World Debut- The NEW Honda Passport Trailsport Has Serious Off-Road Tech & Gear!

I have wonderful news for you because many of you watched while we took a 2026 Honda Passport Trail Sport off-road in Moab, Utah, but you didn't get to see it. Well, guess what? You not only get to see it, you're going to learn all about it. We have some numbers, we know about the powertrain, and we can tell you all about all three trims. That's right. There's only three. There's the RTL, there's the Trail Sport, and there's the Trail Sport Elite. So let's start off with the way it looks because we weren't able to see it because they had a wrapper around it, like a Christmas gift. This is the whole new front. And actually, this whole vehicle is pretty much new in terms of all the sheet metal. And what you're looking at here is probably the one component that is not functional, and that is this hood scoop here. But it looks manly. The rest of this, if you look over here, look at that big badge. Yes, and there's Trail Sport. But look, what do we got here? Stamped in here, Passport. You know, actually, I don't see too many vehicles running around with the front end stamped like this. In fact, I can't really think of any off the top of my head. So this is pretty unique. Ah, but there's more because, yes, of course, a lot of people have to add something like this, which looks like metal, but it isn't. It's plastic. It's all part of the same component here. But down here. Yeah, wait, I can reach. Hear that? Yeah, that's right. Proper skid plate. As a matter of fact, there's two skid plates and we're going to get to how strong they are in a minute. But there's more. Look here. If you look over there, you can see an orange thing sticking out. That is a proper recovery point. And we talked about it when we were in Moab, Utah. We're going to talk about it here as well, because I get to actually physically show you what I was talking about there. But hold on to that thought for a minute, because we're going to continue on the exterior design. 18 inch wheels. Now, there are a few different types of wheels that you can get various trims, various wheels. These are 18 inch. And look at that. See how it's inset specifically for off-roading so you don't snap it off when you come near a rock. 31 inch grabber ATs with some real meat on them. And I can tell you, taking this off-road has performed well. However, real question is, how do they perform on the street? Because you see, the whole point of this vehicle is it's a street machine that can do some light off-roading. That's the whole point. And the system, which we'll talk about in a little bit, that's underneath here to make it do the off-roading things it does. It's been improved. Ah, what about ground clearance? You guys are asking a lot of questions about that. 8.3 inches. Not a lot, but once again, this is built to be driven on the street and occasionally go off-road. So there has to be a compromise in terms of drag and aerodynamics, drivability, what have you. But there's more. Come on over here. If you look, you can see this section here. By the way, all the steel on this thing, the rear and the front, have been significantly upgraded for more torsional rigidity. This section here, see how there's plastic here? Well, in a bit, we'll show you why this is a bit of a big deal. This actually prevents scuffs. This, yep, roof rack. Look at that. It goes. Actually, I like the length of this thing because it's actually rather usable. And even from the ground, someone over six feet can easily reach to the top. They say it looks like a backpack, so they physically showed us, you know, like this will be the straps. Get it? Straps. And then cargo would go in the back here. Get my point? Come on back here. New taillight design. We can really see it with this. That big T there stands for Trailsport. It doesn't. I just made that up, but it looks cool. Once again, passport stamped in there. Manly. Love it. And then of course, Trailsport. The orange is close to the orange here, but they're not quite the same, which is interesting. I believe eight colors will be available when this vehicle goes on sale, pricing and selling all that stuff. We're going to go over at the end of the video. Look here. This trail hitch, which by the way, this vehicle is capable of towing up to 5,000 pounds. This trail hitch is actually recovery points as well. So you can strap pull from there. Yep. Proper set up here too. Now if you get the base model RTL, it doesn't come standard with the tow package. The Trailsport and the Trailsport Elite do. Okay. Come on. There's more. And that's because we finally get to look at the interior. Now this is sort of the mid level, right? What you're looking at is a faux leather insert here. And then this type of soft material, which feels a lot like denim. So you got the stitching. This makes it look unique. If you look down there, you get a point. Yes. Two USB C's and there is also an outlet. Hey, you can plug in your, um, laptop air conditioning vents too, which I really do like it gets better. When you look at the elite, just keep in mind that air conditioning vent as well. There's more because here you have not one, but two cup holders. That's actually a bottle holder. See how that's carved out there. And then down here, some extra storage space. And this section here is hard plastic, but they have this grainy unusual. I don't quite know what that is, but it's kind of cool looking. It looks almost like mountains, right? And then you have more of that denim like material here. Soft touch here. Okay. Remember we were talking about what's back here in the backpack, right? Check it out. It comes standard with a generator. I'm kidding. It doesn't, but they did put one in here to illustrate extra cargo space. So you have this two separate compartments here, right? This compartment here, Oh, and separately. And what are you going to see? Back off. That is a donut spare tire standard on all three trims. However, very important to note. We're going to be talking about this tire a little bit later because some of you guys are gonna be asking, didn't they want to do some serious off-roading? Yes. We'll get to that in a moment. Anyway. So you have this whole thing here and it does split like, so it's kind of a 60, 40 split, maybe it's a 70, 30. I'm not a hundred percent sure. My math is bad, but there is enough room for this generator or something else. And then you have these panels here. Now this is the standard panel. It's plastic, fairly simple, but as you can see, there's bolts. Reason why you can remove this on any of these and as an accessory, add this. Molly panels, baby. Pulled up to 11 pounds and you can strap stuff to them. Off-roady. Yes. Very cool stuff. And you also have 115 volt plug right there. Good for tailgating. And there's lots of extra storage nooks here too, including over here on the side. There's another one on the opposite side without the generator and the extra stuff back here, you have 44 cubic feet of cargo space behind that second row. However, once you drop the seats, which by the way, fold nearly flat, you have 83.5 cubic feet of cargo space, which is. All right. This is something important because we weren't able to actually show you the interior last time. Now we can, and it's a relatively simple setup, but it's still very passporty. How do I know that? Because it says passport. They really are getting into indenting their name everywhere. Okay. So let's talk about the screens real quick. This is a 10.2 inch screen. This is standard on all of the passports, but then the invoid diamond screen, once again, standard 12.3 inches. And this essentially is a relatively simple setup. It's a touchscreen. It has Android auto and Apple CarPlay wireless. Speaking of wireless standard wireless charging with a topographical map nearby. Actually, it provides a little bit of grip because this is a relatively spongy rubber. Um, and then you have two USB-Cs and 12 volts right there. Now you have this little thing here, but it's not big enough for a cell phone that I know of, maybe it's one of the smaller ones. But it would be terrific for credit cards. Push button transmission. So we know how we all feel about that. This is the important button or switch, I should say. And that's because this gives you the different drive modes and the drive modes range from normal eco. You have a tow mode, of course you have a sport mode. Everybody needs to have a sport mode. And then you have off-road modes. That's including a trail and a sand mode. So you've got all these kind of combined that you can play with, with this little, uh, switch here, and then you can shut off the, um, auto stop, which is terrific because that can be annoying for some people, then you have hill descent control, which we did test when we were in Moab and it's a relatively simple hill descent control that is throttle controlled. Um, not a whole lot to it now. There's more because voila, giant container. Not a whole lot going on in here. In fact, I don't see any types of outlets in here, but that's part of the deal. You have a fairly large glove compartment here. Yeah. Nothing special once again. But then you have this, which I really do like that also has that topographical little styling cue going on with it. And you put stuff in there and it won't move around so much. And then soft touch materials here. Once again, that denim material with raised orange stitching going around. Then we get to the switches and I do like me some switches. A lot of them are integrated into the system, but at least with the heating and air conditioning systems you have, Ooh, they're no, they're not rubberized. Bummer. I thought they would be, they're just kind of a nice plastic, but you have these switches here. You have different mode. You have this for your heat on your seats. Then you do have some buttons here for rear on and off, which you can control. This is all pretty simple and pretty basic. I do like the fact that it's easy to read and easy to use. However, with the exception of your volume control, no, yes. See Honda learned a valuable lesson many years ago when they got rid of this and people got really mad. So they it's here. Um, but otherwise everything else is embedded in the screen. Once again, something else we couldn't point out before, which we're going to do today. Backseat. Now, a couple of things you should know. It's about 1.3 inches more leg room throughout. So yeah, I have a ton of it. I am sitting behind myself. I am six one, and I am not only able to comfortably have my legs back here, but I'm able to shove my big old feet down here too, that they fit underneath the seat. That's actually really important. A lot of people get their feet stuck in there. I do it all the time. Ah, there's more two USBCs down there. An AC 115 volts right here. There it goes. Plug in your laptop and then air conditioning vents back here. Thank goodness. Now panoramic sunroof that you were curious about that. Well, guess what? You get it in the trail sport, this version and the elite. There's more because you always want to know about the center armrest. And there it is. Ah, two cup holders here. Fairly simple setup. I would say though, that you could hold three adults back here pretty easily. Headroom is really good. I have a tall torso and I'm able to look up with my baseball cap on and there's still extra room. So very good room here. So overall it's a very roomy rear seat. No adjustments to it though. You can't go back and forth with it. Can't even work on the rake or anything like that, but the overall positioning of it is pretty damn good. And I have a lot of space. One more thing they showed this to me before. See, I don't know if I can pull this one out, but this is a separate pocket right here. Here we go for cell phones and whatnot. See how it stands out like that. You can pull and get, I like that idea. That's so simple. And they do it on this side as well. Door panel, by the way, real quick. I mentioned it before enough room for bottle and a can of something or a cup. And then they have all those little pockets going throughout hard materials up there by the window sill. But below it, you have softer materials for your elbow that you're wondering what's under the hood. Well, guess what? Honda, well, they're known for making sure that components go from one vehicle to another. So you may have heard of this before. It's a 3.5 liter V6, but it is beefed up. So it puts out 285 horsepower, 262 pound feet of torque, and it's hooked up to a 10 speed automatic transmission. All of that is connected to the IVTM4 system, which provides the all wheel drive. Now, even though we don't know on paper what the EPA numbers are, Honda did say that this is a cleaner, more efficient powertrain. There's more because this has trail watch. What does that mean? Well, you see, this is the elite and the elite gets this. And it starts from here, 360 view, even has its own cute little squirter. Look at that little squirter right there. And what it does is it gives you an around view as you're off-roading. It shows individual components because you can actually, you have cameras underneath there as well, showing what your wheels and tires are near. And it also does this really cool, clever thing where it's kind of shooting through the hood. Now, this is what's really cool. We've actually sampled this. When you're going up a hill off-road, well, it's a big hood, right? Many trucks have that. Many off-roaders have that. You're not able to see over it as you're cresting an off-road obstacle. However, using this camera, you actually have a chance using that to see over that obstacle as you're cresting it. Honestly, other people have used it. It works well and we've used it. Yes, it worked well. Okay. This is the elite from the outside. Only one other thing really distinguishes it between the elite and the regular trail sport, and that's these wheels. These are unique to the elite. Later on, we will talk about other wheels because there are other ones you can source. However, this is part of the elite package. Welcome to the interior of the elite. Yes, the top of the line. This is the vehicle that gives you all the goodies that they have. And that starts with these leather seats. This is all real leather. And you can see that it definitely has the stitching, has the trail sport embossed in the upper seat. And this is also leather. It actually feels quite nice. I remember there was the denim thing that was going on here. Well, that's also leather, soft touch. Yep. Quite nice. What else is there? Oh, this button. This is for your heated steering wheel. Standard on the elite. Look at that. You know what else is? Heated and ventilated front seats. That's what these switches are there for. So it's a step up above the regular trail sport, but you're not getting a ton of stuff. Still, you want these types of seats and you want them to be not only heated, but ventilated, that's the way to go. There's a little bit more also going on in the back, back seats. Now, one of the important things to remember is that in terms of overall capability, they're pretty much the trail sport and the trail sport elite are essentially the same underneath. You just get more goodies in the elite. And that includes in the back seat. Look at that. Heated rear seats. The outboard seats are heated. You also get your own climate control controls all the way down here, which is great. This is all the same in terms of the two USBCs and the 150 watt. Um, there we go. Look at that plug right there. There's one more thing that makes this unique aside from the leather, which I've already explained about in the front. And that is right here, obviously, because you don't want those mountain goats looking at you when you're going off road. No. So there it is. Do you remember when we were talking about the donut spare tire in the back of these vehicles, which comes standard as not necessarily being ideal for serious off-roaders? Well, they've addressed that. By the way, these are standard power opening rear tailgates, but you know, what's not standard. But blame this. Ah, what could be under here? Ta-da. There you go. Full size spare tire that can be mounted in this space here. So if you opt for this and we're going to be talking about a lot of other components that you can get secondary from Honda, this is one of them. This whole bracket set up here. That's including the, uh, this tie down, which is like a seatbelt type thing, and then the tire with the wheel. All of this is part of that package. So you can put it in here and do your off-roading or whatever, have this as an emergency tire and you still have this cargo space here. Yep. Look at that. I actually didn't notice that before. Little mountains and stuff over there in the background. Lots of little Easter eggs here. People love them Easter eggs. Okay. So this is just one of many accessories, which we're going to cover in just a moment. But for those of you who thought they're not serious about being able to handle it off road at the very least, they do provide a solution for a big spare tire. Let's talk accessories because this is something that Honda is taking seriously and they know that you guys are taking it seriously as well. So there are a bunch that are available with this vehicle and more coming in the future. And that's like stuff here. Look at that. That is a sticker that is essentially a matte black finish. These are actually functional and usable. It looks actually quite nice on this. I've used these with vehicles like Jeeps and Land Rovers before, and they do reduce some of the reflection from the sun. Then we have these, check it out. HPD wheels. These are not steelies, even though they look like they are. They are mounted on the regular 31 inch general tires. These, well, they do look cool and they're available as an accessory. And so is that, that is your rooftop platform. Yeah, pretty cool, right? It's another accessory, but this is the one that I'm thrilled to show you guys. Check this out. I know you think it's just a regular shelf, right? And it's rubberized, like really rubberized. But it's got these funky little clips here. What could they be for? Well, if you pull this out, right? And then you add some legs to it, which do come with it. You're able to make this. I don't know if you guys remember, but back in the day with the very first generation Honda CRV, they actually had a picnic table that you could remove from the bottom of the rear section where the cargo goes and pop it out and actually use it. Now, this one is, it's pretty beefy. These legs do come in a container and you just pop them all on. I'm not going to take it apart because there's like stuff here, but you could see here, these clips, you move the clip down, move it over, pop it off. So this is usable. I just think it's such a cool idea because I thought that the original CRV had a really cool thing. I wanted to go over one more thing as well, and that has to do with something that's waiting for me on this table. Check it out. This is a component from the front end, the tow hook. This is to get you out of trouble. So you basically would hook up something and it will pull you out or you help pull somebody else out. However, I did mention when we were in Moab that this has its own crumple zone. So there's a bracket that holds this on, right? That bracket is built if there's a collision to break away, otherwise it'll impale something. So remember we were talking about this hard black material. One of the reasons they have it up here is to prevent scuffing. I would imagine from loading and whatnot, but also if you have a bunch of fishing poles, you want to lay them against the vehicle, then hanging them out over here would be okay. The same goes true if you're playing a very large harp and you want to lean it against this. That's right. Harpists deserve love too. In addition to that front skid plate that we've already talked about, there's a lot of armor underneath this vehicle and that goes to a skid plate that's underneath the gas tank, but also check this out. Now you can get a dealer installed slider. That's this right here. It's cleverly hidden and it's extruded aluminum that goes to the hard points underneath the vehicle and then it's covered in a sleeve of steel, which is replaceable. So if you really scuff it up and it's 8.3 inches of ground clearance, you're probably going to scuff it up. This is unboltable and then you put on another one and boom, you're good to go. But there's something that is really important that I need to discuss and that has to do with the underpinnings of this vehicle. And that's because it comes with the upgraded second generation IVTM4 all wheel drive system. That system in this vehicle makes it far more capable off road, so much so that if you have, I deliberately did that by the way on camera, I wanted a trip on that rock to show that it's not real. If you take the torque in this system, you could take up to 70% of it and bring it back here. There's clutches, right? And they are able to deliver up to 100% of that torque to either rear wheel. Now, depending on your situation and what mode you're in, you're able to deliver that power to the wheel that needs it as you're bounding around off road. We've tested it. It works quite well. However, it does require throttle, something that's a little counterintuitive to some people who normally take their foot off the throttle and let a vehicle idle over objects. This one prefers gas. Pricing, according to Honda, is going to start in the mid $40,000 zone. It's obviously the RTL base model, but you get that all wheel drive standard plus a lot of the other goodies. They say that this vehicle will be available early 2025, so stay tuned for that. Thank you for joining me for the Fast Lane Car. This is Nathan. I'll see you next time.