The 2023 Honda Pilot Trail Sport is the most rugged Pilot ever released. Known for years, as a pavement princess, Honda’s engineers aim to remove that stigma with this new Trail Sport edition. This Pilot has been revamped, inside and out. Let’s dig in.

Its exterior styling presents a longer hood and a more masculine front grill with distinct body lines that run the length of the vehicle. Running across the back liftgate, there’s an embossed Pilot logo and a trailer towing package that’s ready for a hitch. Its 18-inch, black alloy wheels and tall-shouldered tires help complete a very athletic look. It’s equipped with Continental 265/60/R18 all-terrain tires. While this makes road noise a bit higher while going down the freeway, it also provides much more traction off-road.

Moving under the hood, we find an all-new 3.5-liter V6 engine that’s good for 285 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. It’s mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission and has a maximum towing capacity of 5,000 pounds. Expect to see fuel economy hover around 21 miles-per-gallon combined city/highway. Power is delivered to all four wheels with the Pilot Trail Sport’s exclusive, trail-torque. This will shift power to the wheels that have traction - very handy, if you have one or more wheels in the air.

Honda includes its full safety suite, standard. This includes airbags, air curtains around the cabin as well as knee airbags. Safety technology gives you adaptive cruise control, frontal collision warning with braking, lane keeping assist, traffic jam assist, and more.

This 7-passenger SUV has very comfortable front seats that are electronically adjustable. Its second row consists of two reclinable captain chairs and the third row is a 60/40 split with only about a 10-percent recline ratio.

From the driver’s seat, you’ll have seven different drive modes, sport, normal, economy, snow, trail, sand, and towing. These options allow you to more customize your driving experience, based on conditions. In sport mode, you’ll immediately notice a much more responsive engine and more aggressive transmission shifts.

When in off-road mode, various cameras engage to help you get a more complete view of what’s around the vehicle. The extra inch of ground clearance also allows you to get to more areas than other Pilot trim levels.

Its infotainment system can be upgraded to Bose audio and includes native support for both Apple CarPlay as well as Android Auto. You have AM/FM and SiriusXM satellite radio as well as full support for Bluetooth audio. There is cabin talk for third-row communication and HondaLink.

Cargo space is 22.4 cubic feet with the third row up. Drop the second row and that grows to 60.4 cubic feet — drop all three rows and you have a very generous 114.3 cubic feet. Additionally, the rear door will automatically open when you walk up to it and close when you walk away — very handy for those times your arms are full. You’ll find additional cargo space in the rear-tire sump as well.

This Trail Sport starts at around $48,000 but our test vehicle chimed in closer to $50k as it had a few more upgrades. In the end, Honda has done a great job knocking this one out of the park and making it a much more compelling competitor to the likes of the KIA Telluride and Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek edition. It comes with a standard 3-year / 36,000-mile vehicle warranty and a 5-year / 60,000-mile powertrain warranty — as well as 3-year / 36,000 miles of roadside assistance.

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Lauren Fix, The Car Coach is a nationally recognized automotive expert, media guest, journalist, author, keynote speaker and television host. A trusted car expert, Lauren provides an insider’s perspective on a wide range of automotive topics and safety issues for both the auto industry and consumers. Her analysis is honest and straightforward.