2004 Honda Pilot

midsize SUV / 4-door SUV

2004 Honda Pilot 4-door SUV
2003 Honda Pilot shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test
Head restraints & seats

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 2003-05 models

Tested vehicle: 2003 Honda Pilot EX 4-door 4wd

The Honda Pilot was introduced in the 2003 model year.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of the Pilot in two 40 mph moderate overlap frontal crash tests into deformable barriers. In the first test, the frontal airbags deployed late, with the result that high forces were recorded on the dummy's head, indicating the likelihood of head injuries. This led Honda to modify the frontal airbag deployment characteristics on models produced after August 18, 2003. Also, Honda initiated a safety improvement campaign to modify at its cost vehicles produced earlier.

The Institute tested a second Pilot with the modified airbags, and the airbags inflated much earlier. Ratings of the Pilot are based on the results of the second test, except structural performance is based on both tests.

Honda has told the Institute that the 2006 models are sufficiently re-engineered that the the ratings for 2003-05 models do not carry over.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics

Action shot taken during the second of two frontal offset crash tests.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after both crash tests indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained reasonably well (second test shown).

Dummy movement was well controlled. During rebound, the dummy's head hit only the head restraint, as indicated by smeared greasepaint.

Forces on the legs and feet were low, indicating that significant injury was unlikely.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CEF0315 CEF0319
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 11 10
Left (cm) 21 22
Center (cm) 26 25
Right (cm) 18 16
Brake pedal (cm) 19 20
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 2 2
Right (cm) 2 3
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 7 7
Rearward (cm) 2 2
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 1 1

Driver injury measures

Test ID CEF0319
Head
HIC-15 202
Peak gs at hard contact no contact
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.2
Extension bending moment (Nm) 26
Maximum Nij 0.24
Chest maximum compression (mm) 31
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 1.0
Femur force - right (kN) 0.9
Knee displacement - left (mm) 0
Knee displacement - right (mm) 1
Maximum tibia index - left 0.31
Maximum tibia index - right 0.30
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.6
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.5
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 32
Right 50

About the original moderate overlap front test

Head restraints & seats

Seat type: Leather seats

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type Leather seats
Geometry
Backset (mm) 90
Distance below top of head (mm) 35
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Pass
Max T1 acceleration (g) 9.4
Head contact time (ms) 127
Force rating 3
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 262
Max neck tension (N) 1,067

Seat type: Cloth seats

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type Cloth seats
Geometry
Backset (mm) 110
Distance below top of head (mm) 40
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Fail
Max T1 acceleration (g) 0.0
Head contact time (ms)
Force rating 0
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N)
Max neck tension (N)

About the head restraint & seat test
Currently, IIHS tests apply only to front seats.