A Pilot is 6" longer and can carry two more people(?). So a family of four can easily fit into it.

I have never owned a Pilot, but with 3-rows, it seems like more of a van than a SUV. I'm super happy with my AWD and I live in the city, where you are you realy should have AWD, no matter which model you drive.

Pilot has a Trailsport version, which is (supposedly) more off-road-ish than the regular models.

My guess is that the Pilot and the Passport are about the same ride-wise, if comparing comparable models.

For me, I did not want to pay $3/$4k extra to haul around my kids' friends and even when I have too many family to take, then someone can drive their own dang car, I'm not a shuttle service.. I'd be careful and get the car YOU want and not the one that best serves the neighborhood... (sorry if that sounds grumpy...lol)

 

Thanks for your response. Trailsport trims in the Pilot/Passport are craazy expensive.

In our case, the family (in-laws) are out of country and wont have a car to themselves when they stay with us, so the responsibility sort of falls on us to transport them.

We did feel the Pilot was slightly closer to a van than the Passport, but we dont mind it if we can get away with the one car doing it all. But I agree to the fact that the off-road aspect is sort of a bigger requirement than hauling people.

 

Hi all,

Newbie to the forum, hoping to engage with the community.

We are looking a 2nd car and have zeroed in on a used 2019+ Pilot AWD or the Passport AWD. We anticipate to hold the car for about 5yrs and drive about 8-10k miles every year. We also have an 2016 Accord, but our goals for this one - ofcourse is to get a second car for convenience, to get past gravel roads to trailheads often (PNW area), also a car for the future (maybe a 2nd kid, and occasionally extended family visiting).

We test drove both and liked both for separate reasons. According to us, Pilot had a smoother ride and a quieter cabin, while the Passport had a sporty ride, better handling and a slightly smaller car feel than the Pilot. We felt parking either car was similar to the Accord, since we are already used to Accord's long length. We liked the looks of the Pilot better than the Passport, but thats not something too important.

Our question/dilemma:

We feel the Pilot might be futureproof (with room for us to grow/accomodate the family occasionally). With similar gas mileage for both cars, we feel we might as well take advantage of the 3rd row. But we are slightly concerned of its off road capability compared to the Passport - lower ground clearance, lots of forums praised the Passport for being an off road oriented vehicle. Another point, the Pilot is atleast $3-4K more expensive than the Passport of a similar trim/package.

In case we get the Passport, we might not have the space for the extended family (which we anticipate will happen atleast for 6 continuous months in the next 2-3 years). But one option is that we can always drive two cars inside the city. But for longer drives, we might need to rent a minivan/bigger SUV (which will drive up our costs later).

One other option we considered was getting a Passport now since its less expensive and analyze our usage patterns and then go a minivan/bigger SUV based on our needs. But we might have to either get a 3rd car or take a depreciation hit on one of our cars at that time since we love to stick with 2 cars long term.

What are your opinions/suggestions on our situation? Thank you!

Both the Pilot and the Passport are soft off-roaders, they can go on logging and gravel roads but neither was designed for the serious stuff you will see Wrangler and Bronco drivers do. I suggest you watch some YouTube videos of both vehicles off-road capabilities before making a decision.
And yes the Pilot has a bigger passenger capacity, if you have any reason to have 5 or more people in the car on long journeys a Pilot is the best option. It's more expensive because it's more popular with buyers who intend to future proof their decision by getting a three row SUV. The Passport is best suited to small families, empty nesters and people without kids or large families to log around.

Both vehicles are very similar but also functionally diverse. The 2019 to 2021 models of both vehicles look almost identical but I think you have to pick the characteristic that is most important to the purpose you will be using the vehicle for most.

 

Are you in the "minivan" stage of life? Basically, the time when the kids are pre K to the time they start driving? I see a minivan has not been completely ruled out. During those years for us, we had Odysseys and CRV's a good combination to best handle weather, vacations, parent visits and hauling. I think of a Passport as a bigger CRV while a Pilot is for those that need AWD and don't want all labels associated with those that own minivans. We've had an Accord, Passport, 3 CRV's 2 Odysseys and 2 Ridgelines. CRV is the 95% go to vehicle. If you can, check out a hybrid they are game changers IMO.

 

We did check out the CRVs and they are good. But their off road ability is inferior to what a passport/pilot would offer and thats one of the major reasons we are skipping the CRV. Outback is another car we really liked test driving and fits our requirements, but the used car market for Outbacks is unbelievable (here in PNW) that we could upgrade to a new car for $3-4K more.

 

I have owned both and like the others said the Passport is only 6” shorter, to me they both rode the same and the PP felt like it handled better. Everyone always called my Pilot a van ( I hate vans) If you don’t need seating for over 5 people then the Passport hands down is the winner.

 

If the off-road aspect is more important, you should focus more on finding a Trailsport or plan on swapping the 20" wheels to 18" wheels (from a Trailsport or Ridgeline). Having decent sidewall on your tires is essential if you plan on any off-road use, even forest service roads. As has been mentioned, neither the Pilot nor the Passport are built for any hard off-road use. You won't see a huge difference in capabilities between the two. So your daily driving and family needs should be more of a consideration in deciding between the Pilot or the Passport. If you want a more off-road oriented family vehicle, look at a 4Runner.

 

How about the Outbacks ?

 

We've owned a '16 Pilot & now have a '21 Passport which we bought after deciding we no longer needed to haul 7 passengers. The Passport, even though only being 6" shorter, seems to have nearly as much storage room as the Pilot. I like driving the Passport better, part of that may be the fact that it's 5 years newer and a step up in grade. (Elite over Touring.) We did take a hit on mpg with the Passport. Our Pilot easily got 3-4 mpg better for some reason. All that said, if you even think you will need more than 5 passengers, go for the Pilot. It is a fantastic vehicle, as is the Passport. Both are too expensive to make a mistake of purchasing the wrong one & having to trade it in a year or two...

 

I had 2 pilots and we never used the third row. The Passport can handle 5 people and the cargo area is huge.

 

Well most all of us here chose the Passport...
Came from a 3rd row vehicle only one that ever rode back there much was the dog.
And she actually doesn't really need a seat.
Had to fold the seats down pretty often to accommodate what we did use the vehicle for.
What did they say on the piloteers forum?

 

Initial impressions from Piloteers is that they recommend the Pilot, not a lot of action on that thread yet.

https://www.piloteers.org/threads/pilot-vs-passport-for-our-situation.184869/

 

The problem might be that you're trying to keep the Accord when your requirements seem to have changed radically to now needing three rows plus off-roading besides. Honda doesn't really make one vehicle which fits that description very well IMO. I get the sense that money might be an issue which I totally get, it's going to be tricky but as nice as Honda is I think you might want to at least consider other brands. A minivan makes sense for at least one of the two vehicles, especially if your wife doesn't mind driving one, my ex-wife was totally against a van even though we decided to have two kids within a year of each other and a van would've made a lot of sense.

 

You are right - our needs have changed radically over the past 8 years. And yes the problem is holding on to the Accord since it was our first car (emotional connect) and the fact it just has 65K miles on it and dont want to take the huge depreciation hit (We bought it new!).

 

Hi all,

Newbie to the forum, hoping to engage with the community.

We are looking a 2nd car and have zeroed in on a used 2019+ Pilot AWD or the Passport AWD. We anticipate to hold the car for about 5yrs and drive about 8-10k miles every year. We also have an 2016 Accord, but our goals for this one - ofcourse is to get a second car for convenience, to get past gravel roads to trailheads often (PNW area), also a car for the future (maybe a 2nd kid, and occasionally extended family visiting).

We test drove both and liked both for separate reasons. According to us, Pilot had a smoother ride and a quieter cabin, while the Passport had a sporty ride, better handling and a slightly smaller car feel than the Pilot. We felt parking either car was similar to the Accord, since we are already used to Accord's long length. We liked the looks of the Pilot better than the Passport, but thats not something too important.

Our question/dilemma:

We feel the Pilot might be futureproof (with room for us to grow/accomodate the family occasionally). With similar gas mileage for both cars, we feel we might as well take advantage of the 3rd row. But we are slightly concerned of its off road capability compared to the Passport - lower ground clearance, lots of forums praised the Passport for being an off road oriented vehicle. Another point, the Pilot is atleast $3-4K more expensive than the Passport of a similar trim/package.

In case we get the Passport, we might not have the space for the extended family (which we anticipate will happen atleast for 6 continuous months in the next 2-3 years). But one option is that we can always drive two cars inside the city. But for longer drives, we might need to rent a minivan/bigger SUV (which will drive up our costs later).

One other option we considered was getting a Passport now since its less expensive and analyze our usage patterns and then go a minivan/bigger SUV based on our needs. But we might have to either get a 3rd car or take a depreciation hit on one of our cars at that time since we love to stick with 2 cars long term.

What are your opinions/suggestions on our situation? Thank you!

My wife has a 21 Pilot and I have a 21 Passport. You're right with your opinions on cabin volume and the overall drive. The 3rd row is nice BUT should you have extended family in the Pilots 3rd row there is no room in that trunk for everyone's crap. You can make either off road capable easily, the PP is an inch higher stock but throw a lift kit on either vehicle with decent A/T tires and you're good to go. If you go off roading/overlanding I personally would not get the Pilot because the extra 6 inches in the rear means it COULD scrape/drag against the ground depending on the angle. As for storage a roof rack with a basket and/or tow hitch basket would be more than enough space for everyone's stuff. I will tell you from my experience having driven both long distances the wifes Pilot Black Edition is more comfortable over bumps but then again my PP has a lift kit on it so itll be a little more rigid which I like. Space wise me my wife and my 3 year old had plenty of room with everyone's crap and extra stuff bought on vacation. As for those tiny variables about needing two cars and the cost of this vs that they're so minut might as well think the extra weight with the 3rd row passengers is gonna bring down your mpg and cause you to fill up X amount more/more often over the course of time. Go with whatever you need based on what you do 90% of the time. The other 10% work around it

 

My hat is off to anyone loading kids into car seats with lift-kitted vehicles setup for off-road use. lol It's like the two seniors I saw getting out of a super duty last week in the grocery store parking lot, she's about 70 walking with a limp and trying to parachute out of the thing, it's like people, what were you thinking? ...

 

If you're seriously planning on having a second child, you're going to eventually want/need the 3rd row. We have 2 active boys and we have an Acura MDX with the 3rd row. We use it constantly.

Our Passport is indeed sporty and fun to drive, but if I had an Accord, with 2 kids, I'd definitely think we'd need a Pilot with more space and seats.

From someone who owns a Jeep, both the Pilot and Passport are soft-roaders. The Trailsport and HPD packages are a marketing ploy. I'm not trying to diss anyone, I'm just saying as @fx_chip said above, if you're serious about off-roading, you're going to need a true 4WD vehicle. That being said, for most people "off-roading" is a dirt road and a picnic (myself included). The Hondas are perfectly capable in this regard.

 

Out of the options presented, the Pilot makes the most sense imho. I love my Passport! If I had to fit 6 people in it…I’d wish I purchased a Pilot. In my area they are within a few thousand of each other price wise.

I guess it depends how often you think you’ll actually be driving around 6 people compared to a few thousand more in price. Personally (as long as I wasn’t behind on bills) would pay a few thousand more and get the vehicle that makes the most sense.

 

Buy the Pilot and throw on a lift kit so that you have more ground clearance if you really are going to take it off road.

 

We did consider this. It drives the price up (lift kit, tires, etc). But the most concerning was that few forums mentioned that Honda Sensing might have to be recalibrated.

 

"Every step that makes a vehicle better off-road makes it worse on-road and vice versa."
This right here. 👍
Better to get the correct tool for the job than try to make somthing that isn't into somthing that might be.

 

I did not understand your earlier comments about not wanting to "take a depreciation hit" on your '16 Accord.
That ship sailed long ago, pal. Any "depreciation hit" occurs in the first couple years. After that, it's all market value.
The good thing concerns an Accord's market value. It stays strong for many years. One with 65k miles will sell fast!

The '19 Passport differs slightly from the latest model, while Honda totally revamped the Pilot since then.
That's my recollection, at least. Somebody might correct me on that here.
Like others advised, the Pilot sounds like a better choice. Very nice vehicle.
The PP may excel in rough off-road terrain more capably, but not important for the duty you intend.
Gosh, stay away from Outbacks and CR-Vs. Low tow rating, CVT, low HP, turbo?, low height...yuck. Good mpg's, tho!

 

Hi,

We are shopping for our 2nd car and have narrowed our options to the Outback, Passport or Pilot. I posted another thread comparing the Passport and Pilot, but I wanted to compare the Outback vs Passport in this post after removing our 3rd row requirement to see if that makes sense for us.

We test drive both of them and liked both. The Outback was smooth and techy, while the Passport was quieter and solid/sporty ride. We liked the looks of the Outback better than the Passport, but we are looking for opinions on value and which would work the best for our situation.

The goals for us - get a 2nd car, a little bit of offloading to help us get to trailheads (gravel roads in PNW), cargo space if the family grows (if there was a 2nd kid). We are keeping the 3rd row requirement out of the equation at this point.

The prices - A 35k mile driven CPO Outback is about $1000 more expensive than a similarly equipped 50k mile Passport (or about $4k less for a 70k mile Passport). But the Passport has a lower gas mileage, and we anticipate for our driving (6-8k a year) we would spend about $2.5k more in the next 5 years to own the Passport.

Some extra thoughts - We feel we might need a CPO/some sort of warranty for the Outback due to a few CVT issues popping up here and there, just for peace of mind. The Passport on the other hand we feel might not need it. We like the fact that Outback has better clearance and a good AWD (praised everywhere), but Passport might have better drivetrain and decent AWD.

The dilemma - Which do you think is a better fit for us ?

Thank you!

 

The Outback will be a cheaper car to maintain than the Passport. It probably gets better gas mileage. The CVT is not ideal of serious off-roading but for light overlanding it should be nice. With that said the Passport is not exactly that much better off-roading either.

 

This is your third thread of the same question. That is called forum spamming.

 

I believe you have answered your own question with original post. Buy the Pilot (you seem to prefer) and use both it and your Accord when necessary.

 

I actually recently upgraded from an old CR-V to a new Passport partially due to my two kids getting bigger and needing more space, especially for road trips. Personally, I wad not ready to go to a full size SUV like the Pilot (it just feels too big to me). Funny that everyone mentioned getting a Pilot for the third row to drive around my kids' friends--that is exactly the argument my 10 year old used when trying to convince me to get something with a third row. While it would be nice, we really haven't run into situations yet where we wish we had the third row. And once my 10 year old got in the Passport when I first brought it home, she yelled, "Is this really ours?! It's awesome!" That being said, I also don't need off road capabilities. It sounds to me like a Pilot may be your best choice.

 

We have a 2020 Outback Touring XT and are looking to move to a Passport

 

May we know what are your main reasons ?

 

I recently traded in my 2019 Outback for a 2024 Passport. You aren't going to go wrong with either car. It's going to come down to what you like best and what works for you budget wise. Unfortunately, no one here can give you that answer.

 

What are the other vehicles do you see on these gravel roads? I actually traded in my Passport after we got a RAV4 hybrid, the MPG difference and the responsiveness of the hybrid trumped the extra space of the Passport but the PP only got 25 avg on its best week while the RAV is in the 40's.

All that aside IMO when they launched the PP with the outdoor, offroad sales pitch I think they were going after the Subie crowd. PP will have the expensive timing belt/water pump/tensioner/spak plugs/valve adjustment around the 7 year 100k+ mark. Prices for that service vary widely. Some stretch the interval but odds are you'd have to do it sometime during your ownership term. I don't know much about Subies but in the neighborhood, many owners are repeat buyers. Do you have a decent dealer network in your location for these brands? It's probably going to come down to deal you get.

 

The Subaru Outback has a CVT. I'm not a fan of the CVT which is one BIG reason I bought a Passport. I'm old school. I like a trans-a-mission with steel gears and such.

 

I think the i-VTM4 is a better AWD than the Subaru's. Although both are top notch. I second the concerns over the CVT. That all being said, most of my family own Subarus and they will never buy anything else. Pick whichever you like the best to drive, you won't be disappointed (unless the CVT fails).

 

Actually no, iVTM4 is more suited for on road driving with some light offroading. Outback has traditional open rear diff that can take way more abuse than the clutch based system on the Passport. iVTM4 is very fun to drive on road but for offroad, you can't beat the reliability of an open diff and being able to transfer torque with brake based torque vectoring.