The 2026 Passport TrailSport Goes Where No Honda Has Gone Before

From the moment Honda introduced the TrailSport badge on the 2022 Passport, engineers have been on a mission to make the name actually mean something. The first TrailSport treatment was merely a costume; the Passport that wore it was just a common crossover plying the suburbs in the automotive equivalent of a Patagonia vest.

Honda quickly corrected that faux pas by fitting TrailSport versions of the Pilot, the Ridgeline, and the 2024 Passport with proper all-terrain tires, underbody protection, and retuned suspensions. That put Honda’s ruggedized models on the same plane as Toyota’s TRD Off-Road, Subaru’s Wilderness, and GMC’s AT4 lines. Arguably, the Passport didn’t need to take off-roading any more seriously, though before the redesign for the 2026 model year, its TrailSport transformation was among the thinnest of the bunch.

Tasked with developing the fourth generation of Honda’s two-row midsize SUV, the engineers placed the TrailSport model at the center of the program and used the design team’s backpack-inspired styling as their compass. The 2026 Honda Passport is so committed to the off-road schtick that four of the seven trim levels on offer are now TrailSports.

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Going Where No Honda Has Gone Before

Honda calls the new Passport TrailSport the most capable off-roader it’s ever built, and how could it not be? The company’s experience with body-on-frame construction and four-wheel drive is limited to sports cars from the ’60s and twee trucklets that never (officially) came to the U.S. The 2026 Passport doesn’t change that but instead takes full advantage of modern tech to venture further off the asphalt-paved path. Equipped with 31-inch General Grabber A/T Sport tires and torque-vectoring all-wheel drive that can dispatch up to 70 percent of the V-6’s grunt to a single rear wheel, the Passport TrailSport has all the capability it needs to spoil a Wrangler owner’s day by showing up where no one expected it.

During our first drive, the top-dog $53,900 TrailSport Elite easily humped up 30-degree gravel-strewn grades, paddled across a sandy stretch of Puerto Rican beach, and three-wheeled over frame-twisters. The only indication this took any effort at all was the rare computer-actuated squeeze of the brakes to send torque from one spinning tire to another with solid footing.

Trail and Sand driving modes reprogram the electronics for optimal traction and more precise driver control, while Honda’s first hill descent control turns gnarly downhills into a graceful escalator ride moving between 2 and 12 mph at the driver’s discretion. Compared to the midlevel $49,900 TrailSport trim, the Elite version adds creature comforts such as a Bose audio system with 12 speakers (up from nine), real leather, and ventilated front seats. Its sole advantage in the dirt is the new TrailWatch forward-looking camera system, which overlays crude but effective orange indicators projecting where the vehicle’s tires and bodysides are headed.

The Passport TrailSport claims a better approach angle (23.3 degrees) than a Jeep Grand Cherokee on steel springs, but a long 2.7-inch wheelbase stretch and modest 0.2-inch ground clearance gain compared to last year’s Passport means the belly is now more likely to contact terra firma. Take it slow, and you should be fine. A pair of steel skidplates guard the oil pan, the transmission, and the gas tank, and the 5,000-pound trailer hitch doubles as protection for the rear fascia and the exhaust tips tucked up behind it. The real testament to how far the engineers took things, though, might be the accessories catalog, which has been beefed up with stainless steel rock sliders and a full-size spare tire that stands up inside the cargo hold. (All Passports also include a temporary spare under the floor.)

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Driving the Passport in Its Natural Environment

Of course, the danger of making a vehicle too capable off-road is that it becomes too compromised on-road. All-terrain tires often squirm and roar at highway speeds. Suspension compliance on the trail can turn into confidence-sapping squish on the highway. High ground clearance makes for clumsy handling.

Honda appears to have threaded the needle, avoiding many of the pitfalls that made the 2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport such a drag in daily life, by taking such a holistic approach to the new Passport’s off-road kit. Engineers softened the suspension and increased articulation compared to last year’s model, but they made up for that, in part, by stiffening the structure and bolting the front subframe directly to the unibody. To quiet the knobby tire tread, they sprayed foam in the fenders and spec’d thicker carpets, underbody covers, cargo insulation, and rear glass.

On-road, the Passport TrailSport delivers all the precision and comfort necessary to survive the suburban gantlet of rush-hour traffic, big-box store parking lots, and school drop-off lanes. Its off-road-tuned suspension handles bumps and dips and corners with good body control and measured damping. The steering effort is light and flat with none of the effort gain that helps define dead ahead, but that’s a default for Honda utility vehicles rather than a consequence of the TrailSport hardware. Bumping the mode selector into Sport helps by adding a bit of heft without giving more shape to the power-assist curve. There’s room for improvement in the calibration, and Honda engineers don’t need to look far to find their north star. They just need to drive a Civic.

All Passports are powered by a 285-hp V-6 teamed with a 10-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. The naturally aspirated 3.5-liter is new here, a dual-overhead-cam engine that replaces last year’s single-overhead-cam engine and makes 5 more horsepower. From behind the wheel, though, you’d swear they were the same engine. As such, the Passport still needs revs to move its 4,700-pound burden enthusiastically, and the V-6 happily abides with quick responses and a satisfying six-cylinder purr. The smooth-shifting transmission, however, is eager to grab higher gears and takes its sweet time downshifting. Sport mode helps here, too, but not without making the accelerator jumpy on tip-in.

While the Passport’s V-6 stands out in a world overrun by turbocharged four-cylinder engines, you pay for the experience at the pump. Riding on all-season tires, the $46,200 RTL base trim scores 21 mpg combined in EPA testing. TrailSport models take a 1-mpg hit, making them every bit as thirsty as four-door Wranglers and Broncos equipped with turbocharged four-cylinders.

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A New Type of Honda With the Same Old Values

The new Passport TrailSport might represent a new direction for a Honda SUV, but that doesn’t mean the automaker has abandoned its longstanding tradition of delivering incredible practicality in pretty much every car it sells. The 2026 redesign stretches the old model’s smooth edges into a boxier shape that measures 2.4 inches longer and 0.8 inch wider. The extra space shows up as a wonderfully wide cabin and generous rear-seat legroom that makes the midsize Passport feel limo-like next to a Honda CR-V. There are child-seat LATCH anchors for all three rear seats, and three-zone climate control comes standard. The lack of a third row also means the cargo hold is absolutely massive, offering 44 cubic feet behind the second row and 83 cubic feet with the rear seats folded.

All this space is made even more functional by Honda’s willingness to spend the time and money to build in storage wherever there’s a void behind the interior trim. Check out the wallet-sized nook under the climate controls, the shelf ahead of the front passenger, the cupholder and bottle pocket in each door panel, and the cubbies in the sides of the cargo hold that are good for six gallons of water. Channeling the original CR-V, the accessory team has also developed a $425 picnic table that can be stored in a raised position and used as a cargo cover and shelf that can support up to 44 pounds.

If there’s a blind spot in the Passport’s selling proposition, it’s the infotainment system. Honda’s been at the trailing edge of in-car tech for years, and the Passport does nothing to change that. Thanks to native Google Maps navigation plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the standard 12.3-inch touchscreen will live up to the basic demands of most buyers, but that’s as much as it has to offer. The design, responsiveness, and user experience give it the look and feel of last-generation technology. We wish Honda would tackle its infotainment system with same user-centric approach that goes into the rest of the interior.

Taking the Passport and TrailSport to the Next Level

Overall, Honda has done an impressive job morphing the Passport into a better box that captures the spirit and style of today’s SUVs without compromising its core capabilities as a practical, suburban family hauler. Someone should tell the engineers they’ve made their point; the TrailSport models are credible light-duty off-roaders, and the Passport has more ability than anyone would reasonably use. Now that they've started down this path, though, it might not be possible to rein them in.

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