2027 Honda Passport TrailSport Off-Road Review: Not ‘Good for a Crossover.’ Just Plain Good
The 2027 Honda Passport TrailSport spec sheet says this is about as close to “truck” as a car can get. Two days of off-road testing at Overland Experts’ North Carolina training facility proved that it’s not just impressive for an all-wheel-drive unibody crossover; it’s a damn decent expedition vehicle in its own right. And, if you know what you’re doing, the Passport is a lot of fun to wheel.
The new-for-2026 Passport quickly became an industry darling after its debut. It looks great, and pretty much everyone who tested its mettle on a trail decided it was better than they expected. Complaints that did get registered revolved around ride height. “The thing really just needs, like, an extra inch and it’d get through stuff with so much less drama,” our Deputy Editor Jerry Perez told me after putting 13,000 miles on a long-term 2026 Passport tester.
Welp, Honda re-did the suspension and subframe for 2027, and guess what: The Passport TrailSport got a 1.38-inch lift, yielding a healthy 9.65 inches of max ground clearance. Honda told me that “28 suspension and related chassis parts [including springs, dampers, control arms, stabilizer bars, and knuckles] have been redesigned, reengineered, or are otherwise new for the 2027 Passport TrailSport.” General Grabber AT Sport tires, 275/60R18 (about 31-inch diameter), carry over.
Matt Fink
I encourage you to dig through Perez’s deep catalog of Passport content (outlined below) from his eight-month shakedown if you want to know what the car’s like to live with day to day.
The Drive's 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Long-Term Test
- Welcome Passport: Specs, Test Details, Ultimate Goal
- First Impressions
- 5,000-Mile Review
- The Honda Passport Wave Is a Thing
- Let’s Chat: I Answer All of Your Questions
- 10K Miles, Snow, and a Trip to the Dealer
- Here’s How It Did Off-Road
- Towing Test: Maxing It Out
- Finale: What I Learned Over 13,000 Miles
Today, we’re focused on what the Passport’s like outside a typical crossover’s comfort zone. Way outside.
At Overland Experts’ 200-acre proving ground next to the Uwharrie National Forest, I4WDTA-certified trail guides led us through miles and miles of trails snaking through tight trees, up and over steep crests, and through deep gullies with dirt mounds the size of hay bales.
Matt Fink
I consider myself a highly experienced off-road driver—at minimum, I’m well-traveled and have wheeled through rough terrain in almost every continent—and the Passport really put on a good show over tough stuff. It never looks as spicy in photos as it does in real life, so I wanted to make that clear.
TrailSport Off-Road Tech
You can easily see how ground clearance improves all-terrain capability, right? The higher you are off the ground, the more rocks you can drive over. A lift also lets you fit a bigger tire, which gets you even higher. (Honda’s team declined to comment on whether a larger tire would fit the new Passport, but I got a big wink when I asked about it.)
Capability2027 Passport TrailSport2026 Passport TrailSportGround Clearance9.65 inches8.27 inchesApproach Angle25 degrees23 degreesDeparture Angle25 degrees23 degreesBreakover Angle23 degrees20 degrees
The new Passport’s taller shocks and longer control arms also let the tires droop a little more when weight shifts away from them, so they stay in contact with the ground during deeper twists than the ’26.
As with last year’s model (and other Honda TrailSport SUVs), Passport drivers can cycle through a wide range of drive modes, including separate modes for “Trail,” “Snow,” and “Sand.” With this toggle, you can quickly optimize the vehicle’s responsiveness for various scenarios. Trail focuses on low-speed precision; Sand lets you carry more speed over soft surfaces; Snow is basically Sand’s opposite—damping the gas pedal to prevent spinning out.
The Passport’s crown jewel of terrain mastery is its i-VTM4 system and the software governing it. Honda published an in-depth explanation of how this torque-vectoring technology works; in short, i-VTM4 precisely and proactively allocates the engine power to the tires with grip and prevents power from pointlessly spinning tires in the air.
Cutaway i-VTM4 rear drive unit. You can see the driveshaft input (round thing with four bolts facing us), and then the clutch packs are exposed on the left. That hole on the right side is an axle shaft output. Andrew P. Collins
Speaking one step more specifically, the Passport’s V6 first sends engine power into a nest of gears up front, a shaft comes off and transfers power to a rear central unit, and in that metal box between the rear wheels, two sets of clutch packs progressively add power to the left or right side as needed, depending on where traction is detected by a deep bench of sensors.
Put another way, an old-school 4×4 with a traditional transfer case may have more strength and low-end oomph than this setup, but i-VTM4 is far more flexible.
Source: www.thedrive.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.