Toyota Highlander vs Honda Passport: which is more reliable?
The Toyota Highlander and the Honda Passport are level on the federal record — 65/100 against 66/100 across the years we score. Which one to buy is decided by the model year, not the badge.
The record, side by side
Toyota Highlander
- 11 model years scored
- 2,349 owner complaints on record
- about 27 complaints per year on the road
- 39 recall campaigns, 24 safety-critical
- best year 2016 (86/100) · worst 2020 (37/100)
Honda Passport
- 7 model years scored
- 653 owner complaints on record
- about 22 complaints per year on the road
- 37 recall campaigns, 17 safety-critical
- best year 2024 (88/100) · worst 2019 (30/100)
Mean score is the average across model years from 2013 on, where both records are comparable. How the score works.
Year by year: Highlander against Passport
The comparison that decides the purchase. A nameplate is not one car — a redesign can move the record sixty points inside two years, and the two nameplates rarely move together.
What owners actually complain about
Toyota Highlander
- Power Train — 461 complaints
- Unknown Or Other — 363 complaints
- Electrical System — 306 complaints
Honda Passport
- Electrical System — 168 complaints
- Forward Collision Avoidance — 166 complaints
- Engine — 121 complaints
They do not fail the same way: the Highlander's complaints concentrate in Power Train, the Passport's in Electrical System. That difference matters more to a buyer than the score gap, because it says which repair bill you are taking on.
Years to avoid on each
Toyota Highlander — avoid: 2018, 2019, 2020.
Honda Passport — avoid: 2019.
A year scores below 45 on complaints per year of exposure and recall campaigns. Every car’s years to avoid.
What each costs today
A recent used Toyota Highlander prices at about $40,800 and a Honda Passport at about $40,800 — they price within $1 of each other, which at this level is the same money, and they return 25.0 against 21.0 MPG combined.
Class-level estimates re-priced to your country, not a valuation of one car. Method.
FAQ
Is the Toyota Highlander or the Honda Passport more reliable?
On the NHTSA record the Honda Passport scores 66/100 against the Toyota Highlander's 65/100, averaged across every model year we hold. The gap is small enough that the model year matters more than the badge.
Which Toyota Highlander and Honda Passport years should I avoid?
Toyota Highlander: 2018, 2019, 2020. Honda Passport: 2019. Each of those scores under 45 out of 100 on complaints per year of exposure and recall campaigns.
What goes wrong on the Toyota Highlander and the Honda Passport?
The largest complaint group on the Toyota Highlander is Power Train (461 complaints); on the Honda Passport it is Electrical System (168).
Is the Toyota Highlander or the Honda Passport cheaper to own?
A recent used Toyota Highlander prices at about $40,800 and a Honda Passport at about $40,800, before insurance and the maintenance band. Both pages carry the five-year running-cost figure.