What a Canada Day weekend it was! We had the sheer joy of driving the 2019 Honda Passport Touring for the occasion and it was magical. While the Passport is just making a comeback after being absent from production since 2002, its return certainly is welcomed, enhanced with sensibilities of the now. The versatile mid-sized five-door SUV is a melding of style, sophistication and practicality. It spaciousness is an embarrassment of riches for a single driver like me, although I can’t deny it was super-handy for running errands and stocking-up for the weekend! Fittingly, we got to drive it in a patriotic Deep Scarlet Pearl for our long weekend adventure!
Boasting a powerful 3.5-litre, 24-valve, Direct Injection, SOHC, i-VTEC® V6 engine, we were king of the road, navigating with its 9-speed automatic transmission with Grade Logic Control, operating at 280 horsepower. The Passport Touring‘s Fuel Economy tallies in at 12.5/9.8/11.3 City/Highway/Combined. We admire Honda‘s commitment to Fuel Economy and the environment with its dealbreaking for many, Eco Assist system, idle-stop engine and ECON mode button, easy on the wallet and the earth we live.
Power and economy aside, the Passport Touring is obsessed with our safety. It possesses 4-wheel Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Brake Assist, Forward Collision Warning (FCW) system, Collision Mitigation Braking System, Lane Departure Warning (LDW) system, Honda LaneWatch Blindspot Display, Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) with Tire Fill Assist and Blind Spot Information (BSI) system with Rear Cross Traffic Monitor system and the ultra-convenient Auto High-Beam which helped greatly in our evening drives, taking us city to countryside. Its Immobilizer Theft-Deterrent System is an added protection and we are notorious for fumbling for our keys and can’t live without Proximity Extry which the SUV has.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Honda‘s Multi-angle Rearview Camera with dynamic guidelines is life-saving and makes us a pro at parking at the trickiest spots. Fitting in between two trucks at the airport? No problem! Parallel parking downtown? Please.
Driving in the Passport Touring is a joy with its powerful 550-watt AM/FM Premium audio system with MP3/Windows Media® Audio playback capability and 10 speakers including subwoofer. Everything from Bluetooth Audio to Sirius XM is an entertainment option and there is an abundance of charging options including 12 and 115-volt outlets, plus USB and wireless charging.
Keeping with our Honda Caraoke tradition, we’re still buzzing with delight after attending the sold-out Ariana Grande show at Scotiabank Arena! I’ll let the sound quality speak for itself!
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I’m so into you, into you, into you 🎶 #Caraoke #IntoYou #ArianaGrande #HondaPassport #CanadaDay
The Passport Touring‘s extra-large moonroof was made for this weather we experienced Canada Day weekened, giving our drives pure mood and ambience.
Its Tri-Zone Climate Control and air filtration system is a thing of wonder, keeping my passengers calm and cool amidst the blistering weekend heat, letting them in both front and back, customize their own tenperature settings. Front seats have heating and cooling options as well, the latter which definitely got put to good use.
See some Snaps including our weekend at the historic Queens Plate Festival, our favourite event of the Summer! Strapped for time, we got to preview a smooth ride along the 407 which got us there right in time! Hover cursor on the right of each album to navigate further.
More on the 2019 HONDA PASSPORT TOURING starting at $49,900 CAN here.
(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)
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