You’ll want to join this Odyssey
2018 Honda jam-packed with features,
It’s called a minivan, but the Honda Odyssey feels pretty maxi.
That’s not a complaint. Especially if you have a large, extended family. With seating for up to eight, Honda says this vehicle was designed with the whole clan in mind.
The interior of the 2018 Odyssey is roomy enough to allow you to lay an adult-sized bicycle in the rear without folding down the second-row seats. Odyssey is so big that it can be equipped with an “in-car public address system” to reinforce the warnings to your kids in the rear seats with the “Voice of God.”
Yet at 16.9 feet in overall length, it’s almost 2 feet shorter than the hulking Chevrolet Suburban, a full-size SUV.
Sure, minivans are out of fashion these days. Families want SUVs even as they acknowledge the practicality of a minivan. But Odyssey remains a major player, along with Toyota’s Sienna and Fiat Chrys- ler’s Pacifica. More than 120,000 Odysseys were sold last year, Autodata reports.
For the next generation, the goal was to innovate, says Dan Tiet, senior product planner for the vehicle. He says developing the next Odyssey was a pleasure to design because it’s basically a large box that can be packed with interesting ideas. Chief among them: SEATS. The Magic Slide second-row seats allow the seats to roll left or right, not just front and back. Ostensibly, the feature makes it easier to separate feuding youngsters. The real benefit is that it becomes a lot easier to reach the third-row seats. It’s the easiest entry that we’ve encountered yet in trying to climb into the back row.
OVERHEAD CAMERA. Called CabinWatch, the system involves mounting a camera above the second row that allows you to spy on your kids. More comprehensive than a rear-view, wide-angle mirror — there’s one of those, too — the camera even lets you see what your kids are reading or see what objects they are clutching in their tight little fists.
HOW MUCH FARTHER?” Honda now as a feature to deal with kids always wanting to know how much longer they are going to be stuck in the car. The feature keeps tabs on the route to a destination like the flight-track programs in the seatback viewers on some airplanes.
In the Odyssey, it’s given a car- toon-style presentation.
For a vehicle that big, you wouldn’t expect it to drive as easily as a car.
The minivan is powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 engine with a ninespeed automatic transmission in the lower trim levels and a 10speed in the higher ones.
The powertrain is so quiet you’ll basically detect shifting. The engine provides adequate power and comes in at 19 miles per gallon in city driving, 28 mpg on the highway for 22 mpg overall. We averaged 26.3 mpg.
Prices start at $29,990 for the base Odyssey, plus $940 in destination fees.
The fanciest version, the Elite, comes in at $46,670.