The previous generation of the Honda Passport was nominally supposed to be a more adventure ready midsize utility vehicle. But the reality was a bit more pedestrian. It was really just a shorter two-row version of the Pilot. It was fine, but it sure wasn’t going to take on significantly challenging trails. For 2026, Honda has completely redesigned the Passport with a new look, new powertrain and some existing hardware that takes advantage of new software to crank up the capability levels.
Hard core off-roading generally hasn’t been part of the Honda road vehicle family. If you wanted true go-anywhere capability, you’d have to look at side-by-sides like the Pioneer or Talon and those aren’t road legal. Vehicles like the Passport and Pilot have had all-wheel-drive but they were always primarily front-wheel-drive with some torque going to the rear axle when more grip was needed.
According to chief engineer Todd Hemmert, Honda tagged the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Toyota 4Runner as benchmarks for the new Passport. That’s a surprisingly high bar for an off-road Honda, but depending exactly what you’re comparing the Passport either does or doesn’t clear that bar. Honda brought us to Puerto Rico for a first taste of the new Passport which included a surprisingly challenging off-road trek. In fact, we spent more time driving the Passport off-road than we did on-road.
It’s immediately apparent when you see the new Passport for the first time that Honda was trying to create a different beast for this generation. This looks much more like a traditional SUV with a much boxier profile than any Honda since the dearly departed Element. However unlike the Element, the Passport is taller and wider with a longer, flatter hood. It has a decidedly more robust look than the previous Passport.
The new Passport is about 2.4-inches longer with 2.6-inches more wheelbase. The reprofiled front end provides for a 2-degree improvement in approach angle to 23-degrees. The base RTL trim has 2.8-degrees more departure angle than before at 27.1-degrees. However, the ostensibly off-road Trailsport has a worse departure angle at just 23.1 degrees. This is likely due to the presence of a standard trailer hitch which also serves as the rear recovery point.
Honda doesn’t list a breakover angle, but since the wheelbase is longer and ground clearance only grows by 0.2 inches to 8.3-inches, it’s only 16.6 degrees, notably less than the 19 and 23 degrees of the Jeep and Toyota.
Under the hood, the new Passport still has a 3.5-liter V6, but it’s different than before and now has dual overhead camshafts. Torque is unchanged at 262 lb-ft and power jumps by 5 to 285-hp. The transmission gains an extra gear for a total of 10 ratios. Again, not huge numbers, but right in the same range with the non-hybrid 4Runner and the Jeep with a Pentastar V6.
Driveline is where things get really different. The Passport is based on a unibody platform with a transverse engine that has commonality with the Odyssey, Ridgeline and Pilot. There is a power take-off from the transmission sending up to 75% of torque to the rear axle. The rear axle features the same dual clutch, torque vectoring hardware that when installed in Acura models is called Super Handling All Wheel Drive. Acura has used it for a long time and it works wonders at making its vehicles with a similar architecture feel much more neutrally balanced and fun to toss on a twisting road or track. But Acura tunes the system for handling performance.
The Passport team uses a different software control strategy that can still direct up to 100% of the rear axle torque to either wheel, but they are essentially mimicking what a locking rear differential would do, just without the locking diff. In addition to that, there is brake management on the front wheels to vector the torque there based on where it’s needed to move the vehicle.
The Toyota and Jeep both have longitudinal engine configurations and transfer cases for part-time four-wheel-drive. While lower trims like the Toyota SR5 and TRD Sport and Jeep Latitude don’t have a low range or locking differentials, the four-wheel drive can send torque to both axles. The system which Honda calls i-VTM4 is the top of the line for the Passport. Toyota and Jeep offer variants with 4WD low range, locking differentials and other features that will go places the Passport doesn’t dare. But Honda’s not yet looking to do that, at least not with a vehicle capable of driving on the road. The side-by-sides can far surpass even what the Toyota and Jeep can achieve.
Inside, the Passport is loaded with familiar Honda switch gear, with plenty of buttons and knobs, which is exactly how it should be. Interestingly, the Passport is several thousand dollars cheaper than the electric Prologue, but it feels far more premium inside. While the EV is full of hard plastics, the Passport has nice looking and feeling soft surfaces including leather and fabric. In the cubby at the base of the center stack where the wireless charger is, the other side has a rubber finish with what looks like a topographic map.
The infotainment system is the same Android Automotive with Google services found in other new Hondas and Acuras and works well. There is a toggle on the console for drive modes that includes sport, normal, eco, sand and trail. The sand mode allows for higher slip thresholds for better escapes from deep sand.
The longer wheelbase makes the new Passport very roomy in the front and back seats and as usual in a Honda they are supportive and comfortable. There’s also lots of cargo space with 44 cubic feet behind the rear seats, great for all your adventure gear. While the Passport comes standard with a space saver spare tire under the cargo floor, Honda offers an accessory full-size spare that can be strapped in vertically on the left side of the cargo area. For those going on real adventures, a full size spare is essential.
The Jeep and Toyota have solid rear axles that offer more articulation than the independent suspension of the Honda. But within the limits of the what the driveline can manage, the Passport comports itself surprisingly well.
We drove up and down lots of narrow trails through a new park in eastern Puerto Rico that is going to be a retreat specifically for cancer patients and survivors. There were rocky sections although we didn’t encounter anything that would be considered a boulder. There was lots of dirt and mud and some very tight turns. The camera displays can show a front view as well side views of where the tires are for navigating the trails and avoiding sharp rocks that migh cut tires. The forward view shows the tire trajectory so you can steer around larger obstacles.
The Passport Trailsport has a pair of very beefy high-strength steel skid plates under the engine/transmission and the fuel tank. For the first time, Honda is also offering accessory rock sliders to protect the rocker panels.
Part of the off-road course involved driving over a dirt berm about three feet tall at an angle. At one point the right rear and left front wheels were both in the air but the electronics worked with the familiar hardware to just power the Passport through with no real drama.
On the steeper portions of the trail, the hill descent control came in handy and was very easy to use. A long press of the button next to the drive mode switch activates the system with a default of 2 mph. Adjusting the speed just takes tapping the accelerator or brake to go up or down in 1 mph increments, no messing around with any other buttons.
As we came down from the mountainous area, to the coast, the dirt turned to sand and then we proceeded onto the beach for a few hundred yards. Switching to sand mode, the Passport had no problem getting through. On steeper uphill portions, despite the lack of a low range, we just pressed the sport transmission shift button and then pulled back on the left shift paddle on the steering wheel to get first gear and hold it there.
All in all, the 31-inch General Grabber all-terrain tires did well on a variety of surfaces and got the Passport through a solid 90 minutes of off-roading. The ultimate limits of where the Passport can go are less extreme than the most capable versions of the Toyota and Jeep, but they will probably meet the needs of most people and certainly far more people than the last Passport.
We also drove the Passport Trailsport on the roads of Puerto Rico. This is a gorgeous island in the Caribean with wonderful friendly people and great food. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a visit and there are some fantastic beaches and mountain rain forests to swim at and high through. While the island has recovered a lot since the destruction of Hurricane Maria, there are still areas that are not fully back to where they were.
Roads on the island are generally free of potholes, but the sandy base near the coastal areas means roads are often a bit wavy and bumpy. The Passport typically handled this quite well with minimal head toss. Those all-terrain tires are also not very noisy which makes the Trailsport pretty easy to live with as a daily driver. Of course since these aren’t performance tires, they have their limits, but this isn’t a sports car either.
So is the 2026 Honda Passport a viable competitor to the 4Runner and Grand Cherokee? Yes and no. Jeep has reconfigured the trim lineup for the Grand Cherokee and repriced everything in the past year while the 4Runner is all new this year. The Passport is available only in AWD which is good for what this vehicle is trying to be. A 4WD V6 Grand Cherokee starts at under $40,000 now which is several thousand less than the Honda, but this is the Quadra-Trac 1 system which is more limited in capability. The more serious off-road variants are now only offered with the 4Xe plug-in hybrid that starts at over $60,000.
The 4Runner SR5 with 4WD starts at a similar $44,200 to the $44,750 Passport RTL and also lacks locking differentials and other features. TRD Off-Road Premium models get into the same mid-$50,000 range as the loaded Passport and offer features like locking differentials, but ultimately the performance is similar to the Trailsport. But where the Passport lineup maxes out, the 4Runner still has Limited, Platinum, TRD Pro and Trailhunter variants with the latter two able to go places the Honda can’t. However, those cost about $12,000 more than the Trailsport Elite Blackout.
So within the scope of what the Passport is designed to offer, it’s a pretty solid competitor and it definitely offers more room inside for passengers and cargo than the 4Runner. It’s also a lot more affordable than the off-road worthy Grand Cherokee trims. Thus I’ll declare the 2026 Honda Passport a success.
Wheel Bearings has launched a Patreon. If you like the show and would like to chip in toward the cost of producing and hosting it you can join at https://www.patreon.com/wheelbearingsmedia
Discover more from Wheel Bearings
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.