2025 HONDA PILOT Complaints

There is an issue with 2025 Pilot Safe Systems such as adaptive cruise and blind spot detection. Honda knows about this issue and working on a fix however there is no ETA.

The seatbelt was either not assembled properly or installed incorrectly. The strap that’s on the wall does not have a metal piece to buckle into the latch that is in the seat crease. So there is no functional seatbelt on the rear passenger side on the third row.

At 65 mph or higher ( highway speed), I hear the constant troubling noise coming from the front of the vehicle. I had taken the car to the dealership in Fallston, Harford County, Maryland, for inspection twice. The mechanic acknowledged hearing the same noise but could not diagnose any problem with the vehicle. The same mechanic drove another 2025 Honda Pilot and was able to replicate the same noise while driving at highway speeds. Subsequently, I wrote the letter to American Honda Motor Co., Inc outlining the problem and seeking resolution. I was informed there was no open campaigns and to contact NHTSA to file my complain.

- Had initially reported this problem to dealer at ~1590 miles on the vehicle. After ~2,200 miles gasoline smell is still there and severe. - The smell is obnoxious to driver if driving with Windows rolled up and is a safety concern. - Issue is more pronounced, severe when driving at the beginning of the day after overnight parking. - Took it to same dealer twice, they did diagnosis and informed it’s because of the plastic stuck to the exhaust which is the cause. They want to wait out till it’s fully burnt and the smell should go away. - Have raised a case with the manufacturer too and they’re looking.

The transmission jerks at low speeds, especially in gears 1, 2, and 3. Starting from a stop is the worst. When you press the gas pedal there is a delayed response to accelerate the car. This is a safety issue. When you press the gas to pull out in front of traffic the vehicle is slow to respond, can get bogged down trying to shift gears, and may result in an accident. The jerkiness feels like the transmission is going to fall out. The vehicle does not accelerate smooth from 0-20 mph.

- Extremely strong gasoline smell inside the vehicle while driving. Didn’t matter AC on or off, smell was terrible but more evident with AC/Fan on. Had to lower all the 4 windows to let out the air. - With a toddler in car it was terrifying with the nauseating smell and/or the risk of fire if at all. - Problem not reproduced by dealer and was mentioned it’s a sticky plastic in exhaust, will go away. - First appeared only on 23rd Oct 2024 with around 1,590 miles on it and not until then. No other related symptoms. - Fuel was almost 3/4th full and had been more than 8 days since last filled. Never filled to the brim ever or overflowed.

While driving on an open road, two lanes traveling the same direction the collision mitigation system was activated. The only thing I can think is that it was due to a bicycle that was traveling the same direction at a slower speed than I was driving but I had plenty of room to go around and was not even close to hitting them. The brakes were activated which was not only scary but dangerous. Had a car been behind me there is a strong chance I would have been rear-ended because nobody in their right mind would expect me to hit my brakes in this situation. This prompted me to look at the manual where I saw Honda has a list of reasons the emergency braking could activate despite "little chance of collision". The list is extensive with many reasons the system could activate incorrectly causing an accident, not preventing one. The unexpected braking itself is terrifying but how difficult Honda makes it to "opt out" of the system that obviously has many flaws is even more concerning. I tried to turn off this system only to find out that it is a multi step process that can only be done when stopped so if you forget to turn it off you are stuck using it even if you don't trust the system. Every other safety setting can be turned off while driving except this one. Why make it so difficult for the driver to choose to have complete control of their car, especially when their system is admittedly flawed. In addition, the emergency braking system is the only safety feature that resets every time you shut off the car. So every single time you start the engine you have to go through multiple steps to choose to have control of your own vehicle. It seems the system that is the most flawed is the only one Honda is trying to force drivers to use. This is not safe for my family or those driving around me. I called Honda and they told me there is nothing that can be done to disable it and have the setting hold even after turning off the car like all the other safety setting.

New 2025 Pilot with about 3,000 miles, driving in Montana on a level dusty gravel road at about 5,000 feet altitude. Driving into the morning sun for about 20 minutes at a slow speed of about 30 mph all of a sudden multiple warnings flashed, engine, brakes, etc. Steering was stiff and brakes did not feel active, very stiff. I just coasted to a stop on a desolate gravel road, no other traffic. The engine was still running, did not press on the gas for in large red letters the warning panel said "DO NOT DRIVE". The car was very dusty. If we had been on an Interstate at 70 mph that would have been an accident, with steering and brakes inhibited somehow? I shut OFF the engine, waited 10 minutes, started engine again and WARNINGS still active. Shut OFF engine and waited 20 minutes. Restarted engine and looked like warning were starting to clear, and steering and brakes felt normal again. With no WARNINGS showing I drove very slowly for many miles with no further occurrences. Slowly worked my way back across the country to Florida without any further failures. It appears to all be computer related, perhaps sensors failing and the computer shutting down what must be electrical steering and brake assist. At speeds with Interstate traffic, that condition will be an accident. There are no failure codes shown on the access panel. We have an appointment with our Honda service dealer, maybe they will be able to access a computer history to see the failure mode that caused loss of steering and brakes. The fact that a computer can impact those critical systems on a vehicle, is a serious safety issue. Prior to this incident, driving about 30 minutes on a dusty gravel road in Montana, some sensor must have been actuating the rear brake caliper, I could hear the scraping sound of pad on rotor, didn't sense the car slowing. The car was dusty, maybe sensors inhibited, the scraping lasted about 15 minutes, at least that it could be heard in the car. Could be a safety iss

While driving on a winding mountain pass traveling from Bozeman, MT to Butte, MT. I was driving my 2025 Honda Pilot in the inside lane while a semi was traveling in the outside lane ahead of me. As the road curved left, I approached as the semi was ahead in the next lane. I believe my Honda Pilot recognized this as a potential crash and braked hard causing the distance between me and the semi to increase dramatically, even though both vehicles were clearly in their own lanes. Fortunately there was nobody traveling immediately behind me.

Ripples in windshield cause distortion when viewing the road. This is only present in the passenger side on my vehicle.