I Drove the All-New 2025 Honda CR-V TrailSport. Here’s My Brutally Honest Review

Yet another SUV in off-road guise

The 2026 Honda CR-V is well-known and widely driven, being the most popular Honda sold in America, with more than 400,000 of them sold last year. While Toyota takes all kinds of credit for its hybrids, Honda deserves its share of credit, as nearly half of CR-V buyers justifiably choose the 2.0-liter, four-cylinder hybrid driveline. It returns better EPA-rated fuel economy than its conventional turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder sibling, as high as 43 mpg in combined city/highway driving vs 30 mpg. It also delivers more power, at 204 horsepower for the hybrid versus 190 for the conventional powertrain. Since Honda recommends 91 octane fuel, you’ll want to use as little gasoline as possible.

What makes the Honda CR-V an American favorite

Regardless of which driveline you choose, you’ll find the Honda CR-V has self-assured handling and a spacious interior that offers 104 cubic feet of passenger space and a generous 36 cubic feet of cargo room. It’s a fairly quiet place, with a roomy back seat and nice interior furnishings.

If it’s within your budget, the Honda CR-V Hybrid is the model to choose. It starts with the front-wheel-drive Sport Hybrid, at $37,025 including destination charge, and ascends through the Sport Hybrid AWD, TrailSport Hybrid AWD, Sport-L Hybrid FWD, Sport-L Hybrid AWD, and Sport Touring Hybrid AWD, topping out at $43,645. Non-hybrid versions are more affordable, with the LX FWD starting at $30,920 including destination charge, climbing up through LX AWD, EX FWD, EX AWD, EX-L FWD, and EX-L AWD at $38,295. All CR-Vs come with a continuously variable automatic transmission.

The 2026 Honda CR-V Hybrid can tow up to 1,000 pounds in Hybrid trim, or 1,500 pounds with the non-hybrid driveline. The payload capacity for the hybrid is 840 pounds, while non-hybrid variants have a capacity of 1,106 pounds. Front-wheel drive is available on all trims except for TrailSport and Sport Touring trims, which get standard all-wheel drive only. All-wheel drive is available on lesser trims for an additional $1,500.

For 2026, the Honda CR-V can be optioned with a 10.2-inch infotainment screen, 46% larger than before, while the standard touchscreen is now two inches larger, measuring 9 inches. A wireless smartphone charger, wireless Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto are now standard. There are new wheel designs, of course, and hybrid models are notable by their exterior blackout trim around the windows. Low-speed traction control has been improved. 

A new twist to a perennial bestseller

Of course, if you noticed an unfamiliar name among the trim levels, it’s the TrailSport Hybrid, a trim level slowly spreading across the Honda vehicle lineup to entice off-road buyers. First seen on the 2022 Honda Passport midsize SUV, it continues on the redesigned 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport, which adds all-terrain 31-inch tires on 18-inch wheels, an off-road tuned suspension, recovery hooks, skid plates, roof rails, a heated windshield and an integrated Class III trailer hitch with harness that can yank 5,000 pounds of your favorite towable plaything. While it lacks a way to lock the Passport TrailSport into low gear, engaging Sport mode and manually shifting into first gear comes close. One would expect such additions to the 2026 Honda CR-V TrailSport. 

Given its mainstream audience, you wouldn’t expect it to traverse truly challenging terrain, but you might expect more than what Honda delivers. While we love the CR-V, we come away disappointed by the TrailSport. The 2026 CR-V TrailSport Hybrid package includes revised trim garnishes to the front and rear fascias, unique badging, logos stitched into the headrests, off-road tires, revised software at speeds below 12 mph, and standard hill descent control, which isn’t offered on other CR-Vs. Still, there’s little here to encourage true off-roading, which even the Passport possesses, such as underbody skid plates and tow hooks. More tellingly, the TrailSport’s 16.1-degree approach angle and 21.3-degree departure angle are no different than those of the CR-V Sport Hybrid, meaning you might save money by adding your own off-road tires and getting as much dirt-tromping proficiency. Even its 8.2 inches of ground clearance is offered on other trims.

Venturing into some modest off-road conditions, one that might lift a tire in the air, but the conditions provided are otherwise not much of a challenge. So yes, we find the CR-V executes its tasks flawlessly, but one gets the sense you could do it in any CR-V, or even in a Honda Accord. 

Thankfully, Honda’s fitting of off-road tires does little to affect the handling on-road, although you feel the rubber working its heart out to maintain grip while cornering. Regardless, grip is still surprisingly good, as is road feel, which is far greater than you’d expect. Steering is well-weighted, and body lean is moderate. Bump absorption is fairly good, and the CR-V has a notably quiet cabin at speed, particularly for a Honda. Its driveline also makes it easy to drive smoothly. In fact, the qualities that make the Honda CR-V such a nice SUV to drive remain intact, revealing how little it has really been changed on the TrailSport.

Final thoughts

We love the improvements made to the CR-V for 2026, and were enthused when first hearing of its new TrailSport trim. But the reality proves disappointing, as the changes are minor at best and do not add much to the CR-V’s current capabilities. That the majority of CR-V buyers will never contemplate going off-road is something Honda executives know, and they say they tailor each TrailSport package to its model line and buyers.

That is certainly true here. Given the paucity of upgrades, one wonders why Honda even bothered to offer it. Then again, the same could be said of similar efforts from Toyota and Nissan. We did love the exclusive Ash Green paint and off-road wheels, and the exclusive trim toughens the CR-V’s looks. If that’s all that you require, we have the SUV for you.