12 Reasons We're Looking Forward To The 2026 Honda Pilot

New models are introduced year after year, iterating on previous editions in an endless quest for improvement. Some yearly updates are superfluous additions that don't change much for the person behind the wheel, but sometimes a vehicle is practically reinvented when it sees its annual refresh, with all the wrinkles ironed out and new features that make the vehicle feel like the wheel has been reinvented.

The 2025 Honda Pilot was reasonably well-received by automobile enthusiasts. Even for an SUV, it's a large and spacious vehicle, but it has its shortcomings, mostly in the realms of fuel efficiency and a lackluster infotainment system. Needless to say, there is certainly room for the Honda Pilot to improve. To that end, hopes are high that the inevitable 2026 model will maintain the things that made the 2025 model worthwhile while improving on the elements that held it back. With a little luck, the 2026 Honda Pilot will be a revolution for the popular SUV brand — here are 12 things we're looking for. 

Back in the old days, cars had engines, steering wheels, and speedometers; that was all we needed to get around. These days, however, pretty much every car has a fancy "infotainment system," with the dashboard replaced with complex computer systems that allow for wireless phone connectivity, advanced GPS features, and other high-tech features.

For the 2025 Honda Pilot, one of its most criticized features was its lackluster infotainment system. The video screen on the center dash was tiny, measuring just 7 inches on the Sport trim and 9 inches on all the other versions. For comparison, the Nintendo Switch 2's screen measures 7.9 inches.

Simply put, the 2026 Honda Pilot absolutely needs a bigger screen. SUVs are big, almost comically so. For it to have such a small screen feels like an oversight that stands in contrast to the 'bigger is better' sensibilities that define the Honda Pilot brand. When you're rolling down the highway at cruising speed, you don't want to miss an important turn or other key information because you need to squint your eyes to see the tiny screen.

The all-wheel drive versions of the 2025 Honda Pilot are rated to be capable of towing up to 5,000 pounds of cargo, be it a camper, a boat, or a whole other Honda Pilot. However, reviews have called out the 2025 vehicle for its slow downshifting and moments of "freewheeling" during steep descents. Needless to say, this is less than ideal and could even be hazardous for inexperienced drivers who might not be prepared for the 'controlled chaos' of downhill driving with a heavy tow load.

According to The Road Beat, the issue is that the engine is tuned for the top of the rev range, leaving lackluster performance for drivability on the low end, which is where most vehicles spend most of their time, unless you live in the middle of a mountain range, in which case going uphill will be easier than going downhill, which is a bit bizarre. Whatever happens with the 2026 model, the Honda Pilot definitely needs some tuning under the hood, to say the least.

SUVs are great for families and for people who travel with lots of cargo. However, they're infamous for their fuel efficiency, or lack thereof. It's generally expected that it takes a lot of gasoline to move a 4,000-pound car full of passengers and cargo, and the 2025 Honda Pilot did nothing to challenge that stereotype. The various models of the Pilot average out to a paltry 20-22 miles per gallon, with the front wheel drive versions dipping to just 19 mpg in city environments.

In 2025, consumers looking for fuel-efficient SUVs don't have too many options, but they can easily do better than the Honda Pilot. One way or another, the Honda Pilot needs to catch up with the competition and find a way to deliver a vehicle that won't single-handedly drain all of the gasoline in the entire Middle East just to drive from one side of Los Angeles to the other.

Building off the previous entry, there's one big way the Honda Pilot can become more fuel efficient: make it a hybrid. There are many hybrid SUVs on the market today, with cars like the 2025 Hyundai Tuscon boasting fuel efficiency in the range of 35 miles per gallon. Granted, some of the cargo space would have to be sacrificed to make room for the battery, but based on how many hybrid cars are out there in the current market, it hardly seems an impossible task.

As mentioned before, the 2026 Honda Pilot should basically take a hatchet to the engine of the 2025 model and start over from scratch. The Pilot may be a great SUV, but anyone with even a shadow of concern for the environment (or their pocketbooks) can't justify getting such a fuel-inefficient vehicle. However, if Honda finds a way to get the MPG up to 30 or more, then the Pilot would be a must-have for any large family or small business owner with a lot of cargo to carry from job to job.

The Honda Pilot has had several different "trim" selections that dictate how many additional bells and whistles are included. They are all technically the same car, but with minor differences like the number of speakers included in the sound system, the size of the infotainment screen, roof rails, leather seats, and other bonuses like that. Some, however, are more significant, like how All Wheel Drive isn't included on the base Sport model.

However, in 2024, Sport wasn't the base model. The 2024 Honda Pilot started with the LX trim, which was inexplicably removed from the 2025 offering, which effectively drove the price up, since the cheapest option in 2024 was no longer available in 2025. For 2026, they should bring back the LX trim, a true "base model" with none of the extra features. In fact, they should go the extra mile to make the base model as low-tech as possible. The new base model should remove the infotainment system entirely for old-school drivers who don't need computer assistance to parallel park. While they're at it, why not get rid of power windows? After all, rolling up the windows manually is good exercise. 

Like most SUVs, the Honda Pilot is a big car, not a zippy sports car. All told, it fits eight people: the driver, passenger, and two rows of three behind them. Creative and/or diminutive riders can probably fit even more if they really try, but it's not recommended, and probably not street legal. SlashGear recommends that all drivers follow the law for maximum safety on the road.

For most riders, the Pilot is big enough, but the three riders in the rear of the car get the short end of the stick, so to speak, when it comes to legroom. While the first two rows offer around 40 inches of legroom each, passengers in the third row only have 32 inches. We'd like a 2026 version to improve on this. One thing Honda could do is allow the third-row seats to slide back and forth. The 2025 model only allows the second row of seats to slide, which theoretically makes sense, but if you're not lugging cargo or groceries in the rear trunk, why not allow that space to be used by riders in the third row?

One of the more noteworthy complaints regarding the 2025 Honda Pilot was its interior. Basically, the inside of the car looked drab, cheap, and a few years out of date. According to Car and Driver, even the high-end "Elite" trim failed to rival its competitors. The outside of the Honda Pilot wasn't pretty, but it got the job done and at least had an identity of its own. On the contrary, the interior felt like more of an afterthought than a pillar of the overall design.

For the 2026 Pilot, we hope that Honda will reconsider the interior of the vehicle. We don't necessarily want anything to be overly fancy or flashy. After all, the "U" in SUV stands for "utility." But when a vehicle carries a luxury price tag — and the Pilot retails for upwards of $40,000 — one expects a little bit of extra care to be taken with the design of the interior. Sure, the 2025 version is cozy, but the 2026 version is just begging for an extra touch of style and class.

Most modern vehicles are equipped with rear-facing cameras that are intended to assist drivers with parking. Of course, older, more experienced drivers never needed these cameras, but we also accidentally ran over lots of people back then, so maybe we needed them after all.

Joking (or am I?) aside, the 2025 Honda Pilot does, indeed, feature a parking camera. Unfortunately, the camera stinks. It's low-resolution and grainy, especially at night, to the point of being nigh-unusable. For drivers who don't know how to park without a 'backup camera,' this could lead to accidents while attempting to park. The aforementioned small infotainment screen only exacerbates the problem. The 2026 Pilot absolutely needs a new camera with high-resolution output and better nighttime clarity. This wouldn't be a next-generation leap; it would be correcting one of the biggest mistakes of the 2025 model, which was way behind the standards that were set years ago.

This might seem like a small quibble, but it's one of those issues that makes you wonder, "Why is this an issue in the modern era?" The 2025 Honda Pilot has plenty of color options, but some are exclusive to certain trims. For example, if you want to purchase the Touring trim but want the Diffused Sky Pearl color scheme, you're out of luck, since that color scheme is exclusive to the TrailSport trim. Likewise, different trims have different exclusive options for the interiors, as well. If the purpose of all of these trims is to give options to consumers, why do some options lock customers out of certain cosmetic options? It makes no sense.

The 2026 Honda Pilot needs to get rid of these arbitrary restrictions on interior and exterior color options. If a paint option is available for one trim, it should be available to all trims. If Honda wants to be seen as pro-consumer, they will allow them their choice of vehicle color. To some, the color of their car might not seem like a big deal, but it's also the first and most immediately noticeable way a car owner can express themselves through their vehicle.

The 2025 Honda Pilot is not the fastest vehicle on the road. It's not designed for speed, but for utility. That said, would it kill Honda to have a little pride in the visual design of their prized vehicle? The Pilot looks less like a fast car and more like a shoebox with wheels. A more elegant design probably wouldn't do much to improve the fuel efficiency, but a more aerodynamic style certainly wouldn't hurt. If the Porsche Cayenne Turbo can have a slick look (and a hybrid battery) within an SUV chassis, then the Pilot can do something to liven up its exterior aesthetic.

With a little luck, the 2026 Pilot will put in a bit of an effort to avoid the harsh geometry of the 2025 model. The Pilot is supposed to be an SUV, not a tank. The lines of the car need a page-one rewrite, so to speak. The challenge for the designers at Honda is to figure out a way to redesign the vehicle without compromising its identity as a Honda Pilot.

The baseline Sport trim of the 2025 Honda Pilot has two-wheel drive, the standard used by most vehicles on the road. However, all other trims feature an option for All Wheel Drive, which allows for greater control on rugged and hilly terrain. Honestly, not including AWD on all trims is a poor decision on Honda's part. This decision makes AWD feel inessential, which downplays its vital utility by relegating it to an "extra feature."

The 2026 Honda Pilot should stop beating around the bush and accept that all SUVs should have AWD. Future versions of the Pilot should include AWD on all trims. AWD is an essential feature that all SUV owners could benefit from. Because of that, it shouldn't be relegated to only the higher-end trims, but standard on all versions of the Honda Pilot. Anyone who's ever driven uphill with an SUV full of passengers or cargo can attest to the importance of AWD when it comes to both utility and safety.

As mentioned earlier, the 2025 Honda Pilot dropped the LX trim from the 2024 model. However, the problem remains that eight different trims exist for the 2025 Pilot, and that's simply too many. Some of these options are just absurd, like front door courtesy lights and LED lighting on door handles, which are entirely superfluous. Others are bizarre in different ways, like how only the premium trims offer floor mats for passengers in the third row.

There are too many options and too many trims. If it were up to us, the 2026 Honda Pilot would feature only three trims: first, a budget base model with no additional features beyond what's legally required. Second, a medium model with many of the extra bells and whistles from the 2025 trims. Third, the maximum version with all the bonuses from the top-end 2025 trim. Don't overcomplicate things. Simply provide "low, medium, and high" options. Anything beyond that is just noise that confuses customers. Buyers should be rewarded for paying more, but not punished for paying less. Streamlining the process will make sure everyone is happy with what they buy, rather than getting lost in granular details about insignificant options within the eight different trim options.