The 2009 Honda Pilot was met with a lukewarm reception at its debut at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, and it sounds as if Honda designers weren’t 100 percent behind the redesign, either. Honda R&D Americas Inc. Chief Designer Dave Marek says the new design “will grow on you,” but sounds rather uncertain in his defense of the new model.
The biggest knocks against the ’09 Pilot is its boxy exterior and floating front grille. Many feel that Honda has missed the mark as modern crossovers are sleeker and more car-like, while the new Pilot looks more SUVish with a rugged exterior.
Marek revealed to WardsAuto that the grille was more influenced by Honda ’s accounting department than the design department. “The (controversial) grille was a case of taking something that was on something else… and kind of massaging it to fit,†he says. “On the mockup, (it) looks good. When you actually manufacture it, oops! That’s actually what happened.”
It remains unclear if the Pilot’s questionable design will hurt sales, but the new model does have some pretty big shoes to fill — the previous-generation Pilot consistently sold over 100,000 copies annually.
