2026 Honda Passport Trailsport vs. Subaru Outback Wilderness: Battle of the Backcountry Crossovers

The Trailsport version of Honda’s big new-for-2026 Passport has quickly emerged as a MotorTrend favorite for its on-road comfort and off-road capability. But the Subaru Outback is also new for 2026, and Outbacks were good off-roaders even before they started getting the Wilderness treatment. It just so happens we have both models in our long-term test fleet, so we decided it was time for a comprehensive comparison test. We know both of these vehicles fulfil their promises, but is one significantly better than the other?

Meet the Contestants

The Trailsport trim, as applied to the 2026 Honda Passport, comes with a long list of hardware to bulk up its off-road abilities, including unique spring, damper, and anti-roll bar tuning, underbody skidplates, 31-inch all-terrain tires, and recovery hooks. Power, meanwhile, is the same as found in other Passports, courtesy of a 285-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. Our long-termer is the top-of-the-line Trailsport Elite model, which lists for $53,900, with our Passport’s extra-cost Ash Green paint bringing the sticker up to $54,355. If you can do without heated and ventilated perforated-leather seats, rear window shades, a fancy Bose stereo, and the Trail Watch camera system, you can get a non-Elite Passport Trailsport for $50,145.

Unlike Honda, which positions the Trailsport at the upper end of the Passport lineup, the 2026 Outback Wilderness is a midlevel trim. Compared to other Outbacks, the Wilderness gets a boxier front fascia (which, in our opinion, makes an ugly car even less visually appealing), a new electronic adaptive suspension, higher ride height (providing 9.5 inches of ground clearance), a lower final drive ratio for quicker acceleration, and more off-road drive modes. It comes standard with the more powerful of the Outback’s two available engines, a 260-hp turbocharged flat-four, which drives all four wheels through a continuously variable transmission. The Outback Wilderness lists for $46,445, and the unsexy-named Option Package 23 on our long-term car adds Nappa leather, ventilated front seats with power adjustment, a bigger (12.1-inch) infotainment screen, moonroof, and bird’s-eye parking camera, bringing the price up to $50,535.

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Cabin Considerations

We headed up to Tehachapi, California, a favorite MT stomping ground, and ran both SUVs through the same loop we also use to evaluate MotorTrend Of The Year finalists. Our course begins with a cruise through town followed by a long and winding back road, which gave us time to take in the environs.

From the moment we departed, the Passport pulled ahead on interior comfort and amenities. The Honda is a significantly wider vehicle than the Subaru, and that translates to more stretch-out space. The cabin looks nicer, too, with a two-tone color scheme, higher-quality materials, and plenty of storage space. The biggest issue is the center infotainment screen. If it were any smaller, it’d be too small.

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The Outback’s interior, meanwhile, is yin to the Passport’s yang, lagging where the Honda excels and vice versa. The color scheme is dark and drab, with only a couple of bright-orange trim pieces on the steering wheel and shifter. (The seats have matching stitching, but you can’t see that when you’re sitting down.) The Subaru doesn’t have the stretch-out space or the storage space of the Honda, and the plastics and fabrics look and feel cheaper. Take the steering wheel, which is allegedly leather-wrapped but reminds us of the plastic wheel in our cheapie $25,000 Kia K4. On the plus side, the Subaru’s driver’s seat feels more supportive than the Honda’s, with an extendable thigh bolster that makes it more comfy for both short and tall drivers (we had one of each on this comparison).

One headline change for the Outback’s 2026 redesign is the new infotainment system. While the screen is better than the one in the Passport, it’s still not an industry leader. The outgoing Outback had a portrait-oriented screen, which could have been brilliant had Subaru done a better job with the graphics and layout. The new landscape-oriented screen is nice and big, and the graphics now look like they were designed this decade. But while the system works well with Apple CarPlay, the layout with Android Auto is not as good as in other cars, especially if you want to display multiple apps. Still, the setup as a whole is superior to the Passport’s, and the stereo sounds better, as well.

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Twisty Roads and Super Slab

Barreling the Passport into the sharp curves, we braced ourselves to waltz with an elephant. After all, it’s a big car with a surprisingly soft ride. Shame on us for doubting Honda. The Passport, it turns out, is quite an athlete, with precise steering, well-controlled body roll, and good grip. That extra width seems to disappear in the curves, where the Passport feels surprisingly nimble and tidy. We figured the all-terrain tires might have a detrimental effect on steering—they often do on similar vehicles—but all we picked up on was barely noticeable numbness during corner turn-in. But the Passport hits the bumps pretty hard, at least in comparison to the way it glides over smooth pavement. Our biggest complaint, though, is one common to Hondas: road noise, and lots of it.

While the Passport Trailsport surprised us with its agility, we were not the least bit shocked at how well the Outback Wilderness attacked the curves. After all, it was made by the same people who brought us the WRX and STI. The Outback’s ride is taut and more carlike than the Passport’s. In sharp turns it feels eager and playful, even willing to rotate a bit—good fun with no downside. It’s also quieter and more refined than the Honda. The Outback’s powertrain reminds us why big V-6 engines like the one in the Passport have given way to turbo-fours. The Subaru’s CVT helps, as it’s quick to change ratios so the engine can rev and make the most of the turbocharger. Punch the accelerator, and the Outback responds more quickly and eagerly than the Passport, to the point we had a hard time sticking to the speed limit.

Back on the multilane super-slab, we tried out the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Both cars have adaptive cruise control and lane centering, which will guide the car down the freeway with a light hand on the wheel. The Outback has better lane tracing, but boy, is it ever a nag. The steering naturally tracks so well that you don’t really need to correct, but the system uses a torque sensor rather than a touch sensor, so it looks for steering wheel movement to detect your hands. The result is that the Outback yells at you to keep your hands on the wheel, even if they’re already there. Oh, and don’t forget your sunglasses, because if you squint in the sun, the Outback scolds you for not looking at the road. We lost count of how many alarms we were given, and we eventually disabled some of them out of sheer annoyance—and how safe is a safety system if you must disable parts of it to get a peaceful ride? The Honda gave us all the same protections with no nagging and no need to disable anything.

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From Road to Trail, It’s a Close Competition

We finished our on-road loops with the Subaru in the lead. Both cars pleased and surprised us, and our biggest gripes—more noise and worse infotainment in the Passport, less space and more nagging in the Outback—were, in the grand scheme, relatively minor. The Honda has the edge for space and comfort, but the Subaru is sportier and more engaging to drive. They were close competitors here, but we were conscious of the Subaru’s price advantage. So far, the Honda did not feel $3,820 better.

But now the off-road course loomed, and this is where we knew the Passport Trailsport would excel. It’s an exceptionally capable off-roader, more so than we expect from a unit-body crossover SUV, and that’s worth a price premium to buyers who are looking for adventure. But Subarus are not slouches off-road, and we wondered if the Outback Wilderness might surprise us yet again.

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We headed for a sanctioned OHV area in the Mojave Desert, with the idea of trying the same obstacles in both cars. Running down the main dirt road was more comfortable in the Honda, though again we thought it might hit the bumps harder than the Subaru. It didn’t; the Honda is merely softer on the smooth stuff, and while both cars absorb bumps in much the same manner, doing so feels farther out of character with the Honda’s smoother ride. Through the sand wash, where we opened the throttle and let ’em run, both cars felt stable, with good directional control and nothing rattling in the interior.

We tried a couple of steep climbs on uneven, low-traction surfaces. Both cars lifted a wheel, as you expect from crossovers with four-wheel independent suspension, and both managed to find traction with only three paws on the ground. Both cars benefit from a bit of momentum, but we found if we got stuck, the Outback was more likely to sort itself out and start moving again, whereas the best bet with the Passport was to back up and give it another try.

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One feature on the Outback we rather liked was X-mode. Subaru makes it tricky to find some of the car’s other drive modes, but really, X is all you need. Turning it on not only sets up the powertrain but also engages hill descent control, which worked nicely on the soft-surface descents. The one-button-press-does-it-all approach made it easy to concentrate on our driving line and not worry if we were taking advantage of all the available mechanical help.

The Honda Passport Trailsport once again reminded us that it’s a far more capable off-roader than you might expect, particularly given its expansive footprint’s lack of additional ground clearance compared to other Passport models. Yet the Outback Wilderness went everywhere the Honda did and in some cases made it farther up tricky trails than the Honda (though this may have been more a matter of driving technique than technical abilities). We were tackling obstacles we expected would require a dedicated body-on-frame off-roader like a Ford Bronco or Jeep Wrangler, yet both the Honda and the Subaru took them on with little threat to hardware or humans. We were satisfied that either vehicle can take us as far as we want to go without prepping for a serious off-road adventure—you know, the kind that involves winches, jacks, and a survival blanket.

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Value Wins the Day—and the Comparison

We came away from the off-road course far more impressed by both of these vehicles than we expected to be. Neither one had an edge that tilted the outcome; they both did an excellent job. Still, as much as we like and respect both the Passport and the Outback, it wasn’t too difficult to pick the winner.

Second place goes to the 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport. It’s an outstanding SUV, and its softer ride and greater stretch-out space could, arguably, make it a better pick than the Subaru for a long road trip. It also looks better, but let’s be fair, Subaru set a pretty low bar with the Outback Wilderness. We wish the Passport produced less road noise (a Honda problem for decades), and we’d like a better infotainment system with a bigger screen, but really, the Passport’s biggest problem is price. Yes, you can get a Trailsport for the same sticker as our Outback, but then you’d lose the nicer upholstery and the very useful trail cameras. If the Passport you see here was $5,000 less expensive, it might well have won this comparison.

That said, a lower-trim Honda would still feel nicer inside than the Outback. We wish Subaru would jazz up the Outback’s interior a little, but really, that’s our most serious gripe. Despite being smaller than the Passport, the Outback accommodates five adults in just as much comfort. Its ride, though firmer, is not uncomfortable, plus it’s quieter inside, and it feels quicker and more engaging to drive. As far as off-road performance goes, the Outback Wilderness has proven itself plenty capable. That means Outback Wilderness buyers are getting an SUV with equal or better abilities compared to the Passport Trailsport, but for nearly $4,000 less. These are both great off-road crossovers, but the Subaru Outback Wilderness gives you more ability for less money, and that makes it the winner of this comparison test.

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2nd Place: 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport

Verdict: A comfortable, capable crossover that’s ready for anything, on-road or off.

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1st Place: 2026 Subaru Outback Wilderness

Verdict: A capable, fun-to-drive crossover that’s great to live with, if not to look at.