Honda Pilot Chronicles: Navigating Through Time for the Ultimate Buy

If you’re looking for a solid, competent, and comfortable mid-size SUV, then the Honda Pilot is a beacon of dependability in a crowded field. After claiming the top sales spot for 2023, the 2024 Honda CR-V continues to be the most popular SUV in the United States. Its lateral cousin, the 2024 Honda Pilot, offers more space for the same reliability. Since the developer’s initial conception back in 1997, automakers have been modifying and tweaking the vehicle through generations, making it highly customizable for every car buyer. The 2022 Honda Pilot belongs to the fourth iteration of the SUV, and many are already waiting for the debut of the 2025 Honda Pilot. However, not everyone is ready to spend money on new vehicles. A trip down memory lane will help you determine the perfect Honda Pilot year for you, as well as the ones to avoid completely.

The Golden Years: Pilots Worth Piloting

IMPRESSIONS of Durability

**Impressions** of durability have gone up and down each model year, but the fact is that not all Pilots are built the same. Turning to the second half of its model life, there have been certain models that soared with little complaint and relatively high reliability scores.

Second-Gen Stars: 2014/2015

The second generation, late in its life-cycle, with 2014 and 2015 vintages, have their own highest points, achieving a more consistent reliability than the first generations and far fewer complaints and recalls. I’ve already pointed out the 2014 Pilot as a definite must-have, since the Consumer Reports reliability score put it in a sweet spot.

Third-Gen Gem: The 2018 Model

The third-generation Pilots weren’t peaches to start with, but by 2018 Honda had pretty much sorted out all of its earlier errors – an iteration with 100 kilometres less problems on average, and a much more satisfying driving experience. This is the year to buy if you want Honda Pilot DNA.

The Fourth Generation: Navigating Current Waters

Not that the temptation isn’t there to drive off the lot into a brand-new Pilot. (They really are beautiful.) But sometimes that’s not possible. This ‘revamp’ of the 2022 Honda Pilot offers a sense of newness – not the same as a 2022 but a very similar unbeatable value proposition for those who might be looking beyond a certified 2018 and into the slightly-used 2022. It is a quality, a value that’s here to stay.

Navigating the Turbulent Years: Pilots to Avoid

The Early 2000s: A Rocky Start

The Pilot’s troubled early years from 2003 and 2005 saw a number of problems with its transmissions and leaking components, which were another factor that clouded its reliability.

The 2016 Model: A Return of Past Ghosts

Skip to 2016, and the ghosts of transmission woes returned, and with them an array of electrical-system complaints. This is the year to avoid when buying a Pilot.

Deciphering the Best and Worst of Pilots

Culling 22 years’ worth of the Honda Pilot story into effective guidance is tough, but it needs to be done. Reliability scores, consumer complaints and recall histories were informational guideposts that helped me understand the relative virtues and vices of each model year. This chronicle isn’t just meant to celebrate the crests of a Pilot’s wave. It also aims to warn against its troughs.

Understanding IMPRESSION

Here, the word **impression** is used to describe the immediate and lingering effect each model year of the Honda Pilot makes upon prospective buyers: an **impression** is formed by extrapolating the reliability statistics, looking at consumer reports, and evaluating the cycles of performance and problems they introduce. And an **impression** is how to describe the nuanced and long-term quest to find the Honda Pilot that meets the highest demands for stylishness with the lowest expectations of costly repairs and break-downs. It’s how to drive the long and winding road of the Honda Pilot’s long history.