SUV looks macho, but uses power wisely

Tag : Power Logic

The rest of the interior has been reworked fairly well. The Touringmodel's navigation system is easy to live with, the audio packageis very good and the addition of tilt and telescopic steering wheeladjustment is welcome. However, there are swaths of plasticthroughout the cabin, more than one should expect to find in a$49,920 vehicle. The fact the test vehicle was finished in basicblack did little to alleviate the dour tone. There are also toomany buttons dotted across the dash - including more than a dozenfunctions on the steering wheel alone.
The Pilot's 3.5-litre i-VTEC V6 is a punchy motor that pushes 250horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque. It comes with a butteryidle, plenty of off-the-line launch and - when properly equipped -the muscle to pull a 2,045-kilogram trailer. It also featuresHonda's Variable Cylinder Management, which gives the SUV theability to shut down two or three cylinders when the going is easyand the engine's load is light. For the most part its action goesunnoticed, primarily because Honda uses noise-cancelling technologyto mask the different exhaust tones.
Power is fed through a five-speed automatic transmission that movesup and down its gears in a seamless manner. The tranny includesGrade Logic, which automatically holds a lower gear when climbinghills and provides some engine braking on the way down. Thedownside is that the Mazda CX-9 and Hyundai Veracruz - two of thePilot's key competitors - feature six-speed transmissions. Addingthe extra gear to the Pilot's repertoire would make it a morecomplete ride, helping both performance and fuel economy.
Honda's Variable Torque Management (VTM-4) four-wheel drive systemis standard fare on all but the base Pilot LX. Under normalcircumstances, VTM-4 drives the front wheels until there is someslippage. At that point, up to 50 per cent of the drive is sentrearward. It is good enough that the driver does not feel thisaction. If one ventures off-road, VTM-4 features a lock button thatallows the driver to manually lock the system, which splits thepower 50/50 front-to-rear. When speeds exceed 30 kilometres anhour, the differential unlocks and resumes its automatic on-demandfunction.