2025 Kia Sorento X-Pro SX Prestige vs. Honda Pilot TrailSport: Which 3-Row Off-Roader is Best? originally appeared on Autoblog.
Two competitors go head-to-head
Off-road-ready hybrid or all-electric SUVs and trucks are rapidly growing in popularity, and for good reason. What good is a $40,000-$50,000 3-row SUV if it can’t get the family to the campsite, trailhead, or beach bonfire location? Look at how many Subaru Ascents or Toyota Highlanders you see in your hometown, and how many of them have bike racks, kayaks, or surfboards on them. They’re designed for families who enjoy the great outdoors. Even cars like the Kia Sorento and Honda Pilot are getting the off-road-ready treatment, when neither was originally designed for it.
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The Honda Pilot has been a three-row SUV since 2003, and the company likes to mention that it was the first mainstream SUV built on a body-on-frame, which helped it feel and drive more like a car, instead of a unibody like the SUVs it competed with–like the Ford Explorer or the Chevrolet Traverse of the early 2000s. It could be configured with Honda’s intelligent 4WD system of the time, while today, it can be built with AWD. The Kia Sorento, compared to the Honda, is quite luxurious in comparison. It’s very technology-focused, has an equally trusty V6, and, unlike the Honda, a hybrid option. But both now have off-road-centric trims. Is one better than the other?
Price-wise, the Kia has more options for less
The Kia Sorento comes in nine trims, starting with the front-wheel drive LX at $31,900, going all the way up to the X-Pro SX Prestige with AWD for $47,390. Five of the trims offer AWD as an option; otherwise, they’re either AWD or FWD. For the Honda, there are eight trims, and the off-road-ready TrailSport trim isn’t the top of the line. The TrailSport is right in the middle, but still costs a little more than the Kia at $49,700 before any add-ons or delivery fees. It starts at $40,200 for the Sport and maxes out at $54,580 for the Black Edition.
For the price of the Honda, you get a beefy and very reliable 3.5-liter V6 that makes 285 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, giving it a towing rating of 5,000 lbs when equipped with all-wheel drive. In the Kia, you can fit certain trims with the 3.3-liter V6, but unfortunately, the X-Pro SX Prestige is not one of them. Instead, you’re stuck with the 2.5-liter turbo four that makes 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque. When properly equipped, it can reportedly tow 4,500 pounds. Both SUVs come with standard transmissions instead of CVTs, as well as a “Tow” mode to help keep the RPMs low and optimize torque for pulling.
The nice thing about the Kia, though, is that it can be bought as an AWD hybrid, starting at $38,690 and going up to $46,890 for the SX Prestige. The SX Prestige isn’t as off-road oriented as the gas-only X-Pro SX Prestige, but it does still come with AWD and a center locking differential. The Honda Pilot will have a hybrid option for 2026, so if you’re thinking about the Honda but want it as a hybrid, you’ll have to be a little patient. The Kia you can buy as a hybrid or PHEV right now.
When it comes to off-road readiness, they even each other out
Kia truly rocked the boat when they launched the Telluride’s off-roading in Moab, Utah campaign. What used to be only accessible to Jeep Wranglers, Ford Broncos, Toyota Land Cruisers, or 4Runners was now being conquered by an AWD 3-row SUV equipped with all-terrain tires. No lifts, no fancy skid plates, no steel bumpers or rock sliders–just tires. Kia’s AWD system is good, make no mistake about that–but I wouldn’t take the Sorento to Moab, even though it comes with BFGoodrich AT tires on beautiful, glossy black 17-inch wheels. It has attractive drive modes, like Smart, Eco, Comfort, Sport, and Snow. In the Honda, the drive modes are Normal, Econ, Sport, Snow, Trail, Sand, and Tow.
Aside from the drive modes, the Honda Pilot TrailSport comes with underbody protection for the engine and gas tank (the Kia doesn’t). The Honda doesn’t come with BFGoodrich AT tires, but it does come with Continental’s TerrainContact AT tires. It also has more ground clearance (8.3 inches compared to 8.2, so it’s not a huge difference, but still), an off-road camera system called “TrailWatch,” and torque vectoring for the AWD system. Now, the Kia does have a bit of a leg up on the Honda in the sense that it has a locking center differential as part of its torque vectoring AWD system, though. The ability to have the front and rear wheels spin at the same speed helps keep the SUV steady in snow or mud.
If the Kia came with underbody protection and a little more ground clearance, it would be a perfectly comfortable and capable off-roader. If the Honda had a locking center differential, it would kick the Kia to the curb.
Both have tight third rows, though
If you were looking at both of them for the third row alone, the Honda Pilot TrailSport has the most room, thanks to it being wider, taller, and longer than the Kia by a few inches each way. It has 32.5 cubic inches of legroom compared to the Sorento’s 29.6 cubic inches. It’s a pretty significant difference, but they’re both tight for adults. Ideally, the third row would be for your teenage niece or nephew, or if your middle school-aged kid wants to bring Timmy over for dinner after school. The Honda was more spacious, too, with a lot more head and shoulder room, too. I did appreciate the large sunroof in the Kia, though, as it helped open up the third row. However, the third row in the Honda can recline while the Kia’s don’t, and that’s hard to beat.
Otherwise, both had captain’s chairs, with optional bench seats. I personally would opt for the bench seat just to accommodate another passenger. Installing car seats in either SUV was incredibly easy, with clearly visible lower anchor points and upper tether points on the back of their chairs. Both have tilt and slide seats, so someone could access the third row even with a rear-facing seat secured. Since the Honda is slightly longer and wider, getting into the third row with a car seat secured was much easier than it was in the Kia.
The Kia’s interior felt first-class, while the Honda felt…economy
One of the things I adore about Kia’s interiors is how premium they feel compared to the price tag. The Sorento X-Pro SX Prestige came with a dual-screen setup. The digital gauge cluster and driver information screen is 4.3 inches long, and it seamlessly blends in with the 12.3-inch media and control screen that ends just over the center console. I like Kia’s screen setup because it’s large, but not overwhelming, and it still includes “manual” buttons and knobs for the A/C, seat heater, and seat ventilation controls. I used quotes because they’re separate from the screen, but they’re on their own touch screen. They’re not physical buttons.
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The Sorento’s interior was a delightful cinnamon color, with light brown contrast stitching against a darker brown color for the carpet and dashboard. The seats were leather and very comfortable–so comfortable I was a little shocked they didn’t come with a massaging function. Everything else, like the drive mode selector and tow button, was very easy to find.
The Honda, on the other hand, was much simpler. The TrailSport was primarily black, with leather seats and a covered steering wheel, and it was broken up (thankfully) with orange contrast stitching the same color as the TrailSport logo. Like the Kia, it had all-weather mats for the front and rear, but the screen was much smaller, and every control was a physical button and knob. Honda’s interiors are nice because they’re no-nonsense, but compared to the Kia’s color scheme, design, and technology, the Pilot’s interior felt very boring for the price. If you’re like most of my family and want to wage war on large screens, though, the Honda is perfect.
Final thoughts
Both come with capable off-road-ready trims, packed with crazy cool technology. The locking center differential, hybrid, and PHEV option has me leaning toward the Kia as a daily driving off-road capable mom-mobile, but I do like the Honda’s sturdy V6, increased passenger space, and underbody protection. They’re both excellent cars for the price, so it largely comes down to why you want either one. If you want something that can handle fairly extreme weather and haul the family, the center locking diff in the Kia is hard to pass up. But if you want something roomier for the kids, a no-nonsense V6 and transmission, and perfect for getting the family’s camper to your annual camping spot, the Honda is a great choice. In a perfect world, I’d have the Honda’s chassis and V6 with the Kia’s interior and center locking differential.
2025 Kia Sorento X-Pro SX Prestige vs. Honda Pilot TrailSport: Which 3-Row Off-Roader is Best? first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 20, 2025
This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
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