In the elementary school where my sister-in-law Liz teaches, she tells her students about choices and their consequences. There are no bad kids, Liz believes, but good kids can make bad choices.

Honda is a good carmaker, but it made some curious choices with its new eight-passenger Pilot crossover SUV.

At a time when other automakers are abandoning the boxy shape of old-style SUVs for swoopy new models with shuttle-pod looks, Honda went resolutely old-school, with a squared-off body and wide grille that bring to mind rugged trucks like the Nissan Xterra and even some Hummers.

The tough-look Pilot also comes with a third-row seat that doesn’t match the comfort and easy access its competitors offer. It’s a burly, boxy crossover. Wimps need not apply.

The Pilot and Toyota Highlander pioneered the class of so-called crossover vehicles that look like SUVs but use car-type chassis to reduce weight and boost fuel economy. The Pilot and Highlander’s success forced other automakers to follow suit. The crossover segment now overflows with excellent vehicles.

Prices for the 2009 Pilot start at $27,595 for a front-wheel drive LX model. The least-expensive all-wheel drive Pilot is a $29,195 LX. The top model, a Touring with leather upholstery and navigation and rear-seat entertainment systems, stickers at $39,995.

I tested a well-equipped Pilot EX-L AWD that cost $35,195. All prices exclude destination charges.

All Pilots come with a 250-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 and five-speed automatic transmission.

The Pilot competes with similarly priced family vehicles like the Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Flex, GMC Acadia, Hyundai Veracruz, Saturn Outlook and Toyota Highlander.

The 2009 Pilot is about 3 inches longer, 1 inch wider and 1 inch taller than the old model.

The Pilot I tested had excellent performance and a quiet, comfortable ride. The engine provides plenty of power for confident acceleration, the suspension absorbed bumps smoothly and the interior was quiet, with noticeably less wind and road noise than the previous Pilot.

The SUV is comfortable and smooth around town and on the highway, with well-tuned steering and good firm brakes.

The interior features attractive leather seats and soft materials. The gauges and controls have a legible and pleasant design. The gaps between some of the trim pieces were somewhat uneven and irregular, however.

Passenger space and comfort could also be better. A large glovebox intrudes deep into the front footwell and reduces legroom. “That’s a really good stretching exercise,” a Pilates-practicing passenger opined as she tried to find a comfortable position.

Getting in and out of the third row of seats is also a bit tricky. The step-in height is taller than kid-friendly vehicles like the Traverse, and the second row doesn’t slide far enough forward for easy ingress.

The second row provides good legroom, however.

The third-row seat is very narrow, despite its claim to hold three passengers. The mechanism to fold the rear seat flat for cargo and raise it upright again is simple and easy to use.

The space behind the third row provides 18 cubic feet of cargo room and has 2.8 cubic feet of hidden storage under the floor. That’s less space than the Traverse and Flex but considerably more than the Highlander and Veracruz offer.

While I appreciated its sunroof, leather and other goodies, the Pilot I tested lacked some useful features I’d expect in a $35,195 family vehicle, including a power tailgate, ultrasonic parking assist and memory for the driver’s seat.

The EPA rates the all-wheel drive Pilot at 16 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway for a combined average of 18 mpg. Those numbers are the same as the Flex, slightly better than the Veracruz and about 1 mpg lower than the all-wheel drive Traverse and Highlander. The front-drive Pilot checks in at 17 mpg city/23 highway/19 combined. That beats the Veracruz, is roughly equal to the Traverse and Flex, and about 1 mpg lower than the Highlander.

The Pilot’s defiantly SUV-style looks are likely to be the most polarizing thing about the vehicle. Honda has differentiated its big crossover from the pack of soft-edged competitors. That may be smart, given that the company doesn’t want to do anything to distract family-first buyers from its hot-selling Odyssey minivan.

It’s all about choices, though some of Honda’s choices keep the Pilot from challenging the best of the new crossover SUVs.