Lets face it: no one with a car-loving bone in their body ever woke up one day and said, I cant wait to get a minivan!
Rather the opposite, Im afraid. To the gearhead, the speed-merchant, the weekend racer, and even the mom and dad clinging to that last vestige of cool factor they once had 400 million years ago, a minivan is giving up. Its purgatory. Its the automotive equivalent of sweatpants with baby-food stains.
But it shouldnt be. The young couple down the street from me recently decided to replace their faithful four-door VW hatchback with something a bit more commodious. They have a two-year-old son, a desire to go on family trips, and overseas-based grandparents who visit regularly.
A crossover? Well perhaps, but after measuring their needs against the space available in even the biggest such cars, a little more practicality was needed. The shopping began. I was not at all surprised to see a new Honda Odyssey end up in their driveway.
After all, when they asked me, it was the machine I recommended to them. Heres why.
DESIGN
Honda released the current-design Odyssey on the market in 2010, and its still a remarkably fresh-looking design. A large front corporate grille provides a handsome face and a trapezoidal dipsy-doodle in the rear gives some sort of character to the side-profile.
It is also bloody enormous. Mini van my foot.
At five metres long and two metres wide, the Odyssey is bigger than the boat which once propelled Homers classical hero on his epic journey around the Mediterranean. Its hard to believe families once made do with regular sedans.
Still, in a sea of SUVs and crossovers, even a vessel of such hefty proportions doesnt look that big. Optioned in Dark Cherry Pearl paint, the Odyssey is large and imposing, but still a pretty good-looking rig.
Seventeen-inch wheels are standard on the LX model, moving up to similar diameter alloys right up to the EX-L trim. Eighteen-inch wheels are standard on the top-spank Touring model. As tire-width doesnt change throughout the range, a set of LX-level steelies will fit a higher-grade Odyssey for winter duties.
ENVIRONMENT
Dr. Whos Tardis is famous for being bigger on the inside than on the outside. As youd expect from a barn-on-wheels (an attractive barn, mind you) like the Odyssey, interior space is
exemplary. The Odyssey strikes a solid balance between adult-sized seating and usable space for kids. Both the mid and rear rows are less canted back than some competitor offerings, which allows for easy installation of both booster seats and rear-facing child seats. The mid-row seats are probably too heavy for smaller kids to tilt forward and squeeze past luckily they can just scamper between the twin captains chairs.
Load-height levels are a bit higher, so smaller kids will again need to be lifted in. However, strapping in an infant is super easy for an average-height person to accomplish, and the ability to control all the power doors from either the key fob or drivers seat (as well as switches mounted in the rear door jambs) is handy. Loading five adults into the Odyssey showed that the front four seats are plenty comfy and the rear seat is entirely workable if youre not six-foot-plus.
When it comes to cargo, this thing has more cubby holes and secret compartments than the Millennium Falcon. If its not a pocket, pouch, shelf or storage bin, its a cupholder. Oh yeah, the cupholders: if you put a water bottle in each one of these, youd have enough H20 to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
PERFORMANCE
Well, its a minivan: we hardly even need this section, right? Actually, with a 248 horsepower V-6 mated to either a five-speed automatic or a six-speed in Touring models, the Odyssey is quicker than youd expect. It doesnt burn off the line, instead building up inertia and speed with strong mid-range power.
This is an exceptional long-distance tourer. Wind noise from the extra-large side mirrors is perhaps a bit noticeable, but with everybody comfortable and entertained, the driver wont be bored either this six-cylinder can be wound up easily to pass any lugging 18-wheeler and the steering isnt as numb as others.
For most vehicles, the dynamic assessment stops there, but lets talk about parking. As land prices go up, parking spot width goes down, so manoeuvring a van into place can get tricky.
Luckily, a backup camera is now standard on the Odyssey, and with an extra-large display screen, getting out of tight spaces is not the trial it could be.
FEATURES
Probably no other vehicle segment can boast the kind of features you get aboard a modern minivan. The top-spec Touring Odyssey is like a luxury sedan hooked up to an air-compressor.
At the peak of the range, you get a multi-view rear camera, an ultra-wide rear-entertainment system, 15 Gigabyte on-board hard-drive to load up with Sponge Bob sing-alongs and a 650-watt system to blast them through. Of course the cost for all this is not inconsiderable: $47,190 plus freight.
Better news for families whove got tuition to save up for is the enhancements made to the base-model Odyssey ($29,990) this year. A rear-view camera, USB connectivity, Bluetooth streaming audio, a seven-speaker audio system and two GB of on-board storage.
Mid-range models add alloys, power-sliding doors and other amenities. It should be noted that Touring models have a slight mechanical advantage over the LX, EX ($34,090) and EX-L ($41,190) trim, with a six-speed automatic transmission. The six-speed option gives slightly better in-city fuel economy at 10.9 litres/100 kilometres in-city versus the five-speeds 11.7 l/100 km.
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