When all is said and done, the Passport has two drawbacks. The first, simply put, is that it isn?t a "real" Honda. The second is that after five years of production, the basic design has lost its competitive edge against newer sport/utilities. There are more powerful competitors, and quieter ones, too. And there are fresher body designs on the market and more refined interiors. A few opponents - the newly redesigned Chevy Blazer, for one - top the Passport on almost all of these counts.But the Passport is a Honda, at least in name, and that carries a couple of big pluses. First, Honda?s engineering staff had enough confidence in Isuzu?s truck-building know-how to sign off on this project. Second, you can be sure that Honda?s excellent dealer service organization will stand behind this product just as though it was home-grown.
Beyond that, the Passport represents a reasonably good buy, particularly versus some of its Asian rivals. After all, saving a few bucks tends to make any vehicle just a little bit more attractive.