unless you've been living on a secluded Island that only allows golf carts you've very likely
seen plenty of both of these vehicles around the Honda Pilot and the Honda CRV that's right they
are two of the most popular vehicles on sale today and they've been Mainstays in Honda's lineup for
more than two decades so chances are if you're thinking about buying a Honda SUV you're thinking
about one of these two I drove here today in this the Honda Pilot Trail sport it's all new for 2023
as is the entire pilot lineup it's got a new interior more power and more rugged looks I
mean check out this Grill the wheels we can see that it appears bigger than the old pilot but
it's not bloated it's stronger looking and more truck-like yeah it's definitely more assertive
and I also like the look of this the all-new 2023 Honda CRV truth be told I never really
liked the look of the old Honda CRV at least not since the first and second generation models with
their Swing Out tailgate but this one I mean this is downright stylish if Toyota is taking kind of
a adventure grade approach with the new RAV4 well this is taking more of an Audi approach I mean I
think this looks upscale and sophisticated I think that's very fair but Matt it has to be said as
our eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted and some of them are even now heading to their
keyboards to let us know these are not exactly direct competitors even if we take size out of
the equation right no they're not and that sure that is a pilot and this is a Honda CRV but they
are totally different trim levels and they're designed for pretty different customers right
this is the trail sport and the color is a dead giveaway you can only get this diffused Sky Blue
on this trim of the pilot the trail sport is meant for adventure whereas this the CRV hybrid sport
touring has other purposes but strip out all of the off-road bits on the pilot that you can't get
on the Honda CRV and strip out all of the hybrid bits that you have on this CRV but you can't get
on a pilot and you still have two very popular vehicles that a lot of people are debating between
so these are the vehicles that we were able to source for this comparison and we're going to
do our best to show you all the things that the pilot does really well and all the things that
the Honda CRV does really well and then you will have the tools to determine which one best suits
your needs and your lifestyle that's what we're here for please make sure you're subscribed to
this channel so you don't miss a thing and let's start with the interior and we'll try
to give you folks a sense of what it's like to spend time inside each of these vehicles
Honda has done a really nice job of applying a consistent cohesive design language across all
of its new and recently redesigned Vehicles so even though we don't have that honeycomb Grille
that we've seen in the new Accord and Civic and CRV this is still very obviously a current Honda
I've got a lot of familiar elements here like this nine inch touchscreen perched atop the
dash we've got the three climate control knobs the gauge cluster is basically identical to the
one that Matt has in the CRV and then we've got this wireless charging pad available wireless
charging pad in the little cubby pretty similar just a little bit bigger in the pilot because
of course this is a larger vehicle the one thing that's different here is the gear selector so the
CRV has the lever style we've got the push button Transmission in the pilot personally I prefer the
lever but I'm just a little old-fashioned wow I mean really leaving a lot for me to talk about
well yes the CRV it does get this honeycomb mesh design on the dash goes all the way across and I
really really like this but otherwise this is pretty much the same environment that Natalie
just walked you through in the pilot we have the same gauge cluster the same touch screen same HVAC
controls wireless charging pad it's all the same now because of the different shifter designs I
have these two cup holders side by side back here whereas the button shifter in the pilot allows for
cup holders in tandem up here I actually prefer the tandem cup holders maybe I'm being a little
pedantic so let us know what you think in the comments section below would you rather have
the better cup holders and the button shifter or is the trusty lever worth the compromise no
now Honda really loaned us some nice crossovers as is evidenced by the materials so Matt what do you
think of the leather upholstery I mean it's really good and not just because we are in the top tier
trim even if you strip out the leather upholstery in these cars the design really works it's clean
and conventional it just works so something like a Kia Sportage can sometimes feel a little bit busy
this feels really classic really upscale and comfortable
comfortable it is comfortable even in the back seat the CRV is the smaller of the two vehicles so
it gets only two rows of seats whereas the pilot has three this new CRV is a touch longer than the
old one and that translates to more interior space legroom is good so good in fact that two people
over six feet tall can sit in tandem one behind the other comfortably you're gonna have to take
my word for it because Matt is close to six feet tall I am nowhere near but I can tell you this is
plenty of legroom as much as I could possibly want trunk space Also improves in the new 2023
Honda CRV hybrid you now get 36.3 cubic feet of cargo space behind the second row and if I fold
that row down it expands to 76.5 cubic feet that number is more than you get in a new Toyota RAV4
hybrid or a new Kia Sportage hybrid chances are good that if you've got more than a couple of
kids or a couple of dogs you're probably leaning towards the pilot at least if you're shopping in
the US right because in the US it's big country we like big cars and speaking of big versus small
I was happy to try out the back seat of Mazda cx-30 that little subcompact crossover we compared
with the Mazda cx-50 you can watch that review on the CarGurus YouTube channel but with this
one and given our differences in height maybe you could try out the third row sure happy to
now as I pass through the second row I'm just going to let you know it's got 40.8 inches of
legroom same as the 2023 Honda Accord heading back to the third row really still not bad back here I
could use a little more thigh support these seats are a little shallow and a little lackluster in
terms of padding but for leg room I've got 32.5 inches that's plenty for me with few exceptions
adults are pretty much always going to feel really cramped sitting in the third row of a
three row crossover like this one now it is great for kids and you can pretty easily fold that third
row down to get yourself a little extra cargo space in the pilot you get 22.4 cubic feet of
cargo space behind the third row and that number grows to 60.1 cubic feet when you fold down the
third row I really like the hidden storage space underneath this flat floor here I love how easy
it is to get those third rear seats up and down if you fold down the second row seats you've got
114.3 cubic feet of storage space which is plenty Now Matt we've done a lot of talking
some of us have done a lot of sitting but neither of us have done a lot of driving neither of us
have done a lot of driving well we can remedy that which one do you want pilot CRV I've already spent
a decent amount of seat time on camera seat time in the CRV check out my review Elsewhere
on this channel so I would take the pilot okay but I'm going first all right [Music]
hybrids used to be slow and they used to be boring but now believe it or not hybrid powertrains have
sort of become the go-to option when you're trying to blend efficiency with performance
true yeah Toyota really made some noise when the RAV4 hybrid showed up with more power than the
gas only version the same is true of the CRV if you want more power more torque and more
fuel efficiency you're going to want to go with the CRV hybrid yeah so specifically we
have 204 horsepower 247 pound-feet of torque as compared to 190 horses and 179 pound feet
in the all gas CRV now our top tier sport touring trim has all-wheel drive it comes
standard on this one but all-wheel drive is available on All trim levels of the CRV
so what about the steering and the braking what do you think of those well the steering
just hold on we Bend into a corner right here and then we'll do a quick little loop around
the steering demo it's astonishingly light and it's not actually that communicative
but it's very easy to drive it's very peaceful comfortable car and the brakes are great I mean
there there's no squishiness there's no grabbiness I also really like that Honda has incorporated a
b mode into the CRV hybrids braking system so you can actually see the energy capture on the power
flow screen on the the center stack here that's right so even though it's not an EV or even a PhD
a plug-in hybrid the CRV hybrid does still have regenerative braking so it is feeding some power
back into the battery for improved fuel economy yeah and I mean all in all this is a comfortable
car it's really easy to drive particularly around town but it is smaller than the pilot so I suspect
that is going to be a bit of a different story should we give that a try let's do it all right
so Matt you mentioned that the CRV is very manageable even in tight spaces right absolutely
I would say the pilot also has very light steering um actually the kind of steering that you might
hear referred to as over boosted which sounds like a negative maybe is a negative but it does
have the effect of making this feel smaller than it actually is sure yeah I can see you know big
car light steering that could be a positive uh but it is a big car this is both longer and wider
than a Toyota Highlander yes and it's actually three inches longer than the old pilot as well
but I would not say that it feels unwieldy no I mean it feels pretty comfortable for more
yeah it's a nice comfortable ride and you know we have to imagine it would be even more comfortable
if we were in a trim that was not meant to be rugged but in spite of that nice soft suspension
It's Not So Soft that you're getting a lot of residual bouncing over bumps kind of one and done
which is a very good thing yeah now the 10-speed transmission I will say is a little clunky when
you first get in first turn the vehicle on but that Smooths out pretty quickly as it warms up
and overall it's a nice manageable easy to drive car yeah I mean you're right I don't feel like I'm
riding along On A Boat like you can feel in some larger three-row crossovers it just feels like a
pretty comfortable well-composed vehicle now a lot of folks who are in the market for a car like this
they are as interested in test driving the tech as they are test driving the power train true so
let's hop into the CRV and we'll take a look at Honda's Tech offering sounds good these cars have
stunningly similar Tech setups so let's hit the key points this nine inch color touch screen is
standard on the hybrid EXL and the sport touring trims but the non-hybrid models and the hybrid
sport they make do with a less impressive seven inch unit now if you get the pilot all you have
to do is get an EXL trim or above and you get the nine inch screen the multi-colored design
makes it really easy to distinguish between the various icons now similarly the volume knob and
these physical tuning buttons are a godsend and anybody who has driven a car that doesn't have
those knows what I'm talking about now Honda did throw a little bit of a monkey wrench into the
usual trim powertrain combination formula for the 2023 CRV what I mean is that if you want a hybrid
you're now locked into buying a more expensive trim and that does mean a higher price tag but
it also means more features there are plenty of USB ports there's Dual Zone climate control heated
mirrors heated front seats all standard and our sport touring model also gets a 12 speaker Bose
stereo driver seat memory a heated steering wheel and wireless connectivity for Apple
carplay and Android auto my pilot trailsport has all of those features but because those
off-road oriented trim it also has a few things that are dedicated specifically to dirt driving
like the trail watch camera system that gives us multiple high resolution views of her surroundings
and we also have an extra drive mode called Trail there it is which senses wheel slip and
redistributes the torque to keep you moving forward but if you are looking at the pilot
purely as a family hauler just because you need a little more space probably all that you need
to know is that in terms of tech offerings there's nothing here you can't get in the
CRV and vice versa okay how about safety well they're both very well equipped the Honda Suite
of Advanced Driver assistance systems called Panda sensing is standard on both vehicles yeah
and that actually includes quite a lot of stuff automatic emergency braking Lane keeping assist
traffic sign recognition adaptive cruise control blind spot monitoring well quick note about blind
spot monitoring it's available on all but the bass trim of the CRV but it's standard on all but the
base term of the pilot and that is a really good call out so I guess the pilot wins on safety and
probably has more airbags too right well yes but I should hope so because it fits more people so
gonna need more airbags for those extra people the 2023 Honda CRV starts at 29 705 including
destination but you have to bump that price up to thirty four thousand two hundred five dollars if
you want the more efficient and more satisfying hybrid powertrain now on top of that you'll add
fifteen hundred dollars to any trim level to get all-wheel drive except for the top trim where it
comes standard for the 2023 Honda Pilot base price is thirty seven thousand two hundred ninety five
dollars that does include destination all-wheel drive is a twenty one hundred dollar premium on
the pilot lineup but it is standard with the trail sport and the elite trims as we've discussed these
two vehicles have a lot in common they have very similar Interiors very similar Tech and safety
features and they even have very similar driving Dynamics yeah so unless you know that you really
want a hybrid powertrain which will tip the scales in the direction of a CRV or you really
want that extra terrain capability of the pilot it's probably going to be a choice about size how
many people and how much gear are you typically carting around that's what you're going to want to
think about other than that these are both great choices they just suit different needs so let us
know in the comments section below which one you would pick please make sure you're subscribed
while you're at it and if you want to go further in depth on either of these models we do have full
single reviews of each and of course check back soon we will be driving something else next week
thank you