Honda’s reborn Passport doesn’t get the love it deserves. It’s a two-row crossover but with three-row crossover space inside, designed to be rugged, and powered by Honda’s excellent and sturdy six-cylinder 3.5-liter engine. It now comes standard with Honda’s brilliant all-wheel-drive system. It’s likely the styling that holds it back; in a world of crossovers with funky styling, Honda showed restraint and, as a result, it doesn’t stand out and grab the eye. However, for those who look at the bigger picture, it’s a crossover that brilliantly fulfills many of the roles active families need. It’s spacious, it’s comfortable, the engine never struggles, and it can bump off the pavement to get to those camping, hiking, and fishing spots.
To improve that ability off-road, the TrailSport edition ups the Passport’s game. For 2024, the Passport TrailSport gets an upgrade – and we spent some quality time with it.
What’s New?
Frankly, the Passport TrailSport wasn’t worth the upgrade when it was introduced in 2022. It was mostly an aesthetic trim with some all-terrain tires added to the new pretty wheels. The better option then was to buy the trim you preferred and then go aftermarket for a set of all-terrain tires. For the 2024 Passport, upgrades include a new trim and actual kit added to the TrailSport. Honda kept the aesthetic touches inside and out, including a gorgeous set of 18-inch machined wheels with pewter-painted highlights. But that’s not all.
The practical upgrades come in the form of a set of 245/60R18 all-terrain tires, revised suspension with new spring rates and damper settings, and roll bars that are improved to increase articulation in the bumpy stuff. A lovely touch is a heated windshield wiper parking area so you don’t come back to your car covered in snow and the wipers won’t work.
Practicality: So Much Space
Before we get to how the Passport TrailSport rolls, it’s worth taking a look inside. The orange TrailSport embossed headrests and orange contrast stitching are nice, but the crossover gets a wide center console bin that can take a full-size tablet or computer, and the tray in front of the gear selector can hold two large phones side by side. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard, as is wireless charging.
Passengers riding in the second row have a lot of space, with legroom enough to seat a six-footer behind a six-footer wearing platform shoes and a bowler hat if they so desired. Cargo space is plentiful for a long weekend camping, and it’ll take a lot of gear and provisions before needing to use the roof bars.
On The Road: Not Much Compromise
Despite the new suspension being aimed at helping you access the bumpier trails, the Passport TrailSport drives pleasantly and with purpose on the road. The chassis doesn’t lean in corners much at all and the increased tire noise isn’t too noticeable. The engine is very capable and spot-on for cruising, and the ten-speed automatic transmission is well-programmed and always in the right gear. When you start to pick up speed on a back road, you’ll notice that only the tires are the weak link, and you may wish for a Sport mode on the TrailSport. Instead, there’s a Snow, Sand, and Mud mode.
Off The Road: Much Better
Honda told us that the Passport TrailSport had been tested in the sand dunes of Glamis, but time and circumstance prevented us from getting out into the desert during our test week. We’ll ask nicely and bat our eyelids at Honda to lend us another one later, but we did get the time to run the vehicle on some of our favorite local trails, including one that is perfect for the TrailSport.
The Thomas Mountain trail is off the famous Palms To Pines road, which is a great drive in itself. The trail snakes up the side of the mountain, which gets tight and can be choppy and slippery in the winter, before reaching camping areas amongst the trees. Then, the trail snakes down the other side. It’s generally a well-kept trail, but inclement weather quickly causes ruts, and there are bumps and larger rocks that make driving up there in a regular car ill-advised.
The first thing we realized was how little we were jostled about on the rough entry to the trail, which had been rained on and then dried out several times recently while still being subject to traffic. The suspension on the Passport TrailSport has been nicely tuned for running over bumpy ground, and when the light dropped, the mix of a great handling chassis and tuned suspension meant we could hustle a little bit as we wound back down the mountain.
Unfortunately, on some bumps earlier in the day taken at low speeds, the front overhangs handicapped the Passport TrailSport in terms of approach angle, and we scraped underneath at the front a few times, which is frustrating as it is a trail maintained to allow easy access to camping. We’ve been up and down it in our own stock Honda CR-V without worrying about grounding out in that area. You can see why in the photos attached – the front plastic under the bumper drops an inch or two, detracting from the ground clearance if measured from the middle of the chassis. It’s something that should have been spotted and redesigned for an off-road version, in our opinion.
Despite approach angle issues, everything else about how the Passport TrailSport handled Thomas Mountain was on point. In the wet area at the top, the all-wheel-drive system kept us straight with little steering effort. Later on, we tackled a dirt trail that is tight and winding before opening up a bit where it becomes sandy, and that’s where the i-VTM4 torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system reminded us why we love it.
In areas where a regular crossover would either understeer when aggravated or the back would try to wander when braking in a corner, the system steps in and gives the tires every opportunity to maintain grip – but unless you know that’s what’s happening, there’s no physical clues it’s doing its job. It’s smooth and incredibly good at doing just enough to make a difference without suddenly cutting in. The only other brands that do this so well are Mazda (as seen in our test drive of the CX-50) with Hyundai being almost as good.
Conclusion: Just One Issue
The 2024 Honda Passport TrailSport is a car this writer is personally considering buying as it meets a lot of needs: It has plenty of space for photo equipment or for long weekends away with family; it’s a terrific cruiser; the engine is well-proven; the interior is comfortable; the infotainment does everything it needs to well; and it can get us out to the areas we love to explore to photograph off-roaders.
However, the approach angle needs to be improved. Not by much, but we shouldn’t be scraping plastic on gentle rising bumps on a trail maintained for easy camping, which can be ridden over easily in a last-generation CR-V. Also, and this is a very Honda thing on multiple generations of vehicles, the windows rattle when lowered if you’re not on a perfect surface. However…
Your needs may not be the same, and if you don’t need to get so far off-road, these issues won’t really matter to you. For some, the occasional gentle scraping will only result in a shoulder shrug.
Overall, the Passport TrailSport is close to being a brilliant car, especially in the post-pandemic existence of people who have rediscovered the joy of the outside world away from other people. It’s a compelling package, although not a particularly eye-catching one from the outside – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in an industry full of unnecessary and over-enthusiastically applied aesthetic flourishes. If the Passport TrailSport fits the utility you’re looking for, it’s definitely something you should test-drive.