It feels like the new Honda Passport has been teased for ages, and while it’s almost officially here, an entirely undisguised example is currently out roaming America as part of an off-road competition. As a result, we’ve just seen the best look yet at the incoming 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport, and we’re really liking this new direction Honda’s taking.
For those who are simply overwhelmed by the sheer variety of crossovers on the market today, fret not — the current Passport is essentially a cut-down two-row version of the old Honda Pilot, 3.5-liter V6 engine and all. It’s quite good by the standards of the underloved midsize two-row mainstream crossover segment, but this new one looks like it very well could be even better.
Granted, this one’s stickered up to compete in the Rebelle Rally, a 1,500-mile off-road competition, but other than a set of Maxxis RAZR all-terrain tires, Honda claims it’s stock. Well, it looks pretty damn good for a largely stock vehicle, and we’re getting a decent look at it thanks to pictures posted on Instagram by the team competing in the competition, the TrailSport Trekkers.
View this post on Instagram
What Honda’s seemingly done with the new Passport is mash together everything good in the crossover space in a cohesive manner. From the boxier silhouette to the almost 4Runner-like C-pillar to the blunt front bumper, it’s a look that just gels. Plus, the hood vent is a fun throwback to icons like the original Nissan Pathfinder. Is it functional? Who knows? I’m sure we’ll find out at some point.
Under the skin, expect to find a 3.5-liter V6 engine shared with the new Honda Pilot, a ten-speed automatic transmission, and torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive. Not groundbreaking stuff by Honda standards, but in an age when many competitors are going for turbocharged four-bangers, a V6 is nice to have. More cylinders usually means more smoothness, and in a family car, smoothness is good.
Anyway, apparently the new 2026 Honda Passport will debut in full later this year, but for now, this is as good of a look as we could possibly expect without an official debut. Considering the current Pilot has been on sale for nearly two years, it’s been a bit of a wait for a new Passport, but it looks like it’ll be worth it.
(Photo credits: rebelleteam208/Instagram)
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If you put a Toyota badge where the Honda one is, and told folks it was the new 4Runner, I imagine just about everyone would be convinced.
Not saying it looks bad, but it looks very Toyota-ish and even slightly Ford-ish. Not Honda-ish.
I’m still surprised and disappointed that the current Pilot doesn’t have a hybrid option (let alone a plug-in-hybrid option).
In my view, if the updated 2026 Model doesn’t have a hybrid option, then it’s an indication that the decision-makers at Honda are seriously out of touch.
I think if the Ridgeline wore this design language they’d sell twice as many.
You’re 100% right
This isn’t Honda’s first time at the Rodeo.
They’re real Troopers, Amigo.
And they’ll get you to the Bighorn Faster!
I see what you did there
I think a lot of people underestimate how capable modern crossovers can be. people think they “need” a 4×4 but most people that’s not the case.
I’m actually surprised the CRV stepped into “midsized” SUV by now. Everything just keeps on growing.
Yeah and it’s mostly because OEMs listen to customers who complain that the small car they bought is small, and expecting said small car to be medium- or large-sized for small-car price. Then they get upset when the price increases with the new larger-bodied no-longer-small model. So the OEMs have to introduce new smaller models to fill in the newly-created gap (e.g. Fit filling in where the Civic used to, and Civic being bigger than the Accord of not that long ago, for example). Now cars are gigantic coccoons on wheels.
You’re totally right, but in fairness, there does seem to be a lack of base model, entry level, large cars. If you have, say, a family of seven and live in a rural area of a winter state, you all but need some kind of 4×4 SUV, and that was the Suburban’s bread and butter for decades. Now a Suburban LS 4WD starts at $64k, and even the Grand Cherokee Laredo with 3 rows and 4×4 starts at $42k, and the situation isn’t any better over at Ford. Subaru is certainly trying though, with a base Ascent coming in at $34k.
Or maybe you don’t need the offroad capabilities, but you still need the passenger/cargo space. The Kia Carnival is $37k, the Toyota Sienna is $39k, and the Grand Highlander is $43k. Of course a bigger car made of more matter is going to cost more, but I’m fairly confident that none of these vehicles are being offered in true crappy econobox spec.
Interesting! My first reaction is that someone at Honda said, “How can we steal some sales away from Bronco buyers? Especially the ones that really only care about an off road look!”
You mean most of them? I wanted a bronco, then I realized I don’t enjoy going off road. Now I don’t wanna bronco.
That’s what the Bronco Sport is for! Do you wanna Sport?
Honda needs a BOF option. Toyota prints $ with theirs, I’d think they’d step up and try to take some profit.
I mean, why? It would be hugely expensive to develop since Honda’s never done it before, and the Passport and Ridgeline already sell fine. Maybe with BOF they’d get ~50-70k more sales, but that definitely doesn’t seem worth the R&D. The whole point is that the Passport and Ridgeline are cheap-as-shit to create on the Pilot/Odyssey platform, so by definition they’re already basically all profit.
Because it would be new, unexpected, exciting, and cool. Acura could have a fancy lux model to boost sales as well and compete with the others in the BOF bling offs in the Costo parking lot. To your point though, probably not, Honda is too logical for that.
Yeah, pushing the boat out in terms of excess is simply not in Honda’s blood. Just think at the height of the ’90s they could have made the Legend a RWD V8 rival to the LS but said, ‘nah, we’re good’ and made it a longitudinal FWD V6.
Good call ! They would have done it already. Oh well, a guy can dream!
BOF?
body on frame, as opposed to unibody construction
I dig it.
The Honda midsizers have generally been too wide for my taste but this looks good, if heavy on the Bronco Sport.
Hill Descent plus a rear axle lock option like older models would be neat but I completely understand why Honda removed it.
My wife had a 2013 Ford Edge and was looking for a replacement. The top of her list was another Edge (2020) or a Honda Passport. I was really hoping she’d go for the Passport due to the smooth V6 and Honda simplicity and refinement, but the Passport was taller and wider than her old Edge and much more of both than the new Edge. It also rode more like a truck than the new Edge, which felt like a taller and heavier Fusion. Honda really hacked a foot off of the back of the Pilot and make the suspension stiffer when making the Passport and it shows. She went for the Edge and has had zero regrets. I feel like the Passport would be a much better vehicle if it had the proportions of a normal five passenger family car, which the Edge does.
I really like this – the size looks good and I like the styling. It would be very cool if the hood vent works but either way I am a fan. We have an early ’23 Pilot and I had 80’s and 90’s Hondas as a teen / young adult so would happily go back to the brand for more.
S2000 or Prelude my first choices forever though.
Looks good. I have a 2005 MDX with the 3.5/5 speed and my only real complaint is horrendous fuel economy.
I just wish it had a real 4wd unit in it.
Why? It’s not like it would have locking diffs anyways…
log range even without lockers makes a huge difference. Cjs and Wranglers did not have a dif locker for decades and did fine off-road with just a t case with low range.
Sure, but I don’t think anyone intends to rock crawl with this.
Outbacks, Foresters and other AWD vehicles have done wonders offroad despite not having 4-low, lockers, all while being saddled with CVTs.
yes but they are often a false sense of capability and I and my friends end up having to pull them out of stuff they should not be in and these things usually do not have recovery points.
4WD would not change that. If someone is lulled into a false sense of capability, they likely don’t know how to take advantage of a locker, nor other off-road techniques to avoid getting stuck in the first place.
The AWDs that I have helped recover are mostly stuck from lack of clearance. You are correct that the drivers also lack skill. I have been to a hard off road park and watched rubicons get stuck on stuff my JK Sport got trough as I have been just doing it for decades longer than those guys.
Yeah I like the looks of this but it is not a solid axle or full frame SUV so does not do much for me. Unless I am wrong?
I agree with you. loads of crossovers with rugged packages get in too deep off road and it can be an issue. Frames are not as necessary as the old chreokee and grand cherokee were good off-road but unibody but have a transfer case with low range.
Though the old XJ and ZJ one of the main things people did with the unibody was add stiffeners to it for when wheeling haha
Yes but not necessary. I have wheeled with a lot of them and few had stiffeners including the the ZJ I owned and wheeled hard.
I like it so far and am interested in how the full lineup turns out. I shared it with some car people in my work Slack though and one of them said the getup reminded them first of Sid from Toy Story, then the I like turtles kid, which I can no longer unsee.
It has the Audi fake hood scoops
I think that C pillar is a throw back to the original Passport (Isuzu Rodeo). Actually the whole design looks like an updated Rodeo design for modern trends.
True, but the C-Pillar isn’t unique to the Passport. Like the prior Passport, this one is–at its core–a sawn-off Pilot.
I know this. The point I was trying to make is that everyone here, and on other blogs give Toyota the credit for design elements and other stuff, when in fact it’s Toyota doing all the following.
Just like everyone comparing the second-generation Insight to the Prius, but the Prius looks like they took a CRX stretched it to add 2 more doors, and the tails and headlights were turned vertically.
True. Funnily enough, Honda and Toyota seem to have coincided on similar styling between this Passport and the upcoming 4Runner…and I’d say the Passport looks handsomer.
You mean the roof and doors don’t come off?
Everything can come off if you have enough motivation.
I really like the livery on this. It just sort of looks like every other mid-sized SUV out there these days, though. I could see losing it in a parking lot, especially in the grayscale color it will invariably end up as.
its a beautiful green – honda seems to do greens better than most..
I wish they had any green on their current lineup. Just red, Blue Raspberry Airhead Blue, and the usual grayscale. We need to go back in time and kill minimalism…
I like it, and am hoping some of the styling gets carried over to Pilot, as the Pilot is on the short list to replace our Odyssey in a year or two. I think the current Pilot looks good, but this new Passport looks better.
wasn’t the pilot new for 2023? I doubt there will be a new redesign soon
Yeah, it was refreshed for the 2023 model year, but it isn’t unheard-of for Honda to do minor refreshes after 3-4 years, so if throats carry it over it may be in a year or two. If not, I still think the Pilot looks good enough to own.
Glad that Honda styling no longer makes me want to look away and vomit
Sad that Honda styling hasn’t converged to the Honda e language
GOOD NEWS!
Anyway….
Nice job re-interpreting the Nissan Harbody Truck’s hood vents.
Call me when Honda makes a new S2000.
No hybrid no care
Gas is $2.XX, long live the V6!
You know V6 hybrids exist right?
Really? I had never heard of that!
Lexus has a traditional hybrid and a PHEV that use the 3.5 liter V6 as the ICE engine
I know.
I’m returning sarcasm for sarcasm.
Usually V6 + hybrid is a V8 replacement and I4 + hybrid is a V6 replacement.
If the Passport goes hybrid I fully expect it to be the latter.
Or in the same way, the LC250 Land Cruiser and it’s GX twin use a TTV6 and a Turbo i4-Hybrid, respectively, as V8 replacements to the GX460/LC Prado
Gas is $3.99 where I live. I haven’t seen $2 gas for quite some time.
If you want cheap gas, order anything off the Cravings Value menu at Taco Bell.
Same here