The off-road aesthetic is decidedly on trend—particularly the “overland” style. Just look at how many cars, trucks and crossovers are wearing burly roof racks, off-road lights and aggressively styled tires. Even if these machines are destined to never leave the pavement—owners want the look. Honda’s new 2025 Passport TrailSport model is one of the most compelling entries in this growing group of ruggedized crossovers.

Automakers have certainly spotted this trend, adding new “off-road” trim packages seemingly across the lineup. While some certainly play into the looks, others come fit with legitimate upgrades like underbody protection and advanced all-wheel-drive systems. The Passport TrailSport features improved approach and departure angles, a standard hitch receiver to protect the rear bumper (and for towing of course), an off-road-tuned suspension, bigger 31-inch tires on 18-inch wheels, skidplating underneath, and an intelligent torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system.

To see just how well Honda’s Passport TrailSport works as a daily driver turned weekend warrior, we saddled up a $54,355 Passport TrailSport Elite in Sunset Orange and hit the road. Let’s see how it faired.

The Passport TrailSport Off-Road Hardware

Unlike other off-road vehicles that we test, the Honda Passport rides on a unitized chassis, meaning the body and frame are one (loose interpretation, but you get it). However, Honda has beefed it all up for this new Passport. Front lateral rigidity is up 72 percent and rear torsional rigidity up by 50 percent over the old model.

The front and rear suspensions are both independent designs. Up front the Macpherson strut suspension uses cast iron knuckles along with forged steel suspension arms all bolted to a ridged mounted subframe which boosts suspension lateral stiffness by 7 percent over the old model. In the rear, Honda also uses forged suspension arms and lateral stiffness is up by 21 percent. Spring rates on the TrailSport model have been lowered by 7.5 percent in the front and 5.8 percent in the rear with a decrease in both the front and rear stabilizer bar diameters versus non-TrailSport models. Honda says this helps the rig’s flex (RTI) score improve by 11.6 percent. When it comes to the shocks, Honda reduced compression damping and increased rebound damping, which is intended to make the off-road ride smoother.

Under the hood is Honda’s DOHC 3.5-liter V6 delivering 285 hp at 6,100 rpm and 262 lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm. It comes paired with a 10-speed automatic and sends power to Honda’s i-VTM4 all-wheel drive system. The Passport TrailSport is rated to tow 5,000 pounds.

The Passport’s AWD system is governed by drive modes that are easily cycled through using a physical toggle in the center console. There are seven drive modes, but Sport, Tow and Trail are new for this model.

The Trailsport doesn’t come equipped with locking differentials. However, the rear axle uses an electronically controlled clutch pack that (in Trail mode) can send up to 75 percent of available torque to the rear tire with traction when needed. So even if a rear tire is off the ground—the other tire will receive a healthy dose of torque to help push the Passport along the trail.

Unlike many of the other ruggedized crossovers, the Honda Passport TrailSport uses a real off-road tire. The TrailSport comes with meaty 275/60R18 General Grabber A/T Sport tires that measure 31-inches tall. These tires offer a compound and design that’s unique to Honda. And though a space saver spare comes standard mounted in a cavity below the cargo floor, a full-size spare in available.

The Passport is available with a host of adventure-y accessories like special racks, boxes, and even a fold out picnic table. But there’s some impressive surprises too like the optional stainless steel rock sliders (Honda calls them “Tube Steps”) to complement the standard underbody skid plates for the fuel tank, engine and transmission.

Life On The Street

On the road, the Passport excels at its intended purpose: transporting five people and all their stuff comfortably. The Honda Passport is a smooth rider on all surfaces. Unlike the trucks and SUVs we usually test—there was zero freeway hop over the course of our test. The thick tire sidewalls really do a nice job dampening out potholes. It’s very quiet, too. On the highway, there was little wind or tire noise.

On a steady 70 mph cruise, the Honda loafs along at just 1,600 rpm. On freeway grades, the SUV drops a couple gears to maintain that speed with 2,500 rpm showing on the tach. There’s a bit of transmission hunting on the mild grades which had us wishing the Passport had a bit more low-end torque.

While the Passport feels sufficiently quick around town, this is a large and heavy (4,800-pound) crossover so its 3.5-liter V6 has a lot of work to do.

Inside, the Passport is quite roomy with loads of rear seat legroom for even the tallest passengers. The cargo area is cavernous as well with 44 cubic feet behind the rear seat and large useful side bins.

The Passport does have the typical large infotainment screen front and center. But we dig how Honda kept physical buttons to switch the climate control and other functions.

The Passport TrailSport is EPA rated to deliver 18 mpg in the city and 23 mpg on the highway. Thanks to our lead foot and plenty of time spent in the dirt, we managed a 16.5 mpg average during our time with the Passport.

Passport TrailSport: At Home In the Dirt

Despite not being fit with a low range gearbox, the Passport TrailSport is surprisingly good off-road. Compared to the old model, this one has an increased approach angle of 23.0 degrees as well as an increased departure angle of 27.1 degrees. The exhaust pipe is tucked up as well, to minimize damage, and Honda’s standard (on TrailSport) trailer hitch has been designed to be used as the first point that touches the trail—sparing the bumper. There’s 8.5 inches of ground clearance underneath.

On mild trails the TrailSport’s drive modes make all the difference. As soon as our tires touched dirt, we immediately attempted to crawl across a berm that left the tires scrambling for traction. Normal mode just doesn’t cut it. Any stock 4×4 with low range could have made it across without much effort. Once we clicked into Trail mode, however, the increased rear torque bias and increased slip-limiting of the rear axle helped the tires to grip and pushed us across.

The TrailSport offered plenty of traction to get us all the way up one of the more challenging trail sections on our test loop, but we opted to turn around before attempting a much gnarlier downhill to protect the Passport’s front fascia. So, we turned around at the top and headed back the way we came, using the rig’s hill descent control.

Trail mode also engages the trail cameras which are particularly valuable since the Passport sits low. The cameras helped us place the vehicle at times we simply couldn’t see over the hood. Unfortunately, the cameras turn off when you travel above 15 mph.

The Passport can handle deeper gullies and cruise over larger rocks than one might imagine. But when you increase the speed—it’s not happy. On our fire road test section, the TrailSport could handle about 25 mph. Most stock 4x4s can comfortably maintain speeds at least ten mph higher without much trouble. The same goes for hitting dirt bike whoops. We had to cross those carefully at speeds around 10 mph to make sure we didn’t cave-in the low-hanging bumper. But hey, this isn’t really the Passport TrailSport’s intent.

We didn’t expect the Passport to conquer our infamous hill climb test as it has proven to require at least one locker as well as descent articulation and clearance to complete. But we challenged it anyway. Because there’s no low range, when we attempted to crawl the hill, we needed a little more speed than usual. The Honda dug into the soft sand a little less than three-quarters of the way up—right before the really challenging part.

The hard part ended up being backing down. Without low range to help us creep slowly, the brakes had a hard time holding the SUV. The front ones locked easily causing the frontend to slide sideways. To keep it straight, we repeatedly had to ease off the brakes to let it roll enough for vehicle to straighten out. It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride and a good reminder that low range 4WD capability isn’t just for conquering obstacles, it’s for getting you out of sticky situations too.

The Passport TrailSport proved too low, with too little suspension flex to handle our uphill mogul section. Bodywork would absolutely get scuffed, or worse, from any attempts. One area where it performed well was in the sandy wash. The TrailSport has a Sand mode that allowed plenty of wheel spin. However slower proved to be better as the soft-riding suspension would bottom easily and the low-riding bodywork is more vulnerable to rocks.

The Bottom Line

While we never expected the 2025 Honda Passport TrailSport to be a technical four-wheeling monster, we did find that it is a roomy and comfortable family vehicle that has more than enough chops to explore rough dirt roads and occasional mild trails. The freedom to explore and memories that will be made along the way are exactly what the Passport TrailSport is built for. And that makes us happy.