Millennial Mom’s Review: 2021 Honda Passport

A little pricey for a basic SUV, but an unexpected joy nonetheless

You know when you’re looking for a good movie to watch on Netflix (or your preferred streaming service), specifically one you’ve never seen before? So, you flip through a ton of them before finally settling on one random film that seems like it might be okay to pass some time?

You begin the cinematic journey with zero expectations, because you’ve got pretty much nothing to base it upon. Then suddenly, you’re invested, and it turns out it was actually pretty great (probably because it was never hyped up to give you false expectations and high hopes, only to be let down in the end).

Well, those are my exact feelings about the 2021 Honda Passport Touring — no false hopes, no major letdowns.

It’s a fairly big SUV, and it looks like it’s got the space to comfortably hold my three car seats, as well as tons of groceries. And it does! In fact, it’s not too big, not too small, but just right for a family of five in need of a ton of space but unwilling to move up to a three-row SUV or minivan.

The only downside is that even though it fits three car seats, it didn’t make it any less of a mission to buckle my seven-year-old into her booster seat. It’s got one of those middle seatbelts that drops down from the roof (as opposed to being built into the seat), and you need to hook it into a clip on your left, then proceed to buckle on your right. You can imagine how difficult it was with a booster seat blocking every point. She had to get up, remove the seat and strap everything in first. Fortunately, it wasn’t as difficult going forward — after we had already learned our lesson the hard way.

The compartment in the centre console is also very spacious, and as a mom who is in constant need of either tissues, napkins, wipes, hand sanitizer, or any other type of cleaning product, I can most definitely appreciate that large amount of space that closes to hide all my crap.

It also checks all the basics: heated and ventilated front seats (not in the back, but it doesn’t really matter to me, since my back seat drivers can’t feel through the car seat); adequate reverse camera; a very easy-to-understand dash. What more could you want?

There’s so much space, everywhere. The trunk (1,430L) is massive, but if you need a tiny bit more space for something small, there’s an added compartment if you lift the front flap, though the rest is space for the spare tire. There are also added compartments on each door that can easily hold snack wrappers, phones, coins, whatever you prefer to hoard.

One thing to note about the Honda Passport is that you can use most functions on the infotainment screen without being locked out while driving. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. In addition to the millions of other driving distractions, maybe some other brands had it right with locking us out of distracting features. However, while most cars won’t let my passenger enter an address while I’m driving (for fear that it’s me being distracted while driving) this one does, and I appreciate that.

Now, as someone who has always had some form of Honda vehicle in my life (currently a 2014 Odyssey) it might be a bit biased to say I like the layout of the dash, infotainment, centre console, and all the button placement; it’s nice and simple. But that’s kind of Honda’s thing, right? It’s basic — and not in a bad way.