Today I’m in southern California checking out the 2022 Honda Passport. For this model year, Honda has updated its mid-sized two-row crossover to seem a little bit more tough and in line with their pickup trucks.
I’m coming to you from an off-road park for the same reason that this passport has an orange flag on the side. This is the debut of the new trailsport sub-brand.
Trailsport versions of the ridgeline, passport, and pilot will be available to begin with, but more honda models will presumably follow at some time.
Trailsport is the passport’s ruggedized appearance package, which is important to remember because we don’t expect any mechanical changes for the trailsport version of the passport until the next generation of trailsport products, so we just have a trailsport logo there and trailsport styling all the way around the vehicle.
It’s the middle trim level in the passport lineup, and all-wheel drive is standard. It doesn’t come with a locking differential in the back and no skid plates or recovery hooks all the way around.
Recovery hooks are something I’d love to see on the front end of a trailsport model to assist the passport blend in with Honda’s ridgeline pickup truck.
The front end design has carried over some of those design elements, including this taller, more upright hood right there, a little bit more cladding down at the bottom, we have led fog lights right down here at the bottom of the bumper, standard front parking sensors, which is a nice touch, and then functional air vents on either side of the front end that helps relieve pressure and direct air around the vehicle.
To create this generation of passport, Honda did what they did was they t Honda has promised that the trailsport sub-brand will include a lot more off-road capable vehicles in the future, but for now, keep in mind that this gets no extra ground clearance compared to the rest of the passport lineup.
We do have 60 series tires, which provide a little bit more cushion than the elite trim, but they’re still on 18-inch alloy wheels, which are a little bit on the large side for obviously a rugged off-road vehicle, and you’ll notice that.
Let me know what you think of these two enormous exhaust points down here at the bottom of the bumper. I have to admit, I really like them, although I met some individuals who didn’t like them here at the launch event.
If roof tent camping is in your future, the trail sport and elite trims of the passport get roof rails but no load bars standard under the hood we find basically the same drivetrain as last year it’s a naturally aspirated v6 engine producing 280 horsepower and there’s still a nine-speed automatic transmission under the hood if you were hoping for honda’s brand new 10-speeed automatic transmission if you were hoping for honda’s brand new 10-speeed automatic transmission You’ll be disappointed, and you may have to wait until the next generation passport for that transmission, but personally, I’ve never found anything wrong with the 9 speed.
The very aggressive first gear gets you off the line quickly, which you’ll notice when compared to some of the 8 speed competition, and the 9th gear is fairly high, giving you better highway fuel economy as before.
The first is that the rear axle is slightly overdriven compared to the front axle, which means that even when no wheel slip is present in a straight line, this vehicle can send more power to the rear axle, which you’ll notice out on looser surfaces like the one I’m standing on right now, which includes sand, dust, ice, and snow.
If you want a car with a little more rear power bias when you floor it, this is the vehicle for you, and that’s something you won’t find in the outback.
the blazer and so on With the power on, the acura mdx, acura rdx, and other all-wheel drive vehicles can feel like a rear-wheel drive biased all-wheel drive vehicle because in those modes, up to 70% of engine power can go to the rear wheel depending on the drive situation, and then 100% of that 70% can be directed to a single rear wheel depending on the drive mode that you’re in it can attempt to apportion power 50-50 in the rear you’ll really notice The front seat comfort is excellent in the bottle that I’ve been driving today, but I do wish that this seat had four-way lumbar control because that’s something that I would expect to see at the price tag that this can achieve in its top end trim, and it’s something that you’ll find on some of the competition.
We have a manual tilt telescopic steering column with a large range of motion, but you should know that the driver’s seat doesn’t have the same.
the doors on the second row The seats have perforations in the leather upholstery but these seats are not ventilated they are only heated honda wasn’t overly aggressive on the seat bolstering so larger drivers and passengers shouldn’t have any problems with these seats moving on to the front doors we have a lot of premium materials here trailsport logo embroidered right there on the front headrest lots of orange stitching in this model Lots of soft touch materials here, as well as an imitation metallic strip running right across the dashboard, which I believe is supposed to be an imitation knurled metal feel in the middle of the dashboard.
We have one of honda’s newer infotainment software packages, which isn’t their absolute latest but does feature smartphone integration and is certainly better than the one found in the current generation crv.
The screen is a little small compared to some of the competition, but moving down from there we find the controls for the tri-zone automatic climate control system, which is a really cool touch for a two-row vehicle.
That’s because this shares a lot of features with the Pilot, including three row engine start stop button, heated seat controls, and a wireless charging mat that’s just about big enough for my large smartphone right o Naturally, we’re out here on a trail in southern california for the launch of the trailsport.
To be honest, this trail is not overly technical.
It is technical for a vehicle like the trail sport, but obviously off-road folks out there in wranglers and broncos are not going to think this trail is terribly complicated.
Remember, this is still on all season tires, not all terrain tires, even though they do have a slightly more rugged tread pattern.
As a consequence of transferring more power to the back axle than other rival systems, I believe trail driving like this and simply spirited driving on a twisting winding mountain road is probably a little bit more of a natural habitat for this passport.
This has a torque vectoring rear axle that can act like an electronic limited slip at times.
It can effectively lock the clutch packs together in the rear to give you 50-50 power distribution across the rear axle or it can torque vector.
In most off-road modes, this system will try to give you either a mostly open differential or a little bit of a limited slip style feel back there.
I would absolutely want recovery hooks if I were to drive my own car out on a path like the one I’m on here, and that’s something we don’t see on the passport.
Yes, the passport has a spare tire, and yes, you could put more aggressive all-terrain tires on this vehicle to help reduce the possibility of a flat tire out on trails like this, but with any vehicle, there’s always the possibility of needing assistance.
You might need to tow the vehicle out, or you might need to pull the vehicle one way or another on a trail, and with the passport, your only option is to strap around one of the seats.
It’s clear in some of the situations we’ve been driving out here where one wheel is off the ground that this setup is better than something like a hyundai santa fe or a chevy blazer, but not quite on the same level as something like a jeep grand cherokee, and I believe that honda has really hit a sweet spot with the passport if you want to go a little bit further off the beaten path and you’ The rear axle that we find in the outback wilderness isn’t capable of torque vectoring and doesn’t have the limited slip functionality that we find in this vehicle’s rear axle, but it does have a better suspension tune, so if you’re planning to spend an hour or two out on a rougher gravel road, a forest trail, or something similar, it’ll be much more comfortable in the outback, and the suspension in the passport is just a little bit too stiff for me.
One of the main reasons why honda chose all-season tires over all-terrain tires for the passport is ride quietness and on-road practicality.
All-terrain tires definitely have a toll on on-road handling ability and cabin quietness, and for the average person buying a passport, I believe that honda was absolutely correct to do what they did with the trail sport.
Unlike going from an outback to an outback wilderness, there is no penalty as far as cabin noise is concerned.
The trail sport’s fuel economy is much the same as the rest of the passport series.
Bottom line, whether on the road or on the trail, the passport is a well-crafted and, in my opinion, well-balanced alternative.
Yes, there will be more off-road capable vehicles out there, and there will be more on-road capable vehicles as well, but I believe that honda has struck the right balance, giving you the sort of trail ready looks without many of the compromises that we find in many of those trail ready vehicles, so if you like the look but don’t necessarily need to go out on a trail like this every weekend, the passport will be a great fit.
If, on the other hand, you plan on visiting a state off-road park on occasion or simply want to take your vehicle further off the beaten path than the average crossover, you might want to look at something like the new Grand Cherokee or a Subaru Outback Wilderness, which I believe is perched on the edge of two worlds.
It’s still capable on the road, but it’s a little bit more capable in some situations than the passport, simply because of the decisions Subaru made when designing that vehicle.
Out on the paved road, the passport is really in its element.
It has good strong acceleration thanks to that really low first gear on this nine speed automatic.
At higher speeds, there may be a hint of torque steer, but at all lower speeds and initial launch, this really has a great traction.
The combination of torque vectoring in the back and the ability to send more power to the rear makes this feel more engaging and nimble out on the road than the chevy blazer or toyota highlander, which have a torque vectoring rear axle but aren’t pushing as much power to the rear, and it’s that combination that makes this feel more engaging and nimble out on the road.
As far as on-road driving dynamics go, the elite trim will be the pinnacle Let’s get down to business.
How much will a 2022 passport cost you? Well, first and foremost, it has become significantly more expensive than last year due to Honda’s decision to reshuffle the options deck.
This now starts in exl trim, which will set you back 37 870 plus tax, title, license, and the destination charge, which will get you leather trim seats.
The blind spot information system, all the standard safety tech, and, of course, front-wheel drive.
If you want all-wheel drive, you can add it to that exl model, or you can get the trail sport, which will set you back $42,477.
If you want everything on your next passport, the elite trim will set you back $45,433 starting in terms of pricing.
Keep in mind that the outback and the santa fe both start with four four-cylinder naturally aspirated engines, which is one of the reasons why they’re so cheap compared to this.
Their price tags are more in the realm of a crv in terms of their base starting price, but when you add options to them, they can get close to the price category of the passport, but it’s still a little more expensive than some of them.
Let’s be honest, the passport, including this Trailsport trim, isn’t the most off-road capable vehicle in this mid-sized two-row segment.
If you’re interested in daily off-roading, you’d be better off buying something else, but the passport is still one of my favorites because it’s very practical, it looks good, it gets decent gas mileage, it has a nice v6 engine under the hood, and it’s definitely going to be more reliable than some of the What holds this back a little on the trails is the lack of all-terrain tires; instead, we have all-season tires, and the vehicle is sprung very firmly; there’s not a lot of suspension travel.
You’ll find more suspension travel and better ability to handle moguls and other obstacles in some of the more off-road oriented competition, but it’s still an excellent vehicle.
If you’re looking for a mid-sized two-row crossover or if you’ve had a crv for a while and think, hey, this is a little too small for me now, definitely put the passport on your shopping list.
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