2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport Review: More Off-Road Ready Than It Needs to Be

A big family crossover that’s more of an off-roader than you would expect.

honda pilot trailsport parked on a desert rock ledge

Published August 16, 2023

Updated August 16, 2023

Chicken Point on the Broken Arrow Trail, set amidst Sedona, Arizona’s mountains and red rock formations, is among the most stunning vistas in the United States. Typically, you get there via Jeep — often a pink, ARB-accessorized one driven by an expert guide. The lookout is the last place you’d expect to find a squadron of three-row Honda Pilot family crossovers. But my colleagues and I got there — amidst several bemused looks from passersby — in relative comfort and ease.

Honda assured us that TrailSport would eventually be more than just a rugged styling package; we hear that story with every crossover. But after a day of testing it off-road in Arizona — and a week of testing it on-road during a family trip in Northern California — the all-new 2023 Pilot TrailSport proved that point. It brings surprising capability to the table without sacrificing its primary purpose of being a practical, comfortable family SUV.

The Honda Pilot TrailSport: The Verdict

Honda pretty much nailed it with the Pilot TrailSport. It looks handsome. It’s an amiable companion on road. And it’s far more capable of an off-roader than one would expect from a three-row family hauler.

I would almost be on board with buying one personally, but for one flaw in its otherwise-thoroughly-impressive roster of talents: fuel economy. At just 18 mpg in city driving, the Pilot Trailsport’s efficiency (or lack thereof) is tough to justify in 2023. And it will get harder every year this Pilot TrailSport is on the market.

‘TrailSport’ is no longer just a styling package

Honda debuted TrailSport on the Passport, where it was an appearance package. On the 2023 Pilot, the TrailSport trim offers enhanced off-road capability. It gets all-terrain tires, a one-inch lift to 8.3 inches of ground clearance and a unique off-road-tuned suspension. It brings optimized stabilizer bars, steel skid plates, a terrain camera system and front and rear recovery points. The AWD has a special Trail Torque Logic system designed to quickly shift power away from and return power to wheels that lose traction. Hill Descent Control also comes standard on all Pilots.

The Pilot TrailSport is impressively capable off-road, for a crossover

As noted, we drove the Pilot TrailSport up the Broken Arrow Trail, a noteworthy Jeep path. We did skip the Devil’s Staircase, which Honda PR said was due to the slickness (conditions had closed the trail in the morning after snow overnight). But it was still more rigorous than the dirt roads manufacturers typically let us test crossovers on — and more than 99 percent of what Pilot owners will put their vehicles through. The Pilot TrailSport handled it with gusto.

Granted, it’s not a Wrangler Rubicon. 8.3 inches of clearance in the Pilot TrailSport is less than even a non-Wilderness Subaru Forester. The approach, departure and breakover angles of a three-row family SUV isn’t optimal. But the Pilot TrailSport did very well given those limitations. It displayed a lot of flex getting over obstacles. And even fully inflated, the tires were soft enough to spread the tread for added grip. It was powerful and nimble enough to get the job done, with no sweating from the driver.

We did do some banging on the bottom of the vehicle over particularly tricky obstacles. But the steel skid plate — rated to hold the vehicle’s weight — is designed to take it without damage. We also hit what Honda said was likely the tow hitch on the way over a few times, but the car was no worse for it. And Honda did not do an obsessive amount of trail spotting to avoid us making contact or have a panicked chase vehicle ready to extricate us.

I particularly enjoyed using Honda’s multi-view terrain camera. It seemed higher-res than many other terrain cameras I have experienced, making it legitimately helpful. It comes on automatically when you enter Trail mode, stays on through 15 mph and comes right back on when you dip back below 15 mph.

The Pilot TrailSport is composed on-road, but non-TrailSports are even better

honda pilot trailsport parked in a driveway

Honda offered a brief on-road sample during the drive in Arizona. But I got a second, more extensive crack in the Pilot TrailSport driving it on a family vacation to the Bay Area. I put about 500 miles on it, hitting Muir Woods, Big Sur and several locations in between. And it received a thorough test over some curvy, technical-but-not-too-tortuous roads.

I found the Pilot TrailSport composed and comfortable throughout. As one would anticipate from a Honda product, the Pilot Trailsport handles very well. The weight and precision of the steering is solid. There’s no undue body roll. You get a lot of grip with the torque-vectoring AWD. My wife and I got nervous driving along Highway 1 in driving rain and heavy wind with ominous evidence from previous mudslides. But the Pilot Trailsport still felt completely assured on the pavement, even as I came close to pulling over due to lack of visibility.

The TrailSport version is a bit rougher around the edges than the standard Pilot on the street, however. The tires are louder, and the Pilot Elite I tested had crisper turn-in. But it’s not at the threshold an owner would notice or be bothered by it — unless they also bought a Pilot Elite and shuttled between the two frequently. The off-road suspension tuning absolutely eats up any bumps that would try to enter the cabin. But you do get some off-roader bobbing at high speeds on the highway.

Honda didn’t do anything creative with the engine. It’s still a mediocre 3.5-liter V6 with 285 hp — standard for this SUV class. It’s not particularly quick. And it is thirsty — especially in city driving. We averaged about 20 mpg for the trip, with many highway stretches.

The Pilot TrailSport’s interior is simple, clean and capacious

Honda doesn’t do superfluous or showy. The Pilot gives you the family-friendly features you want (like one-touch second row seats) and need without ladening the car with costly items you don’t. It has a simple, clean layout with physical knobs for the buttons and climate controls. My favorite features were the nifty storage compartments (fit your massive water bottle in the door) and big rubberized ledges (like the passenger side above the glove compartment) for keeping your phone in place while off-roading.

Tech is — pleasantly in my view — pared down to the essentials in the Pilot TrailSport. The 9.0-inch touchscreen is big enough, with easily paired Wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. Navigation? You have your phone with Google Maps. Rear seat entertainment? Your kids have their phones and tablets. Here are some USB ports in the 2nd and 3rd rows.

One notable difference with the Pilot TrailSport is that you don’t get the foldable, removable and stowable second-row middle seat found on other Pilots. The Trailsport was spacious and comfortable for my family of four for a week. But things got a bit tricky when we tried to add my uncle into the mix.

My wife had to climb into the third row. And it’s not something we would have been able to do had we had our luggage in the car — our full allotment of stroller, suitcases and backpacks required the third-row seat to be folded.

The TrailSport specifically uses a more durable synthetic leather rather than the leather-trimmed seats in the other higher-level Pilot trims. But I would not have noticed that if I had not looked it up.

Safety will be a definite appeal for the Pilot TrailSport

honda pilot viewed from the side post crash testing

I’ve attended many car launches. Manufacturers don’t often bring the specific vehicle that went through the crash testing (some for obvious reasons). But Honda brought that crash-tested Pilot — with its frame still pretty much intact after a simulated side impact test.

It’s one thing to read about safety technology and how the 2023 Pilot is an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ and has a five-star NHTSA rating. It’s another thing to see it. And as a parent with two small kids, it’s a huge selling point.

2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport: Alternatives

The closest three-row family crossovers posing as off-roaders are the new Kia Telluride SX X-Pro trim ($50,085), the Ford Explorer Timberline ($48,980) and the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek ($42,820). Other plausible cross-shop candidates without an explicitly off-road trim include the Subaru Ascent ($33,895) and the Toyota Highlander ($36,420).

The Honda Pilot TrailSport could also be a budget alternative to the Jeep Grand Cherokee L ($41,530), which would cost well above $60,000 to outfit it for off-roading on trail.