2021 Honda Pilot Adds New Special Edition Trim, Standard Nine-speed Automatic

2021 Honda Pilot adds new Special Edition trim, standard nine-speed automatic

Honda is adding a few updates to its Pilot three-row crossover for 2021 that include introducing a new mid-level trim designation, making the nine-speed automatic transmission that was previously available on higher trim levels standard across the range, and giving the family hauler a $725 price increase. The entry-level LX now starts at $33,370, including the $1,120 destination fee. All-wheel-drive versions of each trim, which feature Honda's torque vectoring system, remain a $2,000 option, as before.

The new trim level is called Special Edition, or SE as it will appear on the liftgate badge. It builds on the EX-L grade, which adds features that include leather seats, second-row sunshades, a power liftgate and sunroof. Step up to the SE and you get 20-inch black wheels and trim like roof rails, grille, and front and rear skid garnishes. The only actual equipment upgrade is wireless phone charging. The SE grade is positioned exactly midpoint in the Pilot trim spectrum and starts at $40,080, including destination, for front-wheel-drive versions and $42,080 all-inclusive for all-wheel drive.

2020 Mazda Mx-5 Miata Rf Road Test | Automatic Transmission, Performance, Roof

2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Road Test | Automatic transmission, performance, roof

Somewhere in Hiroshima, a parade of nearly finished Miatas glides along a track waiting to receive their beating hearts, the powertrains that'll let them ply their road-carving talents the world over. One – let's call him Fred – is eager to begin his new life as a 2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata, bringing joy to his future owner and just generally being awesome, even if the RF power targa-ish roof that's already been applied to him is a tad dweeby. Visions of hairpins and power slides and expertly executed heal-toe downshifts dance in his head … and then it happens. He is given the one thing every new Miata dreads: an automatic transmission. Poor guy.

This will not, entirely at least, be yet another diatribe in the ongoing Quixotic campaign to Save the Manuals(!). Automatic transmissions can be quite good and even beneficial in sports cars, especially on the track where removing the need to operate a clutch and expertly execute those heal-toe downshifts lets you better focus on the steering, what the chassis is doing and just going faster. That the computers can shift quicker than you can is another obvious advantage.

2021 Nissan Pathfinder Tipped To Get A New 9-speed Automatic

2021 Nissan Pathfinder tipped to get a new 9-speed automatic

One rumor about the revised 2021 Nissan Pathfinder has cropped up nearly once a month since the beginning of the year. When we covered spy shots of a camouflaged Pathfinder prototype in January, commenter Bryson wrote, "A little birdie told me that the 2021 Pathfinder is ditching the CVT for a 9 speed automatic transmission." In March, a NicoClub forum thread cited a Reddit post for the same intel. In April, Carscoops acknowledged the whispers. Now AllCarNews joins the crowd claiming the disagreeable Jatco CVT is out, a new nine-speed auto is in.

If true, this wouldn't be the nine-speed gearbox going into the refreshed Frontier pickup; a transmission fit for the Frontier's longitudinal engine placement wouldn't agree with the front-wheel-drive Pathfinder's transverse engine placement. The ZF nine-speed that serves Honda and Jaguar Land Rover products among others is a shoo-in for the role if the rumors come true.

2020 Nissan Frontier Review | What's New, 3.8-liter V6, Nine-speed Automatic

2020 Nissan Frontier Review | What's new, 3.8-liter V6, nine-speed automatic

The 2020 Nissan Frontier marks the last in a particularly lengthy pickup truck generation that dates all the way back to the 2005 model year. Next year we'll get a completely redesigned model, but before that happens, Nissan is giving the old truck one last "hurrah" with a taste of the new one in the form of a fresh V6 engine and nine-speed automatic transmission, the only choices for this year. And the new combo is a mighty good sign of things to come.

Just on paper, the engine and transmission make strong cases for themselves. The 3.8-liter V8 makes 310 horsepower, which is 49 more than the old 4.0-liter and 158 more than the discontinued four-cylinder base engine. Its 310 horses also make it the most powerful midsize truck in the segment. Its 281 pound-feet of torque is unchanged, but that's still more than what you get from the V6s in the Chevy Colorado or Toyota Tacoma. Only the diesel Colorado and the Ford Ranger's turbo four-cylinder top the Nissan's torque rating. Combined fuel economy of 20 mpg with RWD and 19 mpg with 4WD improves upon its 4.0-liter predecessor by 1 and 2 mpg, respectively. Credit goes to the lighter more efficient engine and the additional gear ratios, however, fuel economy is still dead last in the segment among similar automatic V6 RWD trucks. The 4WD ties the V6 Gladiator and Colorado, and tops the Colorado ZR2 with a V6. Odds are the next-generation truck will improve this further.