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Hondas and Acuras typically feel smaller and nimbler than their competitors. The Pilot should have the same virtue. It weighs a relatively svelte 4608 pounds (a Chevrolet Traverse, by comparison, checks in at 4956 pounds), and it rides on the same basic platform as the Acura MDX, one of the best-driving crossovers on the market. And yet, for a company that does not sell a body-on-frame truck, Honda sure has managed to inject an old-school SUV flavor into the Pilot. That's not a good thing. The heavy, slow steering and the large, boxy shape make the Pilot feel larger and heavier than it actually is. Even Honda's trusty 3.5-liter V-6, usually a silky engine, wheezes a bit here as if under constant stress.

Rolls-Royce once advertised itself as "the best car in the world." At some point that might well have been true, but until the Rolls-Royce Phantom was introduced in 2003, it hadn't been the case for at least sixty years. That car, an artful combination of traditional restrained British elegance and rigorous German engineering -- courtesy of parent BMW -- was a splendid anachronism that resonated with traditional R-R buyers the world over. If its facade was less than felicitous, the Phantom's overall impression was one of massive magnificence. Now, with minimal but absolutely vital and extremely effective exterior changes for the Series II, the design is far more refined. The too-small, round, pig-eyed headlamps that spoiled the frontal composition have been expunged, the gigantic grille shell is formed as a single stainless-steel piece, and forged twenty-one-inch wheels are simpler in appearance (and the better for it).