2024 Honda Passport TrailSport: Review, Prices, and Specs

Text by Tom Appel

2024 Honda Passport TrailSport

Specs

Class: MidsizeCrossover

Color: Radiant Red

Seating Capacity: 5

Miles driven: 123

Real-world fuel economy: 22.5 mpg

Driving mix: 65% city, 35% highway

EPA-estimated fuel economy: 19/24/21 (city, highway, combined)

Fuel type: Regular gas

Base price: $44,955 (not including $1395 destination charge)

Options on test vehicle: Special paint ($455)

Price as tested: $46,350

Pros and Cons

The great: Sporty look, sporty feel

The good: Roomy and comfortable, plenty of zip

The not so good: Low-grade cabin materials

Review

I can put on a pair of hiking boots, but that doesn’t mean I am going hiking. But, the boots look good, and may suggest to the casual observer that I am the rugged outdoorsy type. Ha! There’s a similarly deceptive automotive movement, which involves carmakers dressing their most-popular crossovers in gear that looks tough and off-roady, though the odds of those vehicle’s owners ever traversing anything more challenging than a gravel driveway are pretty slim.

Competitive Set

In recent years, a number of popular midsize crossovers have been offered in hiking-boot-style trim levels, most of which feature mostly appearance upgrades, though some enjoy some genuinely functional tweaks. A few examples:

• Hyundai Santa Fe XRT ($42,735)
• Kia Sortento X-Line ($43,165)
• Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek ($45,860)

Ford had also offered the Explorer in rugged Timberline trim for a couple of years, though that variant has been dropped for 2025. We suspect it may make a comeback at some point.

New for 2022 was the Honda Passport TrailSport trim level. Slotting in the middle of the Passport lineup, between the EX-L and Touring, the TrailSport featured a number of off-road appropriate trim bits, as well as wheels and tires specific to its mud-crawling mission.

TrailSport

Among the TrailSport-unique bits are:

• Leather-trimmed seats with orange stitching and embossed TrailSport logo on front head restraints
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel with orange stitching
• All-season floor mats with TrailSport logo
• 18-inch Pewter Gray alloy wheels
• Specific “rugged-style” all-season tires
• Roof rails

The Passport TrailSport was joined for 2023 by a TrailSport version of the brand’s Pilot 3-row Crossover. Like the Passport TrailSport, the Pilot version is more about show than real off-road potential. Note that the Passport is little changed for 2025, but big changes are on the schedule for 2026, including a more-capable TrailSport variant. Stay tuned for more information.

Engines

Like all Passports—and all Pilots—the TrailSport is powered by a version of Honda’s strong and refined 3.5-liter V6. In Passport guise, the big six produces 280 horsepower and mates to a equally refined 9-speed automatic transmission. All Passports come standard with AWD.

Prices

Consumer Guide recently spent a week with a 2024 Honda Passport TrailSport in Radiant Red. All told, including destination charge, our test car came to $46,360.

Cabin

Thanks to a liberal dose of orange upholstery stitching, industrial-grade floor mats, and countless TrailSport logos, our test car’s cabin looked the sporty/rugged part. And, while assembly quality appears top notch, Honda hides a lot of low-grade and common materials in plain sight, though, overall, the Passport TrailSport cabin in classy enough.

Connectivity

Though the touchscreen seems small by contemporary standards, its operation is simple enough, and most graphic elements are easy to identify and manipulate without much orientation. This is true of physical switchgear as well; all the controls are simple to find and use.

Room and Comfort

The Passport cabin is plenty roomy, and thanks to large door openings, getting into and out of the Honda crossover is plenty simple. Rear-seat accommodations are similarly generous. From the driver’s seat, outward visibility is excellent, as is long-drive seat comfort.

Power and Performance

Underway, the Passport’s excellent drivetrain provides plenty of power from a stop, and at speed. The engine also sounds sporty and refined, unlike many of the small, turbocharged engines now found in most midsize crossovers. In Consumer Guide testing which included a fair amount of city driving, we averaged just under 23 mpg. That’s decent mileage given the power, but it does trail the efficiency of most of the vehicles in this class.

Ride and Handling

There is one category in which the Passport leads the competition, and that’s handling, even in TrailSport trim. We find the Passports steering to be the most responsive and accurate in the class, and the brakes feel similarly precise and also strong. The Passport remains planted in aggressive cornering, and is generally more fun to drive than most other midsize crossovers.

Value

While the touchscreen feels small, and some of the cabin materials cheap, the Passport—in any trim level—remains an excellent midsize crossover that is functional, reasonably prices, and especially fun to drive. There’s really nothing of value in the TrailSport suite of features, but if you like the look, we wouldn’t try and talk you out of test driving one. As noted above, the Passport changes only negligibly for 2025, but big changes are due for 2026. With the updated variant more than a year away, we wouldn’t suggest waiting. You can buy a current-generation Passport now, and it is very good.

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2024 Honda Passport TrailSport Pictures

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