Honda has announced the latest and the shiny car ‘The Pilot 2016’. The advent of a second child in a couple’s life can mean many things: the demise of romance, the start of sibling rivalry, and the purchase of a three-row SUV.

The new Pilot is slightly larger—by 1.8 inches in wheelbase, 3.5 inches in length—and yet its additional inches did not bring with them additional pounds. In fact, Honda claims the Pilot has slimmed down by as much as 286 pounds. Its weight of roughly 4100 to 4400 pounds (depending on equipment) are commendably svelte for this portly class. As busy parents know, family duty often is a recipe for packing on extra flab, so give the new Pilot a supportive round of applause for its weight-loss success. (As on The Biggest Loser, however, we’ll need to verify the lightening on a set of scales.) The nine-speed gets shift paddles along with the same, rather gimmicky, push-button gear selector Acura uses; the six-speed gearbox is actuated via a conventional shift lever.

With more power, additional gears, and less weight, the Pilot is said to hustle to 60 mph some two seconds faster than before. More important, it slurps less fuel. EPA figures increase from 17/24 mpg (AWD) to 18/26 mpg, as well as to 19/26 for Touring and Elite models, which in addition to the nine-speed automatic also come with auto stop-start (the latter deserving the lion’s share of the credit for the slightly better city-mpg rating). Front-wheel drive adds 1 mpg to the above figures. All-wheel-drive models get a choice of four power train modes: Normal, Snow, Sand, and Mud, which replace the previous V.T.M-4 Lock button. The A.W.D system also has a torque-vectoring function, which can apportion torque across the rear axle to aid cornering. A.W.D versions are rated to tow 5000 pounds, up from 4500, while FWD models can tug only 3500 pounds.