Honda Passport

Among two-row midsized SUVs, the Passport is in rare company: It has a six-cylinder engine. Of the nine mainstream models in our ratings, only the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Mazda CX-70 have a six-cylinder engine. Every other competitor uses a small turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The 3.5-liter V6 engine is a breath of fresh air. It’s very smooth, and when you need more acceleration, it has lots of reserve power. One big benefit is that its power delivery is more pleasant and predictable than the turbocharged four-cylinder engines found in most competitors. Rarely–if ever–does the Passport sound raucous or unrefined. But its fuel economy is expected to trail hybrid competitors by 10 mpg or more.

From big door pockets to small rubberized nooks, there’s a lot of storage space in the Passport. The door pockets have two levels, and the bottle holder can accept tall water bottles. The center console storage bin under the armrest is large, with plenty of room for keys, wallets, cables, sunglasses, and more. Up toward the front is a rubberized wireless phone charger and a second pad to toss items like change or keys, or even another phone that’s charging with a cable. The biggest gripe we have is about the flimsy, unlined plastic glove box that flops down unceremoniously when opened.

The rear seats also have generous door pockets with big bottle holders. A few handy bins sit underneath the cargo-area floor and along the side.

Like the Pilot, the Passport has a roomy, comfortable space for the driver. Our testers all said they could dial in a seating position that gave them a clear view of the gauges and easy access to the infotainment screen and climate controls. Some drivers may find that their right knee comes in contact with the top of the plastic center console if they sit splay-legged; the console itself doesn’t intrude into the driver’s space.

The Passport’s controls are a useful blend of those found in the Accord Hybrid and Pilot we tested. The 12.3-inch color touchscreen—which was unveiled in the Accord Hybrid—is a much nicer size than the smaller screen we had in our Pilot. The customizable display has good contrast and is user-friendly. We like that Honda has an ever-present menu of buttons to make it easy to switch back and forth between AM/FM radio and Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. A few testers said that the volume knob is small—though bigger than the tiny one in the Accord—and awkward to grab.

While the standard 10.2-inch digital driver’s display is easy to read, navigating its menus and options using the thumbwheel controls is tedious.

Every Passport has the same 8.3 inches of ground clearance and approach/departure angles (23 inches/27.1 inches). These are all improvements, off-road-wise, over the Pilot. Yet our RTL, which can do some basic off-roading, doesn’t have many noticeable on-road compromises. While we’ll spend more time focusing on its ride and handling in our testing, we can already tell that the Passport is at home on paved roads. It’s definitely an improvement over the previous-generation Passport. Plus, all Passports have a 5,000-pound tow rating.

Sure, the off-road suspension and all-terrain tires will likely affect ride comfort and road noise levels in the four TrailSport versions. But at least the three road-focused RTL trims have a modicum of off-road ability without having a negative impact on their routine ride and handling.

The logbook frequently mentioned the transmission’s low-speed performance. The testers said that the transmission felt as if it didn’t initially allow the full engine power to reach the wheels. Then it would come on abruptly. This was particularly noticeable at rolling stops, such as coming to an intersection where you slow down for a red light but it quickly changes to green. Going back on the throttle resulted in hesitation, not power. In addition, low-speed upshifts and downshifts could be rough, where the cabin occupants could feel the transmission change gears. One tester said that they felt the transmission wasn’t as happy with partial and low-throttle inputs. Rather, it’s more responsive when the driver wants hard acceleration.

A few testers said that the lane centering assistance system could use some fine-tuning. The Passport wanders in a lane, almost bouncing or ping-ponging between the lane markers. While the system lets the driver make small steering adjustments without disengaging, it becomes challenging to keep the SUV in its lane in high-speed curves.

The lane departure warning system shakes the steering wheel to warn the driver rather than use an audible alert or simply buzz the steering wheel. The shaking is disconcerting and doesn’t help with maintaining control of the SUV.

Finally, the adaptive cruise control is slow to recognize that the driver has pulled out to pass a vehicle ahead. At times, it will slow down and keep that reduced speed even though the driver has moved the Passport fully into the adjacent lane.

There are a few universal Honda settings or features that we find annoying. For example, the infotainment system on the higher-level trims only has four preset spaces displayed at one time. Plus, changing the presets is an odd two-step process. This is the “Honda Way,” but we don’t see a reason why.

In addition, there isn’t a dedicated phone button on the steering wheel to initiate a phone call. The driver can use the thumbwheel to end a call, however. There’s a voice command button to go that route, but not everyone likes using that, particularly when there are passengers in the car.

There are a number of issues, big and small, that disappointed us about the Passport’s assembly and appearance. Overall, the interior feels a lot more “sturdy,” more like a work truck or true off-road SUV, than “a nice place to be.” There are hard plastics throughout the cabin, the rear window sills aren’t padded, the air vents have a hitch when sliding them to adjust airflow, and there are rough, visible mold lines on the upper and lower door pockets. The unlined glove box doesn’t have any damping action and just flops open. Maybe that’s acceptable in a $20,000 SUV, but not in a $46,000 one. We had similar reservations about some parts of the Pilot’s interior.

We saw exposed weld lines and paint overspray on the upper doorframe of the front window, an area that isn’t covered by the door panel. It doesn’t affect usability, but it’s a big oversight.

While our RTL’s ride and handling aren’t significantly affected by the SUV’s off-road capability, that doesn’t mean the on-road dynamics are perfect.

The steering is on the light side, but it does give the driver feedback about tire grip. Steering effort builds as the driver turns the wheel more to drive through a corner. Body lean is well-controlled in normal, nonaggressive driving.

When the pace picks up, however, body lean becomes more noticeable. Plus, the SUV’s weight becomes more apparent, which can make the driver feel less confident about pushing the Passport into faster corners. Any nimbleness exhibited at lower speeds seems to vanish.

Ride comfort around town and on the highway is a balanced mix of firmness and suppleness. Bumps are felt without being jarring. Potholes are handled well, and there aren’t any harsh movements over undulations or broken pavement. Some testers said there were times when passengers experienced some side-to-side head tossing from the vehicle motions.

The Environmental Protection Agency mileage ratings show that the shorter two-row Passport doesn’t have a fuel-economy advantage over the three-row Pilot. They’re both rated at 21 mpg combined. (The TrailSport trim is rated at 20 mpg combined for both SUVs.) While the TrailSport is the only Pilot trim to get all-terrain tires, there are four Passport trims that use those all-terrain tires. But only the TrailSport gets the lower fuel economy rating.

Regardless, we’ll put our RTL through our full complement of fuel-economy tests. In our tests of the Pilot, we got 21 mpg overall.

The Passport is wider and taller than many competitors, such as the more off-road-capable Ford Bronco, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Toyota Land Cruiser. This should help it when we do our cargo room evaluations (learn how we measure cargo room), because it has a big opening with the liftgate raised. For example, according to the automaker’s measurements, the Honda has 83.8 cubic feet of cargo room with the second row folded and 44 cubic feet with it raised. The Jeep has 70.8 cubic feet with the second row folded and just 37.7 cubic feet with it raised.

The Passport comes standard with a variety of key active safety features, including rear cross traffic warning, blind spot warning (BSW), and automatic emergency braking (AEB) that can detect vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane keeping assistance (LKA) have been reprogrammed for use in traffic jams and what Honda calls a more “natural” response.

The top TrailSport Elite and Elite Blackout trims feature a “trail watch” camera view that shows a view of the tire path, and all TrailSport trims get a backup camera washer.