>> The Honda Pilot, it wasn't very distinctive until this redesign. Well, it's distinctive now, but facha brute! Now, inside it borrows from its accurate cousins upstairs. Let's see how that went and check the tech.
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>> Now, because we're in the Pilot Touring, just about everything I'm going to show you is baked into the spec. There's almost nothing on the option sheet in terms of the cool tech we care about here at CNET. We have AM, FM, but no HD radio. We have XM as our satellite radio, six-disc CD changer built-in here. It was more than just CD, it's CD plus MP3 WMA home brew CDs. An incredibly complicated interface: Rear Power, Front Source, Rear Source, Rear Control Off -- what the hell does that mean? Rear Power I guess means I turn on the rear system on and off from here -- I get that, but what's Front Source? Does that mean, watch or listen to the front source here or send the front source to the back because it's right near the Rear Power button -- I don't know. It's like Rear Source. What does that mean? Bring the rear source up to here or select the rear source from the folks in the rear from the front. Or play what I'm doing here on the rear system -- what the hell? Notice we have two optical drives and the bottom one is not for GPS data which is so often the case. It's a separate DVD drive, so you've got to put your video disc in there and your audio disc up here. This is a complicated mess. Now, under CD aux, let me show you some tricks here. We got a lot of things under that button. CD is the upper deck, the next one is USB. We've got a USB port here for thumb drives or iPods, the next one is aux video in, those were on the back of the console here instead of RCAs and then aux audio in, separate aux jack up here on the console, audio only, stereo mini. Most everything else can happen on the LCD. So, if I push audio here I get the completely different display of the audio and video system on the screen or I can get around there with this Honda Acura multi controller that I like, but have never really loved. We have 512 watts of power. It is a surround sound system. You see we got the Dolby PL II Logic over here. Navigation is very familiar. We've seen this system a hundred if not a thousand times on Honda Acura vehicles and the map resolution -- look at that. It's just play school. This vehicle also comes with standard Bluetooth hands-free, no A2DP stereo streaming in that Bluetooth package though. Your goofy transmission is up here on this kind of oddly placed selector. It's a standard five-speed automatic, nothing terribly clever about it and there's no other choice, and you do have a rear back-up camera on this Touring edition. You can see the resolution is pretty good although there is no trajectory marking, no parking aid. It's just a camera that will show you where you're going. It's pretty basic. The only option on this car is this guy, the rear seat entertainment system. It's a 9-inch drop down monitor right where it can get in a way of your rearview mirror, but honestly not much because the roof is very high on this vehicle, so I can forgive that. And you got a bunch of headphone jacks here for your favorite iPod headphones if you want to use those or the vehicle comes with some, you know decent wireless headphones, I believe two pairs of these are included, which is pretty common these days as well. Driving the Pilot makes you feel sort of like a pilot, a harbor pilot. It's bodier that you'd expect the mid-sized SUV to be. There's a little wallow side-to-side and bobbing forward and up. The ride is cushy, none of this is tragic, but you'll never call the handling precise. The Pilot has variable cylinder management, meaning it can run on all six cylinders or four or just three when cruising. The Eco light there on the dash tells you when it's doing so, but not how many cylinders it's doing so with. As you can see from our MPG read out it doesn't help a whole lot at least not when you're a test reviewer and you're pressing it hard and a lot of bad around town, but overall EPA rates this guy at a respectable 17/23. This button activates VTM, Variable Torque Management. It's a Honda system that automatically switches between front wheel drive and all wheel drive as needed. Okay, let's price this big beast. The 2010 Pilot Touring, which is high trim is about 37,700. Your major options are few, rear seat entertainment, that's 1600 bucks, all wheel drive $1600, but that's a different trim level of car and there's a dealer installed remote start for extreme climate, that's 509, that's about it.
