Compare the2023 GMC AcadiaVS 2022 Honda Pilot

Safety
Warranty
Reliability
Engine
Fuel Economy and Range
Environmental Friendliness
Brakes and Stopping
Tires and Wheels
Suspension and Handling
Chassis
Passenger Space
Cargo Capacity
Servicing Ease
Ergonomics
Economic Advantages
Recommendations

Safety

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The Acadia Denali’s optional pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Pilot doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.

For enhanced safety, the front shoulder belts of the GMC Acadia are height-adjustable, and the middle seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides to move the belt to properly fit children. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages children to buckle up. The Honda Pilot doesn’t offer comfort guides on its middle seat belts.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Acadia are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Pilot doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

The GMC Acadia has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Pilot doesn’t offer knee airbags.

The Acadia has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Pilot doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.

When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Acadia AT4’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The Pilot doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.

The Acadia SLT/AT4/Denali offers an optional Surround Vision System to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Pilot only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.

Both the Acadia and the Pilot have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available all wheel drive.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the GMC Acadia is safer than the Honda Pilot:

	Acadia	Pilot
OVERALL STARS	5 Stars	4 Stars
	Driver
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Neck Injury Risk	21%	28%
Neck Compression	29 lbs.	46 lbs.
	Passenger
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
Chest Compression	.6 inches	.6 inches
Neck Compression	99 lbs.	478 lbs.
Leg Forces (l/r)	210/60 lbs.	478/436 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the GMC Acadia is safer than the Honda Pilot:

	Acadia	Pilot
	Front Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Hip Force	243 lbs.	269 lbs.
	Into Pole
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Max Damage Depth	14 inches	15 inches
HIC	381	406
Spine Acceleration	36 G’s	45 G’s
Hip Force	760 lbs.	838 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Acadia is 1.1% to 1.3% less likely to roll over than the Pilot.

Warranty

The Acadia’s corrosion warranty is 1 year longer than the Pilot’s (6 vs. 5 years).

There are over 56 percent more GMC dealers than there are Honda dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Acadia’s warranty.

Reliability

A hardened steel chain, with no maintenance needs, drives the camshafts in the Acadia’s engine. A rubber cam drive belt that needs periodic replacement drives the Pilot’s camshafts. If the Pilot’s belt breaks, the engine could be severely damaged when the pistons hit the opened valves.

To reliably power the ignition and other systems and to recharge the battery, the Acadia has a standard 220-amp alternator (155-amp - Acadia V6 and 170 V6). The Pilot’s 130-amp alternator isn’t as powerful.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2022 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that GMC vehicles are more reliable than Honda With 38 fewer problems per 100 vehicles in the first three years of ownership, J.D. Power ranks GMC higher than Honda.

Engine

The Acadia’s optional 3.6 DOHC V6 produces 30 more horsepower (310 vs. 280) and 9 lbs.-ft. more torque (271 vs. 262) than the Pilot’s 3.5 SOHC V6.

Fuel Economy and Range

On the EPA test cycle the Acadia gets better mileage than the Pilot:

			MPG
Acadia
	FWD	2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	22 city/29 hwy
	AWD	2.0 turbo 4-cyl.	22 city/27 hwy
Pilot
	FWD	3.5 SOHC V6	20 city/27 hwy
	AWD	3.5 SOHC V6	19 city/26 hwy

Regenerative brakes improve the Acadia 2.0 Turbo’s fuel efficiency by converting inertia back into energy instead of wasting it. The Pilot doesn’t offer a regenerative braking system.

The Acadia AWD’s standard fuel tank has 2.2 gallons more fuel capacity than the Pilot (21.7 vs. 19.5 gallons).

Environmental Friendliness

In its Green Vehicle Guide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the GMC Acadia higher (6 to 7 out of 10) than the Honda Pilot (3). This means the Acadia produces up to 24.5 pounds less smog-producing pollutants than the Pilot every 15,000 miles.

Brakes and Stopping

The Acadia’s standard front and rear disc brakes are vented to help dissipate heat for shorter stops with less fading. The rear discs on the Pilot are solid, not vented.

The Acadia stops much shorter than the Pilot:

	Acadia	Pilot
70 to 0 MPH	173 feet	183 feet	Car and Driver
60 to 0 MPH	126 feet	128 feet	Motor Trend

Tires and Wheels

For better traction, the Acadia AT4’s tires are larger than the largest tires available on the Pilot (255/65R17 vs. 245/60R18).

The GMC Acadia’s wheels have 6 lugs for longer wheel bearing life, less chance of rotor warping and greater strength. The Honda Pilot only has 5 wheel lugs per wheel.

Suspension and Handling

The Acadia offers an available driver-adjustable suspension system. It allows the driver to choose between an extra-supple ride, reducing fatigue on long trips, or a sport setting, which allows maximum control for tricky roads or off-road. The Pilot’s suspension doesn’t offer adjustable shock absorbers.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Acadia’s wheelbase is 1.5 inches longer than on the Pilot (112.5 inches vs. 111 inches).

The Acadia Denali AWD handles at .85 G’s, while the Pilot Elite 4WD pulls only .80 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The Acadia SLT AWD executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the Pilot Elite 4WD (26.9 seconds @ .67 average G’s vs. 27.8 seconds @ .62 average G’s).

For better maneuverability, the Acadia’s turning circle is .7 feet tighter than the Pilot’s (38.7 feet vs. 39.4 feet).

Chassis

The Acadia is 3.1 inches shorter than the Pilot, making the Acadia easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The front grille of the Acadia FWD 4 cyl. uses electronically controlled shutters to close off airflow and reduce drag when less engine cooling is needed. This helps improve highway fuel economy. The Pilot doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

Passenger Space

The Acadia has .5 inches more front headroom, .1 inches more front legroom and 1.3 inches more rear legroom than the Pilot.

Cargo Capacity

Pulling a handle automatically lowers the Acadia’s second row seats, to make changing between passengers and cargo easier. The Pilot doesn’t offer automatic folding seats.

Servicing Ease

The Acadia uses gas struts to support the hood for easier service access. The Pilot uses a prop rod to support its heavy hood. It takes two hands to open the hood and set the prop rod, the prop rod gets in the way during maintenance and service, and the prop rod could be knocked out, causing the heavy hood to fall on the person maintaining or servicing the car.

Ergonomics

The Acadia (except SLE) offers an available heads-up display that projects speed in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The Pilot doesn’t offer a heads-up display.

The Acadia’s power parking brake sets with one touch and releases with one touch or automatically. The Pilot’s parking brake has to be released manually.

The power windows standard on both the Acadia and the Pilot have locks to prevent small children from operating them. When the lock on the Acadia is engaged the driver can still operate all of the windows, for instance to close one opened by a child. The Pilot prevents the driver from operating the other windows just as it does the other passengers.

In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Acadia’s available exterior PIN entry system. The Pilot doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system, and its HondaLink Assist can’t unlock the doors if the vehicle doesn’t have cell phone reception or the driver can’t contact the service.

The Acadia’s power mirror controls are mounted on the armrest for easy access. The Pilot’s power mirror controls are on the dash where they are possibly hidden by the steering wheel and are awkward to manipulate.

Economic Advantages

According to The Car Book by Jack Gillis, the Acadia is less expensive to operate than the Pilot because typical repairs cost less on the Acadia than the Pilot, including $68 less for a water pump, $31 less for a muffler, $121 less for a starter, $120 less for a fuel pump and $39 less for front struts.

Recommendations

Consumer Reports® recommends both the GMC Acadia and the Honda Pilot, based on reliability, safety and performance.

Car and Driver performed a comparison test in its August 2017 issue and they ranked the GMC Acadia Denali AWD two places higher than the Honda Pilot Elite 4WD.