Honda Decides To Renew the Passport: Comments

[William Maley]

Honda creatively hid most of the Passport in a dust plume for one photo and zoomed out the vehicle in another. That said, we can make out that the Passport will share a number of design cues with the larger Pilot.  The automaker touts the model will be built at their Lincoln, Alabama plant - home to the Odyssey, Pilot, and Ridgeline. This likely means the Passport will be sharing the platform underpinning the Pilot and Ridgeline.

"The new Passport is a more personal, powerful and off-road-capable SUV that hits the sweet spot between daily driving comfort and weekend off-road, all-weather adventure capability," said Henio Arcangeli, Jr., senior vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. & General Manager, Honda Division.

 

All-New 2019 Honda Passport Starts Adventure with Global Debut in Los Angeles

Nov 15, 2018 - TORRANCE, Calif.

• Honda to expand light-truck lineup with new Passport, designed, developed and manufactured in America
• Passport positioned between CR-V and Pilot in Honda's light-truck line up
• Video teaser hints at Passport's on- and off-road capabilities

With a video teasing its on- and off-road capabilities and adventuresome spirit, today Honda announced it will unveil the all-new 2019 Honda Passport on November 27, the day before making its auto show global debut the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. The reveal will be livestreamed and available for viewing on Honda's YouTube channel (https://honda.us/PassportReveal) starting at 3:30 p.m. PST.

The new Passport, launching early next year, expands on Honda's award-winning light-truck lineup, joining the HR-V, CR-V and Pilot as Honda's fourth SUV and its sixth light-truck model, including the Odyssey minivan and Ridgeline pickup. Passport was designed and developed in the U.S. by Honda R&D Americas and will be manufactured at Honda's Lincoln, Alabama plant.

"The new Passport is a more personal, powerful and off-road-capable SUV that hits the sweet spot between daily driving comfort and weekend off-road, all-weather adventure capability," said Henio Arcangeli, Jr., senior vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. & General Manager, Honda Division. "With customer demand for SUVs continuing to grow, the new adventure-ready Passport is going to further solidify our lineup, attracting new buyers and keeping existing customers in the Honda family."

Honda brand light-truck sales are on track for a fourth-straight record year, on the way to top 700,000 units for the third year in a row and now accounting for more than half of the Honda brand's U.S. sales so far this year, with light-truck sales up 5.3 percent from year-ago results. Further strengthening its capacity to meet record demand for light trucks, in August Honda added production of the CR-V to a fourth North American plant, in Marysville, Ohio. The CR-V is now Honda's top-selling model and continues as the most popular SUV in America over the past 20 years. Earlier this year, Honda launched freshened versions of its Pilot and HR-V sport-utilities, with upgraded technology, expanded availability of Honda Sensing®, and more premium features. Strong demand for the Honda Pilot has sales up more than 41 percent for the first ten months of 2018.

The Honda light truck lineup has been widely recognized for excellence in design, packaging, safety features and performance, with Honda named America's "Best SUV Brand" by U.S. News and World Report in 2018, for the second straight year. Reflecting Honda's commitment to local production, the Odyssey, Pilot and Ridgeline recently took three of the top 10 spots in Cars.com's 2018 American-Made Index.

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[G. David Felt]

Best picture I could grab but looks like the Pilot, just smaller. Interesting, wonder if a Phev will be in the playing cards? ?

[ocnblu]

Hmmm... well, I hope there's no silly PHEV.  The old Passport/Isuzu Rodeo wasn't too bad for the time I guess.  Sounds like this one will be a transverse, FWD-biased muckety-muck.  We'll see.

[daves87rs]

Sounds like they may have a better Blazer than GM does...?

[ocnblu]

*chest deflates*

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

*chest deflates*

Put's arm around shoulder and gives a Hug!  

[smk4565]

Makes sense, they need another SUV.  This lets them up-size the Pilot a little and not have to make the CR-V any bigger, because it has grown a bit in the past generation to two.  

[A Horse With No Name]

On 11/15/2018 at 10:20 PM, daves87rs said:

Sounds like they may have a better Blazer than GM does...?

Ummmm...no.

On 11/16/2018 at 5:59 AM, ocnblu said:

*chest deflates*

Looking at this, caption should read..."head explodes..."

On 11/16/2018 at 7:51 AM, dfelt said:

Put's arm around shoulder and gives a Hug!  

Condolences would be even more appropriate if he had purchased this pig...

I like how they don't show the trucks actual face...someone at Honda finally saw the light!

 

[frogger]

Tough to beat that beastly Blazer 2.5L, sets the standard for Camaro loving soccer moms.