Off Road Ready Family SUVs： Which One Gets It Right？

Why am I going so gentle when we know how this thing off-roads? So if I do it like that... You'll have to talk louder. You're all the way over there. I suppose you're wondering why I asked you out here today with two seemingly very different vehicles for comparison. I am and I was scratching my head the whole way here. This is a GMC Terrain in the new for 2026 AT4 trim, and this is a Honda Passport in the new for 2026 Trailsport Elite trim. And these are both trims that are meant to go off-road. Not just off-road appearance, but actual hardware upgrades that will make them better able to drive off-road while preserving their on-road character. And we thought this was interesting, Billy and I, because just a few years ago, you would think about taking a crossover off-road. I mean, maybe some dirt roads. But no, these things promise serious adventure. So Billy, tell us about the differences between these vehicles and how we're going to judge them. The AT4 has a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and an eight-speed automatic transmission. The Honda outguns it with a 3.5-liter V6 and a 10-speed auto. Both cars have all-wheel drive, as you'd expect from off-road crossovers. So we're going to judge these cars by our of the year criteria. Those criteria are advancement in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, performance of intended function, safety, and value. Oh, yes. Anyway, these are cars in two different classes with a price difference of $10,000? $10,000. But they are both trying to do the same thing. We want to see how well they accomplish it. So why don't we start with the GMC? Sounds great, Aaron. You may have to speak up a little bit. Over the din of this engine. Because, yeah, there is a lot of din in the GMC Touré. For those of you playing our home game, Billy and I have obviously already discussed these vehicles a lot. And I think I might be a little bit more of a fan of the Touré than you are. Would that be accurate? It's accurate. And I don't dislike this vehicle by any stretch, but I do find some things about it to be objectionable. They get some things right. The big screen's beautiful. They work really well. The interior is laid out pretty intuitively. I love how they've made use of the screen because it's so easy. You can have a big giant map. You can have this nice three-part screen. You can have your Android Auto. And then all your climate controls are down here. I think just as easy to use as the hard controls in the Honda. That's my opinion. The interior's not as ornate, perhaps, as the Passports. But the materials are nice, wouldn't you say? Yes, the materials are bolted together pretty well. There's some hard plastics that I'm not a fan of for a brand that's ostensibly a little bit premium. But I do like the physical switch gear for some of the controls that they have. I like the vertical orientation of the screen. It uses the space really well. And coming out of my Blazer EV long-termer, many of the GM componentry is familiar to me. But it works. I think a lot of people who come to GMCs are coming from elsewhere in the General Motors family. And you're right, that's not a good look if you decide you're going to spend an extra X number of thousand dollars for the GMC model instead of the Chevrolet. You should not see anything that looks familiar. Like, you go from a Ford to a Lincoln, completely different. One of the things that annoys me is you can't really get a good lane centering system unless you buy Super Cruise, which is the best lane centering system in the universe. The lane centering is almost non-existent on this car. Almost non-existent. But, you know, here's one of the things I don't like. We're coming up on a corner and you give it a little bit of brakes going into the corner. The body does some discombobulated things that are very unsettling if you're driving the car with a modicum of pace. Driving on the fast, curvy roads. I wasn't even driving fast because I didn't know, you know, it's got off-road tires. I didn't know how much grip I would have going into the curves. And so I'm approaching, you know, the sharp right-hander and I just am adjusting my speed a little bit while the wheels turn. And then the whole body seemed to step out of place and it leaned over itself, it felt like. Just that sensation of the body losing control over the wheels is not something you'd want, especially when a crossover like this, they generally drive like cars and that was very un-car-like behavior. Because the car feels fine and stable at high speeds. And then I came into one corner, gave it a little break and then as I was turning and I was braking and the whole body kind of went, you know, and a lot of people are going to say, well, nobody's going to ever drive a terrain like that. But the thing is, you know, if we're out on this desert road and I don't know, a roadrunner starts out in front of us and we have to suddenly brake and turn. Oh gosh. Yeah. That feels terrible. Even for a passenger seat. Exactly. Yeah, you are going to run into that. And the car is not going to lose control. It has stability control and it's going to go in the direction you point it, but it really can erode a driver's confidence on what the car can do. Okay, so now we're in terrain mode, which is exclusive to the AT4 trim. Let's talk a little bit about the nature of off-roading. Yeah, because there's lots of degrees of off-roading, right? There's soft-roading, there's overlanding, there's proper rock crawling and then I guess desert running and then there's ice driving. So there's a lot of different ways you can off-road. You know, and the thing you have to remember is most of these things will go way farther off-road than most people think. Right. A real intelligence, the all-wheel drive system, the ability to get traction down, because that's the thing. Even if you're not going over big rocks, it's just little stuff like this, you can hit a patch of sand, one wheel spins, if you don't have a good all-wheel drive system, that's it. You're going nowhere. Yeah, then you're going to need help. It's going to be a very expensive tow. You know, this is a unibody as opposed to, you know, the more traditional off-roaders, which are body on frame and sometimes you get some rattling and shimmies from that, but we're not getting anything close to that in this little compact. What's nice is you just had to dodge around a little plant because, you know, tread lightly. And the small size of this thing, I think, is an advantage. I think I'm going to have a harder time squeezing the passport for some of these narrow little trails. That's a great point. I mean, having a small footprint off-road is really nice because you can squeeze onto a smaller trail. Sometimes having that long wheelbase can be used though, you know, for ride quality and whatnot. For ride quality, but then, you know, but it increases when you have to go over something. Generally for off-road, for off-road Billy, smaller is better. Oh, here we go. OK, this is a little bit more of a challenge. And, you know, I try to have mechanical sympathy when it comes to these things. However, the AT4 does come with underbody protection just in case, you know, you're feeling less sympathetic. But no, I mean, this is pretty good. It's not like ultra challenging, but we're clear, which is nice. If we were going camping out here, we'd have the clearance to do it. You'd have the, and you'd have the place to yourself. And those skid plates are nice because, and there we go, we just, there we go, we did. And they are nice because one little puncture of something important and it's a very expensive tow. So if I can explain, because I don't think, I don't know if it can be seen in the cameras, like we're going over some things where there's some big ups and downs and things like that. Often with these models, I don't know, you can correct me if it's the case for these things, for this car. Often these models, they'll change the front end a little bit so you have a little better clearance under the front end, better approach angle, better departure angle. This does have better approach and departure than the base car. That is true. And it sounds to me like it's, it's just, it's just going. It's not. Yeah, I'm basically holding the throttle still and it's just locking over everything. No problem. So I'm off throttle right now and it's like just kind of naturally walking us down with like, it seems like it's figured out that it needs to do like descent control. That's always figuring it out is the right words. Like in the, you know, in the old days, 50 years ago when you off-road, you just locked all the differentials and just kind of powered through. And now with the all-wheel drive systems, you've got the technique down, Billy. You come to something tough and a little throttle and just let it figure it out. And the really good systems will do it. The good systems will just get the power to the right place and keep moving. And the bad systems will fill your nostrils with the smell of disintegrating contracts. That's right. That sounds good. It sounds amazing. Three and a half liters. They actually fully redesigned the engine to be lighter, smaller, but same displacement. So therefore being slightly more efficient than it had been as well. You make a good point that it's kind of nice that somebody's putting money into a big V6 and auto manufacturers have gotten away from the sixes with the turbo fours. But the fact is, if we saw in the terrain, it takes a certain amount of fuel to move a certain size of vehicle. So these naturally aspirated sixes don't necessarily use a whole lot more fuel because those little turbo fours are displacement on demand. You know, it's a much larger car and it's a much larger engine. And yet it's not really using that much more fuel to get the job done. And it feels easy, breezy and just under strained. This V6 in this car is a very pleasant thing to have. It's refined. It's not the quickest. It's not the quickest, but it sounds good. So Billy, young William. Yes, Aaron. Since our initial looping, you have been inclined to prefer the Passport. Have you not? I do. I like the way it drives. It has the Honda pleasantness that we have come to expect from older Hondas. The steering feel is just fantastic. Super direct. Comes to center really nicely. Oh, I didn't make the Billy face when you did that. Aside from that quirk that we saw in the GMC, I was actually kind of surprised by how similar the two are. To me, it felt like they benchmarked the same vehicle. But that's something when you consider the Passport is so much bigger and feels like a wider car, but doesn't drive like a wider car. You know, you just feel like you understand the dimensions of it underneath you. Yeah, there really is a lot of space in here. And that can be nice, you know, for a long road trip. We started talking about what a good car this is for road tripping with all the storage space. Yes. And that width too. I mean, no matter how, no matter how much you love your significant other, it's nice to have a little extra elbow room, isn't it? Yeah, you know, it's like you're close enough, but not, you know, not a completely different postcode. The ride in this is a little firmer, I think. It is a little firmer, but, you know, it doesn't give up too much over the road going Passport, which we, in our first test, we really loved how, despite having off-road tires, it performs similarly, which is great. I mean, you don't want that compromise. If you do slap on off-road tires and put on, you know, off-road suspension, you don't want to have to give up that much. So it's the best of both worlds. You know, considering that Trailsport by Honda's own emissions started off as an appearance package and they said they were going to make a functional one. And the delay was worth it. It was definitely worth it. They kind of warmed their way into it. And then they came to a point where they're like, OK, we've come far enough where this is, this is the appropriate amount of Trailsport-iness. Yeah, exactly. Look, so the old Trailsport was kind of a half-baked. It was an appearance package. Yes. And even Honda was pretty upfront about the fact that it was just an appearance package. But Honda's taken it much, much further this time around. Proper off-road armor, a true off-road-tuned suspension, proper off-road drive modes. They've gone a lot farther with this car. And not to mention that the styling looks fantastic. I think, you know, talk about Motor Trend's love of advancement in design. This car really does push the envelope for the midsize off-roading segment. Although I can already feel it's absorbing these, this kind of uneven, what do you want to call this? Rocks? Yeah. It's not really gravel. No, it's more than gravel. I feel a little more confident moving a little bit quicker. No, this is doing all right. You know what? We do speed up a little bit more. That's the thing. You always start off slow when you're off-road and then you get used to it. Next thing you know, you're bombing down and stuff like this at 60 miles an hour. So I really want to get to some of those tougher sections down the road a little bit. You know, I thought the GMC handled so well. And here we're coming into some rougher stuff. These are some of the tire-killing rocks here. But we have that same tire, same brand of tire. Now, this is where I thought, well, you know what? OK, so this is this little narrow section. And I said, OK, it's nice to have a small vehicle like the GMC. But you know what? This nice camera display really helps. It does help. There's no problem. It's nice that it keeps it up there, too, and doesn't yell at you, complain. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Parking sensors when you're off-roading is like the worst buzzkill ever. Engine's pretty quiet, too, at this low speed. It's very... Better be. It's a V6. It's supposed to be quiet. There we go. Our first little impacts. You know what? I think it's hitting those jolts a little harder than the GMC. No, I think it's absorbing it really well. It is. I don't know. I felt it's a little more jolted around. I thought it controlled the compression very well for this being a larger car. And it is a lot larger. But so far... You know, the GMC drives a little big anyway. I noticed that about the turning on the road. Did you notice that? Even though it's narrower, it felt like it took up as much of the road as this thing does. I think it's because in the GMC you see so much of the hood at all times. It's kind of an optical illusion. But I mean, so much of the way cars drive is affected by our perception. So here we go. We're getting a little tricky here. A little slight right there. And you know what? I'm having the same experience that you had, I think, in the Terrain. Is that a little bit of throttle and just let it sort it out and away it goes. See, I think we're bouncing around a lot more. I think we're getting a lot more body motion than we were in the GMC. I can't see where I'm going and that's where this camera is kind of nice. Because the hood is long and yeah, this thing's doing nicely. This gets back into, I think, where people might not realize just how far off-road you can go with these SUVs. They're not just cars with big bodies on them. You know, at our first test, when we put it through its paces, we were also surprised at how little it gives to the non-off-road version. It gives up very little performance in terms of braking, acceleration, which is often a problem with these cars. You lose a little bit, but this is a very, the compromise is limited, which is great. We just finished driving the GMC Terrain AT4 and the Honda Passport Trailsport Elite on and off the road. So Aaron, what do you think about this GMC? Well, I like the Terrain. I thought it rode comfortably. I was impressed with how well it did off-road. I think we both were. Had really good grip with that all-wheel drive system. And of course, I love that infotainment system. I raved about that. I like all the choices it gives you. I think it's a really fantastic way to interact with the vehicle. But of course, we found that weird handling quirk. Wait, I want you to make the face again. Okay, ready? Brake! Yeah, there was that. There was that. That was a little scary. Could have had a little bit more power, I think. And of course, it's a smaller vehicle, though I thought backseat was pretty roomy. I mean, all in all, you know, considering you're trying to make a crossover that can go off-road but still do everyday crossover things. I think for the most part, the GMC Terrain AT4 did a really good job. However... However, the Honda Passport did almost everything better. It's a much nicer vehicle to drive with better body control, nicer handling, better on-center steering feel. This is just a solidly engineered Honda. And it really goes back to the days when Honda knew exactly what they were doing when tuning their cars. This is a real return to form for the brand. Also, the interior packaging is excellent. The material choices are fantastic. It feels upscale and premium for the price. It's got lots of storage cubbies like double-decker door pockets and four pockets in the trunk, too. There's just a lot of places to put your stuff when you're on a road trip. And that's exactly what you're supposed to be doing in a car like this. And then when it's time to go off-road, you've got the ground clearance, you've got the all-wheel drive capability, and you've got the underplating in case you bump into something. But let's not forget, Billy, Passport is a class-up. It's a larger vehicle. It also has a price tag that is how many thousands of dollars higher? It's $10,000. $10,000 higher. Now, you expect to pay more for a larger and more capable vehicle. So it's hard to say, well, is it $10,000 worth the better? It's more car. But do we think that the advantages it has if we compare how well they do against their own segments? How do we think the Passport does? Well, if you were driving a screen, then the GMC would absolutely be my choice. However, the physical driving properties of this vehicle just make it a better experience, both on the road and off the road. As we found out today. Yeah, I hate to say it. God, I hate to put these words together, but I'm going to say it. Billy, you are right. Thank you. Passport just does the job that little bit better. I think it's worth the extra money. And I think we agree. This GMC Terrain, probably the best GMC product I've driven in years, if not ever. But even so, I think the winner of this comparison is... The Honda Passport Trailsport Elite. For more about the GMC Terrain, the Honda Passport, and all things automotive, please visit us on the web at MotorTrend.com.