2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Tested: Built For the Trails, Ready for the Commute

Pros

• Looks great
• Goes farther off-road than you’d expect
• Roomy, practical interior

Cons

• You’ll hear those tires
• New V-6 feels like old V-6
• Slower than before

Honda’s TrailSport off-road treatment has been popping up on ever more of the brand’s trucks and SUVs lately, but it first appeared on the last-generation Passport. That short-lived model was a stopgap of sorts, an appearance package that served as a preview of the more capable TrailSports to come. Well, here’s the latest, and so far, the greatest one—the all-new 2026 Honda Passport in TrailSport guise.

Actually, there are several, with TrailSport variants making up more than half the Passport lineup. The specific Passport TrailSport we had in for testing was a range-topping Elite model. While every TrailSport gets the same mechanical upgrades, including retuned shocks and springs, a softer front anti-roll bar, 31-inch General Grabber all-terrain tires, underbody skidplates protecting the transmission and oil pan, orange-painted front recovery hooks, and a Class III trailer hitch with integrated recovery loops in back, only the Elite gets the TrailWatch 360-degree camera setup for maximum situational visibility when the going gets rough.

Other than adopting a buff new body that, for the first time, is visually distinct from the three-row Honda Pilot with which the Passport shares all of its mechanicals, the Passport also gets a new engine for 2026. You’d never know it from browsing the specs or sitting behind the wheel—it makes just 5 hp more than last year’s identically sized 3.5-liter V-6 (for 285 hp) and the same 262 lb-ft of torque. The new six behaves the same as the old one, making most of its power high up in the rev range, too. This, despite the major switch is from a single-overhead-cam design to a double-overhead-cam setup; Honda also replaces the old Passport’s nine-speed automatic transmission with a 10-speed.

First, the Disappointments

While a V-6 engine is relatively unique in the midsize SUV segment these days, the Passport’s turboless six feels less strained and sounds much better than the smaller-displacement turbocharged four-cylinder engines most of its competitors use. It also puts up solid towing figures—6,000 pounds in this case.

Still, the new six could use more low-end torque; as it is, the 10-speed automatic fires off a ton of shifts just for the Passport to reach city speeds without falling out of the engine’s powerband. Steeper grades and passing require firm stomps of the accelerator pedal to prod the transmission into downshifting because the V-6’s peak torque arrives at even higher engine speeds than before, now at 5,000 rpm versus 4,700 last year. Same goes for the engine’s peak horsepower, which now arrives 100 rpm later at 6,100 rpm.

Combine these stats with the Passport’s weight, a sturdy 4,706 pounds—nearly 500 pounds heavier than the last-gen Passport TrailSport and, bafflingly, only 2 pounds shy of the 8.5-inch-longer, three-row-equipped Pilot TrailSport—and the pokey 7.7-second 0–60-mph time makes a lot of sense. That’s 0.6 second slower than the Pilot TrailSport with the same engine, and 1.6 seconds slower than the old TrailSport with less power. It also trails the far heavier (but more powerful) Toyota 4Runner hybrid (7.4 seconds) as well as the similarly powerful Jeep Grand Cherokee V-6 (7.3 seconds).

Fuel economy is similarly unimpressive, though acceptable. During a week of around-town driving, we saw just 16 mpg. But when stretched out on the highway in more mixed use, that figure crept up to around 20 mpg, right on the mark for the Passport’s EPA-estimated combined figure.

And Now for the Good Stuff

Other than the TrailSport’s newfound sloth, the rest of the package is quite good. The 2026 Passport adopts a new slim and wide front-end graphic with the headlights integrated into the grille. It’s amber-colored daytime running lights look cool, as do the TrailSport-specific wheels and tires, roof rails, and various body cladding. Inside, TrailSports get orange contrast stitching and the TrailSport logo debossed on the front-seat headrests.

Temper your expectations—this isn’t a hardcore off-roader equipped with low-range gearing, locking differentials, and a huge suspension lift—and it’s surprisingly capable given its refined on-road behavior. In short, on pavement it drives like you’d expect a car-based Honda SUV to, with secure handling and a smooth ride.

The all-terrain tires are slightly more audible at highway speeds, but they offset that quality with a supple ride over broken pavement and uneven surfaces. The softened suspension allows for more body roll and fore-aft bobbing when abruptly stopping or accelerating, but again, for most buyers, we think the ride actually improves in real-world driving thanks to the TrailSport’s changes. After all, even if customers never set one of those all-terrain tires on any actual terrain, they’ll appreciate the way the Passport ambles comfortably over potholes, expansion joints, or the occasional parking curb.

Objective handling performance hardly suffers from the more aggro suspension and tires, either. It’s not nearly as drunken in its moves as the Pilot TrailSport with the same 8.3-inch ground clearance. The Passport TrailSport hangs on for 0.77 g of lateral grip (0.01 g better than the old TrailSport, which had entirely conventional tires and no real suspension alterations) and stops from 60 mph in a handy 125 feet, 1 feet shorter than before. Around our figure-eight handling course, the 2026 TrailSport wipes the floor with the old one, posting a 27.9-second lap at an average of 0.62 g, compared to 28.5 seconds at a lower 0.61 average g previously. Remember, the previous TrailSport weighed about 500 pounds less and wore street tires.