More than 1,500 associates at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA) 
today celebrated the start of mass production of the all-new, thoroughly
 redesigned and reimagined 2016 Honda Pilot, slated to go on-sale next 
month at Honda dealerships nationwide. HMA is the exclusive manufacturer
 of the family friendly, up to 8-passenger Honda Pilot SUV and its 
advanced direct-injected i-VTEC V-6 engine.
"Today we celebrate the incredible dedication of our Alabama team to 
delivering an outstanding new Pilot that will set the course for others 
to follow," said Jeff Tomko, president of HMA.  "I want to congratulate 
our associates for their unqualified commitment to building a new Pilot 
of the highest quality that exceeds the expectations of our customers."
Designed, developed and manufactured in America, the all-new 2016 
Honda Pilot SUV is improved in every imaginable way – with dynamic new 
styling, an even more spacious and family-friendly cabin, a more 
powerful and efficient new powertrain, and more advanced technology and 
premium features than ever before.
All three generations of the Honda Pilot have been designed and 
developed in America by Honda R&D Americas, Inc. at its Los Angeles 
design studio and Raymond, Ohio R&D center.
"Our U.S.-based development team lives with the midsize family SUV 
everyday and we have applied our deep understanding into the development
 of this best ever, third-generation Pilot," said Marc Ernst, chief 
engineer at Honda R&D Americas in Raymond, Ohio and development 
leader for the new Pilot. "We advanced Pilot's dual-purpose character by
 increasing both family utility and personal sophistication to meet the 
needs of the driver and passengers in every dimension of their life."
The Pilot is designed to achieve the highest safety ratings of any 
vehicle in its class, and offers Honda Sensing™, a comprehensive suite 
of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies that can help 
drivers avoid a collision or mitigate its severity.
The new Pilot joins a reinvigorated Honda light-truck lineup that includes America's best-selling SUV and 2015 Motor Trend
 Sport Utility of the Year, the 2015 Honda CR-V, and the just-launched 
Honda HR-V crossover, the new gateway model in Honda's triple-threat 
SUV/CUV lineup. The Pilot is produced alongside the Honda Odyssey, which
 is leading all other minivans in sales to individual American retail 
car buyers in 2015.  Honda's Alabama-built light-truck lineup will be 
further strengthened when HMA begins production of an all-new Honda 
Ridgeline pickup early next year.
Since its market debut in the 2003 model year, the Pilot has 
continuously advanced its unique combination of smooth ride comfort, 
accommodating interior packaging and overall efficiency that traditional
 SUVs lacked. The Pilot helped transform the SUV segment with better 
ride quality, top crash safety ratings, more interior space and 
increased fuel efficiency.
About Honda
 Honda has been producing automobiles
 in America for more than 30 years and currently operates 16 major 
manufacturing facilities in North America. Eight Honda auto plants in 
the North American region, including four in the U.S., have the capacity
 to produce 1.92 million automobiles each year, using domestic and 
globally sourced parts. In 2014, nearly 98 percent of the Honda and 
Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were produced in North America. Honda
 also operates 16 major research and development centers in the U.S. 
with the capacity to fully design, develop and engineer many of the 
products Honda produces in North America.
Source: Honda News 

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