2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Yearlong Review Arrival: Is Honda Finally Serious About the TrailSport Name?
We’ll spend the next year testing to see if the Honda finally built a worthy successor to the original Passport.
Do you know that scene in a movie where the underdog shows up in a fancy dress or a tuxedo, crosses the finish line first against everyone’s misplaced expectations, or (fill in the blank with your favorite cliché)? That’s how I felt the first time I saw the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport. What a glow-up!
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Honda launched the original Passport, a rebadged Isuzu Rodeo, in 1994, updated it four years later for the 1998 model year, and in 2002 stuck the nameplate into deep hibernation. Seventeen years later, Honda reanimated the Passport name, attaching it to a smooth-sided, two-thirds version of Honda’s three-row people hauler, the Pilot. To be honest, the 2019–2025 Passport never really did much for me. It was tall, stubby, and at the end of the day, usually mistaken for the Pilot it was based on.
Enter the 2026 Honda Passport. Returning to its roots with a bold and boxy design, the 2026 Passport is a dramatic departure not only from the previous generation but also from the rest of the Honda lineup. The new Passport comes in two basic flavors: the more street-focused Passport RTL and the one we chose to test for the year, the off-road-focused Passport TrailSport.
The Details
All 2026 Passports are powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 that produces 285 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque. Power is routed through a 10-speed automatic and a second-gen version of Honda’s torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system, which can send 70 percent of its power to the rear axle and then distribute up to 100 percent of that between each wheel as needed.
In TrailSport trim, the Passport is fitted with deeply treaded 31-inch General Grabber all-terrain tires, a retuned suspension, protective underbody steel skidplates, and unique visual cues like orange-painted recovery hooks and distinctive amber running lights. The new Passport is brawny and sort of old-school looking, like Honda designed its own version of a Land Rover Discovery, but for real this time. You can even get an optional Land Rover-esque black anti-reflective hood decal as part of the $1,800 HPD package. I liked it immediately.
On the Inside
On the inside, the Passport is clean and functional. After spending the previous year behind the wheel of our 2025 Subaru Forester Sport yearlong test car, I appreciate Honda’s more old-school approach of physical buttons. Do you want to adjust the rear climate control? There is a physical button for that. Seat heaters? Seat coolers? Again, a button. There is a plenty-large 12.3-inch screen for your infotainment needs; I’m just happy I don’t have to control everything through it.
Given this combination of design, off-road goodies, and a thoughtful interior, when I learned that MotorTrend would be completing a yearlong review of a 2026 Passport TrailSport, I started lobbying to be its shepherd.
