Can the 2026 Honda Passport Really Pass the Off-Road Test? We Found Out…Comfort and All!
Even though the 2026 Honda Passport has a bit of a split personality, it's good at everything it's designed for, and more.
So, how has the first half of the 2020s been for you? It’s been a tough time for a lot of people, and more than a few are looking at something rugged and tough to navigate through the remainder of the decade. Car makers are paying attention, pivoting towards the escapism of luxury and performance (Genesis, BMW, Mercedes, etc.), or towards the escapism of the great wide open (Jeep, Subaru, Ford, etc.). And then there’s the Honda Passport.
If majestic mountains and stunning vistas are your distraction, Honda has you in mind. The all-new 2026 Honda Passport is designed to navigate through the border between chaos and serenity.
Recently, I got to experience all this handsome midsize SUV had to offer, beginning with a Platinum White Passport TrailSport Elite ($54,355 as-tested) when it spent a week in my driveway, followed by a two-day off-road adventure in North Carolina under the guidance of Honda’s engineers.
This story is 100% human-researched and written based on actual first-person knowledge, extensive experience, and expertise on the subject of cars and trucks.
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How Much is the 2026 Honda Passport, a Two-Row Off-Road-Capable SUV?
This midsize adventurer is ready to cross every border with you on and (especially) off the beaten path. Here’s what the 2026 Honda Passport costs you before the $1,450 destination fee:
- RTL: $44,750, includes a 10.2” digital gauge cluster with a 12.3” touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Google Assistant, wireless device charging, four USB ports, a Wi-Fi hot spot, a nine-speaker stereo system, Honda Sensing safety suite (bundles together forward collision warning, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, automatic high beams, driver attention monitoring, and a rearview camera among the list of standard features), leather-wrapped steering wheel, heated and power-adjustable front seats, leather and cloth upholstery, power liftgate, and 18” alloy wheels
- RTL Towing: $45,450, adds a Class III tow hitch receiver and a trailer wiring harness to the RTL’s standard equipment
- RTL Blackout: $45,950, wears black 18” alloy wheels and black Honda badging
- TrailSport: $48,450, pairs the 18” alloys with 31” General Tire Grabber A/Ts specially designed for the Passport in partnership with Honda, plus orange tow hooks, a Class III tow package, LED fog lights, leatherette and cloth upholstery with orange stitching, rubber floor mats, underbody skid plates, off-road-tuned suspension, and a panoramic sunroof
- TrailSport Blackout: $49,650, offers everything from the base TrailSport, but with blacked-out trim
- TrailSport Elite: $52,450, $54,350 as-tested with destination charge, offers perforated leather seating, ventilated front heats, heated second-row seating, heated steering wheel, a 12-speaker Bose stereo system, hands-free power tailgate, rain-sensing windshield wipers, and a surround-view camera system with Honda’s TrailWatch and front camera washer
- TrailSport Elite Blackout: $53,650, offers everything on the TrailSport Elite, but with blacked-out trim
Its midsize SUV competitors include the Hyundai Santa Fe XRT off-road trim with similar boxy looks and a third row, though it falls short of the Passport’s 5,000-pound towing capacity by 500 pounds; the Jeep Grand Cherokee, though it adds more luxury features than Honda’s more practical interior choices (the Grand Cherokee L also adds a third row); and the Subaru Ascent, which has room for up to eight and can tow as much as the Passport, but it doesn’t have all of the tools needed for when the going gets really tough.
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One of the Most Handsome Midsize SUVs for 2026
The boxy styling trend of the 1980s hasn’t gone away, and this is no more apparent than with the 2026 Honda Passport. Shedding its rounded, Honda Pilot-esque looks from the previous generation, the new Passport’s “Backpack Theme” styling (as Honda calls it) harkens back to the first two generations of the midsize SUV of the 1990s, whose boxy, brawny appearance stood out more and more as aerodynamics and “jelly-bean” designs became the norm. It’s by no means a retro-modern design like the Ford Bronco or Toyota Land Cruiser, but it is a handsome tribute to the era.
As for what Honda means by calling this style “backpack-themed,” the Passport’s new looks are meant to evoke a backpacker, particularly with the blacked-out section out back, which, if you let your imagination fly, resembles a backpack. Exterior colors like Sunset Orange, Sonic Gray Pearl, and (my example) Platinum White bring out different personalities from this rugged, outdoorsy Honda SUV.
Read: Falling for the 2026 Honda Passport’s Classic Looks? Go For TrailSport’s Muscle and Class
No One Gets Left Out of the Grand Adventure
Based on the same platform used by both the Honda Pilot and Ridgeline, the 2026 Passport has room for it all. The lucky passengers riding behind you and your fellow front-seat companion have a lot of space to stretch their legs out, especially for tall adults. Sitting in the back of the Passport I shared with my driving partner and instructor during the off-road training I received in North Carolina, I had so much room in front of me, it felt like I was sitting in the back of a 2026 Ram 1500 Crew Cab.
Can’t say the same about the likes of the Jeep Grand Cherokee or the all-new Toyota 4Runner, that’s for sure. Head, shoulder, and hip room are also generous for the midsize SUV class, too. And of course, that rear seat also has three LATCH connections for your littlest ones. As for bringing everything along for the grand adventure, the RTL Towing and both TrailSport trims offer up to 5,000 pounds of towing capacity when properly equipped.
There is also a pair of black roof rails for attaching roof boxes, bike racks, and snowboard racks (speaking of outdoorsy fun, though, you can also add a tent to attach to the backside of the Passport for sheltered vehicle access). And, of course, there’s 44 cubic feet of cargo area with the rear seatbacks up for most activities in and around the town, 83.8 cubic feet of room with the seatbacks down for holding (according to Honda) up to two full-size adult mountain bikes with the front wheels removed. That’s quite the roomy “backpack,” ain’t it?
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Bring Your Phones, Satellite Radio Fans
Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way: a handful of car makers have opted not to include satellite radio in any of their models, including Honda/Acura. Honda’s reasoning comes down to their customer base using the apps on their phones (including SiriusXM) to play the music and podcasts they enjoy. Thus, the 2026 Passport is among the new models not to include satellite radio in its head units, powering either the standard nine-speaker stereo system or the available 14-speaker Bose setup.
As for everything else, though, you receive a 10.2” digital gauge cluster, which displays everything from how much is left in the tank to how the Passport is positioned on the trail. The 12.3” touchscreen comes with Google Assistant plus Google Maps built-in to help you find all the hot spots in town and along the trail, though you can use your iPhone or Pixel to access wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, too. Wireless device charging and four USB ports offer plenty of spots to charge those phones and more, as well.
And of course, this Passport is ready to protect you and yours on the mean streets and long highways with a sizeable list of standard features, including adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, traffic-sign recognition, pedestrian detection, and front and rear parking sensors. The only available safety feature is the surround-view camera system with Honda’s TrailWatch, though only the top-tier TrailSport Elite and TrailSport Elite Blackout trims have that feature.
Power Through the Everyday of Life
No matter which trim of the 2026 Honda Passport you choose, they all come with the same powertrain: a 3.5-liter V6 bundled with a 10-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive, packing 285 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque for the big adventure out of the city. And I definitely needed that power, its deft handling, and its Sport mode to make it from the economy lot of my local airport in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to my home within the New River Valley along the state’s rough-and-tumble I-81. Some 40 minutes of passing through heavy traffic and ongoing construction later, the Passport helped me clear the interstate’s customs.
That said, the TrailSport Elite’s custom all-terrain tires were noisy (as all-terrain tires usually are) on the pavement (especially at highway speeds), which might not be the best thing to experience in everyday living. Fuel economy also isn’t so hot. The RTL trims offer an EPA estimate of 19 mpg city/25 mpg highway, while the TrailSport trims (like my TrailSport Elite) manage 18 mpg city/23 mpg highway. Thanks to my short trips to take Mom to work in the morning, the best I could do was 16.8 mpg over 140 miles. Good thing this rugged backpack of a midsize SUV uses regular, then.
This Passport Crawls Over Dead Malls and Rugged Trails Alike
Now, some people will look at the 2026 Honda Passport and declare it a “mall crawler” that’s only good for a facade of ruggedness as you take your children to ballet and little league practice. Honda is quite aware of this, which is why I flew down to North Carolina a while ago to spend two days in off-road training with the automaker’s own engineers in the Passport TrailSport Elite.
With my driving partner and our instructor along for the various trails and obstacles I would tackle in the Passport, the midsize SUV proved it could do more than most others in its class, even if it’s not the usual rock crawler conquering Moab or the Rubicon Trail. A lot of the magic is in the Passport’s Trail Mode. Here, the computers assess everything happening along a given stretch of rugged terrain, applying the power to where it is needed most.
Then, there’s the TrailWatch, which shows you where to take your Passport on the center touchscreen. There’s a main pair of orange lines for your tires, and two thinner orange lines highlighting what might leap out to cause trouble as you slowly navigate the trail. If you’d like more of a challenge, though, you can turn off Trail Mode (in fact, engineers who go through the same course I took are not allowed to use Trail Mode at all during their training).
The Passport will still get you and yours through it all, but it’ll be more on you to plan out how to do it. No matter how you do it, though, this Honda will crawl over the ruins of dead malls and tackle about 90% of all trails that not even the toughest of soft-roaders can manage. Be sure to give those Jeep bros a Jeep wave or two when you see them, by the way.
This is the Passport to Get to Open All of the Borders
After a week on the road and a couple of days on the trail with the 2026 Honda Passport, it’s safe to say that this midsize two-row SUV has it all, from all the room you can use for friends and family and their gear, to amazing off-road capabilities to escape the chaos of life in the 2020s. The only drawbacks I found were the lack of satellite radio baked into the head unit of the stereo system, the meh fuel economy, and the overly slick rubber floor mats my TrailSport Elite had (which my work-safe shoes couldn’t really grip).
Still, this is a handsome Honda, one I would welcome to my unpaved driveway. You might consider doing the same if you’re in the market for an escape from the darkness in the air. It might just be the best move you’ll ever make.
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