Tested: 2027 Honda Passport TrailSport Is Legit Off-Road

Gather ’round, everyone, and let me tell you about the new 2027 Honda Passport TrailSport. Wait, you say, didn’t we just drive the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport, and wasn’t that new too? Yes. Both things are true, because Honda gazed upon its most off-road-capable production SUV and decided it could use a suspension lift. I get it—I thought the same thing when I was in college and bought a 1987 Jeep Cherokee that I immediately lifted three inches so it could fit 31-inch-tall tires. Honda’s 2027 suspension mods don’t yield that much lift (the 2027 model gains 1.38 inches over the 2026 Passport), but I’ll concede that Honda’s system is more thoroughly engineered. Unlike my old Cherokee, the Passport is unlikely to puke a driveshaft on the highway because somebody neglected to consider the relationship between spring height and drivetrain angles.

Honda debuted the TrailSport’s nearly 70 percent new suspension at Overland Experts, an off-road training school on 200 acres adjacent to Uwharrie National Forest in central North Carolina. Uwharrie is famous for its challenging terrain—some of the trails have guardrails to prevent errant 4x4s from tumbling to oblivion—and the OEX campus features some similar terrain. Once at Uwharrie, I was testing a Can-Am ATV and blasted up a terrifying climb to find, at the summit, a crowd of onlookers with phones out, filming. It’s that kind of place, a viral video waiting to happen.

I assumed that Honda’s chosen trails at OEX would be tamer than the worst of Uwharrie on the other side of Route 109, and I was right, but not to the degree I expected. I’ve attended a lot of off-road launches where a manufacturer creates a photo-op off-road course that’s carefully designed to occasionally kick a rear tire in the air without actually challenging vehicle or driver. This was not like that. Skid plates were tested, body damage was possible, and a tire was blown. The Passport went places that my lifted Cherokee (two-door, 4.0-liter, manual, if you’re asking) would have tapped out. Even the OEX compact training circuit, rife with logs and steep breakovers, was gnarly enough that the convoy of Passports picking their way through sounded like a skid-plate steel-drum band. Hey, you guys know any UB40?

The Honda engineers on hand also learned things, or were at least reminded of the cascade of consequences that any modification can bring. For instance, the Passports were equipped with both rock rails and the full-size spare kit that mounts an extra tire in the cargo area. (Which eats some cargo space but is a lot more convenient, day to day, than a swing-away external carrier blocking the hatch.) The hardened steel rock rails ($865) require the optional $50 pantograph jack, which is designed to accommodate a lower jacking point. All we had on hand was the stock scissor jack, which worked but was a struggle to get started because it was, in scientific jargon, too flatty-flatty. But the virtue of an easily accessible full-size spare was affirmed.

Besides the suspension and chassis changes (springs, dampers, steering knuckles and more, totaling 28 revised parts), a redesigned lower front fascia contributes to an approach angle that’s two degrees steeper. The departure angle improves by a likewise amount, and breakover angle is up three degrees. One thing that didn’t change is the tire size, with the 31-inch-tall General Grabber A/Ts enjoying some newfound room to romp in the wheel wells. Keen observers might note that an extra inch or so of suspension would seem to make room for bigger tires, and indeed Honda had a prototype Passport at OEX fitted with 32s. Honda isn’t offering that tire as an option but, golly, it sure seems to fit.

We practiced some recovery techniques using a mutant lifted Pilot that Honda brought from its Ohio R&D center, and I confirmed that my un-stucking methods have usually been equipment-limited—sometimes all you have is a tow strap, so you figure it out from there. Maybe my Christmas list this year will include soft shackles, kinetic ropes, and traction boards. In truth, we didn’t really need any of that stuff because the TrailSports didn’t get stuck. They’d kick tires in the air, yeah, because four-wheel independent suspension doesn’t offer much articulation, but the twin-clutch torque-vectoring rear differential and traction-control system would invariably keep things moving on trails that I really expected to cause a fail or two. Select Trail mode, stay in the throttle, and you'll probably be surprised where a Passport can take you.

Despite the lifted suspension, the Passport feels as composed as ever on the road, and its 0.80-g skidpad number is on par with earlier TrailSports we’ve tested. The 280-hp 3.5-liter V-6 makes nice noises and provides decent giddyap (60 mph in 7.1 seconds, which is identical to our long-term 2026 Passport TrailSport), along with a 5000-pound tow rating. Stopping from 70 mph requires 182 feet, which is not bad given the all-terrain tires and their plentiful tread voids. The only dumb change for 2027 is the addition of amber lights in the hood scoop. Cue the Ralph Wiggum meme: “I’m a Raptor!”

It’s unusual for a car company to have a launch event for the same model two years in a row, but with the Passport’s TrailSport trim trending toward an 80 percent take rate, Honda is obviously invested in maintaining its cred. And as impressive as the 2027 model was out on the trail, it could have been even better if we’d employed the most basic off-road mod possible: airing down the tires. The Passport completed all the trails OEX threw at it while running its suggested placard tire pressure, because Honda can’t guarantee a customer will have an air compressor handy before heading back on the pavement, and it doesn’t want to tacitly endorse street driving at, say, 20 psi. Hmmm, if only there were a solution to that, something like an onboard air compressor? That’s not an option now. But let’s talk again next year.

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