re a dad, you know, and I used the same kind of analogy thing in my last article.
If you’re a dad and you got three kids, would you rather pick your kids up in this, or would you rather pick your kids up in a Honda Odyssey? Now my uncle has two kids, but he’s got a Honda Odyssey that he uses. So instead of the Pilot, he went with the Odyssey.
If it was me, I’d probably go with the Pilot. I kind of like the way that the Pilot looks better. You know, you can get all-wheel drive with the Pilot; you can tow more with the Pilot. I think for me, if I had kids, I would probably get the Pilot if those were my two options.
Obviously, if I had a ton of money, I’d buy a Cadillac Escalade, but I don’t. That is a very nice BMW M2. That thing looked sweet.
Comfort and Value
But you know, this thing’s just comfortable. It’s comfortable for your family. So if you’ve got three kids, heck maybe even four kids, I think your kids would be very comfortable in this thing. Even the third-row seats are also very comfortable as well.
So it’s up to you. You want the Odyssey, you want the Pilot, at least Honda offers you both. Honestly, they don’t come with that crazy of a price tag either, which is definitely nice. Honda gives you a nice value for what you get. One thing that is kind of interesting about Honda is that they don’t really let you spec anything; it comes as is.
Acceleration and Sound
But here’s a floorboard acceleration. This thing sounds phenomenal. I mean, it really sounds fantastic. It sounds super aggressive. It sounds really good. I don’t know, man.
That sound alone, I don’t know. Some of you out there may be car people or maybe you were a car person, but now you have kids. That sound alone, comparing this to maybe a Highlander—I haven’t driven a new Highlander. Actually, I have, but it was a while ago—that sound alone might sway me into a Pilot, to be honest with you.
Not only is this thing comfortable, it looks good, etc., but it sounds phenomenal here, at least from the driver’s perspective.
Honestly, I’m thinking maybe that is what makes this thing feel relatively quick, you know what I mean? It feels faster than a 7-second 0-60 time. It sounds phenomenal. It rides very well on the street.
Ride Comfort Comparison
Comparing this to the Trail Sport I just did a video with, I don’t know if it’s placebo maybe, but I feel like maybe the Trail Sport didn’t feel the small bumps as much. That could just be because the off-road-tuned suspension and the thicker tires could absorb the bumps a little bit better.
But I honestly could just be—it could just be placebo. I just don’t know. What I do know is that they’re both fantastic choices. They’re both very comfortable, and they’re both powerful. Here’s another little acceleration for you. The transmission is great.
You know, it’s just boom, boom, boom, gear after gear. That’s the good thing about these 10-speeds, at least in the Hondas, man. They don’t have a kick. Sometimes you get into a car with a 10-speed, for example, like a Chevy Tahoe or a Ford F-150, a Ford Expedition—they have their own 10-speed. Their 10-speed seems to kick you in the butt a little bit; it’s not super smooth.
I feel like the 10-speed here in the Pilot, at least, feels like it’s just a smoother, more refined 10-speed than the one you find in the Ford Expeditions and stuff. It comes down to transmission tuning, and I think Honda nailed it with the transmission tuning.
I don’t know if they made the transmission because sometimes you can get it from somebody else, but the transmission nonetheless is great.
Final Thoughts
Here’s another acceleration. Just plenty, plenty of acceleration. The Bose sound system sounds great, by the way. It’s a Bose sound system; I’ve never heard a bad Bose sound system. Comparing the sound systems, obviously this sound system is better than the sound system in the Trail Sport, which is just the standard Honda sound system.
But the standard Honda sound system honestly sounded pretty good as well. It all comes down to personal preference—which trim level you like best, which trim level has the most value to you. I can’t tell you which one is best for you because only you can decide that.
But I can present you with the trim levels and the different takes that I have on the different trim levels. You can check the other articles I have of the 2025 Pilot on our website.
