This being Detroit, I note the one under the tent has already been stripped.

Blah. Looks like a Tribute mated with a 4Runner....only not as interesting as you would think something like that would turn out.

Unfortunately, that $500 is in Jalopnik Dollars™, and redeemable only for Skull-driveshaft stickers, "Hoon of the Day" and "Save the Enzos" shirts.

Sounds fine to me.

I dunno what it is, but the front end reminds me of Mr. Sparkle for some reason.

"I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see I am serious!"

@staircar: Good call. Here I was thinking maybe the Pilot was just surprised to be having it's photo taken

Im just like "And this is better than the old one in what way??"

Honda: Well its new. . .

Me: Not Good enough. Not good enough at all.

@staircar: Mr. Sparkle indeed!!

Honda is having quite a year in its design department. What with the TSX's power plenum grill and now this. Ugh.

@Matt Hardigree: "In the meantime, everyone enjoy photos inside and out of the new Pilot."

Is "enjoy" really the word you were looking for?

The interior has more buttons than Mary Tyler Moore's coat!

@Dr. Schm: You're forgetting other value-add features like increased weight and new Highly Derivative™ Styling!

Fugly comes to mind.

This debutante is not ready to be shown to the world. Honda could have waited until the braces in the mouth are taken out.

I don't think the outside is bad, save the grill. The doors and greenhouse look a bit GMT900-ish. The back quarter looks a little like a Ford Escape. I can't stand the interior. I truly hate Honda's new "viper fang" steering wheel - it looks very 1990's, before they figured out how to make compact airbag inflators.

Frickin Fugly...

Even by Honda's design standards...

Children and pets will surely run the other way....

Frightening. Seeing a re-design this bad makes me frightened for all of the new 2009's...

I said it once and I'll say it again, "Cough, Ford, Explorer, Cough"

Cue the "it looks like...." comments. Ahhhh damn too late.

@Bento the Wertsmith: Dude, that's nothing. I have a new Accord with sat-nav and it's like a cottdamned space station.

wow, a bandwagon to jump on!

it looks like: my first gen Jeep Liberty from the rear and rear 3/4 (which I like!) and yet, from the front, like it hit puberty, got corrective glasses and braces with headgear all at once.

Those teen years are tough on kids.

It's a robotic Hondapotamus.

@abgwin:

Comment of the day

Other than the grille, I kind of think it looks like a LaForza.

Except uglier.

This style of vehicle is getting overused. I'm bored with it. ENOUGH ALREADY!

@Mad_Science: Well, when you put it like that. . .

What happened to the projector headlamps that are in the current generation?

If I was the ghost of Mr. Honda, I'd be going Raiders of the Lost Ark, Nazi face melting on the design department of the company I started right about now.

@Tomsk: "You have dishonored the name of Honda, and now it is YOU who shall lose face!" [cue the face melting]

lame as the first one

@DannyBN: You took the words right out of my mouth.

Well done, Mr. Menlen. I never felt more chained to my desk at work than I did when Jalopnik laid down this challenge.

Re: the truck. I don't think it looks all that bad. It certainly looks better than its little brother, the CR-V, in my opinion.

Well I'm glad I didn't go buy a suitable camera and go on a mission to find this. I'd probably still be Mariott hopping without knowing this was shot 4 minutes after the request.

And yeah, that is not pretty. But I don't think Honda's too concerned with Pilot sales (obviously).

It looks exactly like an Escape except with an ugly grill.

Styling department ON.
Not everything responds like your Sync system.

Forgettable and offensive at the same time - that is true design skill.

@ranger88:

I get it. Their styling wasn't on, despite being told to be. Clever I say.

Wasn't this the same concept that NOBODY liked in LA or wherever it was first shown?

@piththeelder: The woefully uncreative would say, an Escape on steroids.

Remember when dual exhausts used to imply high performance?

@1300ccsoffury: No.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s... and got used to seeing dual exhausts on four-banger Civic hatchbacks.

It's been a LONG time since dual exhausts meant anything. Rather saddening, really.

So who was designing the interior for this thing FisherPrice? That gearshift is a big chuck of shiny plastic, and what is with the huge control knob bottom of the center dash cluster?

looks like a jeep with the front of a Mazda tribute attached

These mid size SUVs and CUVs are all beginning to look so similar to each other. They have become the mini-van in so many ways.

Oops. Honda needs some help. The current Civic is such a sexy sedan (no I'd probably never own one, but it looks good) then the Accord, CRV and this Pilot erupted like a gushing pimple.

@anthony94114:

I know what you mean, the current Civic is one of the best looking small cars on the market, but each successive Honda has gotten uglier and uglier.

The only exception is the Fit, which has actually improved in appearance since the first generation.

Snore! Bland and repugnant in one sweep. Sorry, there's nothing "sweeping" about this fridge. Its sort of Chevy Uplander-ish. 100 button center stack is retro 80s Buick. Bet it drives nice and sells well though.

I gotta join the dogpile on this one.
I noticed that Honda has graduated from the Ford school of tiny, round, and coarse tach & speedo gauges. At least Honda could be counted on to produce highly legibile, if unexciting, dashboard instrumentation. No more.

I GOT IT! The grill is an Autobot logo stretched sideways

After kicking ass with the Civic, the Honda design team appears to have lost their way.

I disagree with just about everyone. It's plain, to be sure, and there's no excuse for that grill. But I like my ute's plain, and this one's still better looking than the older version that looked far too much like a Odyssey mated with a Forrester for me. Honda's Pilot is a really good mid-sized SUV with great carrying capacity, decent fuel economy, well appointed features, fine handling... the list goes on. Compared to the brutes and the cutes coming out of detroit these days, this looks like it strikes a nice balance.

In short, you date the girl with the nice ass but you marry the girl with the braces. In the long run, you'll be much happier.

i don't know what honda is doing. this is still the best suv on the market but i think they are stealing design from ford and toyota. they had unique and cool vehicles until they became the benchmark. now, they have no motor selection and they are becoming the new king of bland. how many variations of bland are there? ultimately, they all end oup looking the same. the best engine they have is the new turbo 4 which they will only use in 1 vehicle so far. their marketing department should be called the ford/toyota bland machine. boring.

I remember the one thing I really liked about the concept that I saw at NAIAS, the front lamps. They were really cool and well executed. I see in production they are gone. Shame.

correction- not the best suv but the best mommy van under 40k.