If You’re Going To Follow An $800 Taxi Across The Country, Do It In A Honda Passport

I had a plan. It wasn’t a good plan. I’m not sure it would have worked and, had it not, I’m not sure I’d have been able to talk about it. My concern was that our $800 taxi was not going to make it up the Rockies. I felt this way because many people at our Denver meetup looked at the taxi, peered toward the giant mountains to the West, and then skeptically returned their eyes back to the taxi.

My concerns were not exactly unreasonable. The taxi was destined to lose what little power it had as it climbed above 11,000 feet, to say nothing of the pesky fourth cylinder that didn’t want to cylinder. To make matters worse, Jason would be pushing the cab, and I’d have his son in the backseat of our camera car watching. What if the cab just … needed a little push?

In theory, I’d convinced David and Jason that we needed a safety car so we could film the car as we went along. You can’t easily film a car and get rollers (a moving shot where both the subject vehicle and camera are moving) without one. Look at this photo, and tell me it wasn’t worth it:

That was the primary reason, but there were other thoughts. The vehicle I ended up with was a 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Elite. Did you know that the Honda Passport can tow 5,000 pounds, and that the NV200 taxi with a U-Haul tow dolly is approximately 5,000 pounds? That is definitely not a fact that I learned when I requested the Honda. Nope. What a strange coincidence.

It also has two breakaway recovery hooks up front:

In theory, I might have driven to Tractor Supply Company and purchased a small trailer tire that I could ratchet strap to the front of the Honda in order to, you know, maybe gently push the van over if it needed an extra little oomph. The DOHC 3.5-liter V6 in the Passport now offers 285 horsepower and 265 lb-ft of torque. That extra five horsepower may not seem like a lot, but it would probably double the NV200’s power when the cars are combined.

That never happened, though. There is no tire, there are no ratchet straps; you can prove absolutely nothing.

Why This Exists

Honda is methodical. Honda is careful. Honda doesn’t enter a new category until it thinks it has a vehicle that’ll compete. That’s not always how it turns out (see every vehicle named Insight), but the company tries. Given that the market wants nearly every flavor of crossover (new CrossCab when?), Honda has decided to offer a small two-row (HR-V), a bigger two-row (CR-V), a bigger three-row (Pilot), and a two-row version of the bigger three-row (Passport).

Previously, the Pilot and Passport weren’t particularly distinct from one another, but Honda has seen fit to toughen up the Pilot to differentiate it from its bigger brother. It has a new face, which I like. It gets a cool, blacked-out rear greenhouse. I’m super into it.

Why It Makes A Great Camera Car

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Autopian (@theautopian)

The crew was just two people (me + Griffin), so a third row was unnecessary. Rather than just make the rear cargo area bigger (ahem Mazda CX-70), Honda gave owners a lot of storage. Here’s a neat graphic that shows it:

There’s your typical, super-large cargo area between the rear seat and the hatch. The walls feature a large cargo shelf to hold water, coolant, extra snacks, a trailer tire, whatever (I did not say trailer tire). That’s the pretty version. Here’s the less pretty version after like 3,000 miles:

It all held up quite well. Up front, there was even more functionality and tons of little storage cubbies. big enough for all sorts of camera stuff like ratchet straps, which are used for… filming.

Honda has also significantly upgraded its infotainment system so that you can access the main screen and switch between CarPlay and other screens without having to tap through multiple levels of screens. The only thing that could have made this a better camera car is a power vertical rear window like in the Toyota 4Runner.

What It’s Like To Follow A Taxi Cab For Thousands Of Endless Miles

Am I still in Kansas? It feels like I’m still in Kansas. Does Kansas ever end?

I loved driving across the country and, due to Jason’s desire to constantly punish himself, I was able to do most of the trip in the Honda as opposed to the taxi. Perhaps my perspective was colored by the time behind the wheel of the taxi, but the Passport is much better.

It had a longer range than the taxi (or Otto’s bladder), it tracked smooth and straight, had plenty of power to pass, and wasn’t constantly getting rocked by cross-winds. Sometimes I’d see the taxi jerk almost an entire lane to the right when a gust of wind would blow across the plains.

Honda lacks an advanced driver assistance system on par with Ford’s Blue Cruise or GM’s SuperCruise. What it has is a decent adaptive cruise control tied to a lane keep assist that’ll help you pass the time. Assuming the Nissan might break, we stayed behind most of the time, and the Honda kept it perfectly in front of us for almost the entire trip.

There is a yellow NV200 burned into my retina forever.

Whereas the Nissan lost power going up, the Honda never felt pokey or slow. I’ve put a lot of miles on Honda 3.5-liter V6s, and while I can’t say this one feels dramatically different, I can offer no complaints. Ok, one complaint. The only complaint you can levy at modern Honda trucks, which is that they would benefit from a hybrid. Given that I averaged around 24 MPG on regular fuel, it wasn’t too bad.

However, that complaint is cut somewhat by the fact that the company wants you to tow with it. Honda’s current hybrid system isn’t designed with towing in mind (for instance, my CR-V Hybrid maxes out at 1,000 pounds). I’m hoping that the next hybrid system for trucks allows for more capacity, but until then you’ll have to settle for the CR-V if you want a Honda.

Stray Thoughts

If you’ve got to eat on the hood of a Honda, I highly recommend a Passport TrailSport. Part of the fun of a road trip is trying non-endemic road food. We got to hit up a Bob Evans, an A&W, and eat about 16 different varieties of pickle-flavored snack.

Do not get the blueberry-flavored almonds.

We pumped music across the country and decided to do the entire traditional Outkast discography.

Here it is chronologically:

• Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
• ATLiens
• Aquemini
• Stankonia
• Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
• Idlewild

Here was my ranking going in:

1. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
2. Stankonia
3. Aquemini
4. ATLiens
5. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
6. Idlewild

Here was my ranking going out:

1. Stankonia
2. Aquemini
3. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
4. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
5. ATLiens
6. Idlewild

That’ll probably change soon.

As tested, our vehicle came in at $54,355.

Finally, big thanks to Honda for not even thinking twice about handing over the Passport to drive cross-country, with the correct tow hitch. No questions asked!