BORING IS GOOD
Honda Odyssey is the top choice in minivans
What a no-good, rotten, horrible, water-logged day.
After putting the sports section to bed the night before, crawling into bed past midnight, I less-than-cheerfully hopped out again at the crack at dawn to drive to Dallas to cover a baseball game, which ground to a halt as lightening, thunder and steady rains washed across the Metroplex.
The joint had an artificial infield, but no press box, so I’d sought cover in the Pleasant Grove dugout. After a couple of hours of visiting with the players and watching their good-natured horseplay—bright spot of the day—word came down that we were packing it all up and heading back to Texarkana to finish the game.
Weariness was setting in, but there was one silver lining in those dark clouds. At least I chewed up the miles in what comes very close to being the best road car on the planet, the Honda Odyssey.
Yeah, yeah, I know, “Mr. Drive-like-a-batout-of-hell in a minivan? Really?
Really. Minivans are about as exciting as a pint of vanilla yogurt, but, darn it, when a vehicle is really good at what it does, I gotta say somethin’.
ThereTher are seven minivans on the market, two fromfr the same company, but the Odyssey gets my vote for No. 1 because it’s the roomiest,ro most comfortable, safest and mostm fun to drive.
The power train is an engineering marvel, delivering great power and top-drawer fuel economy.
It features a 3.5-liter, 24-valve V-6 engine producing 248 hp at 5,700 rpm anda 250 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm. Honda’sH i-VTEC® enhances power delivery ery while variable cylinder management™ (VCM®)(VCM helps maximize fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. The engine is paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission for EPA fuel-economy ratings of 19/28 mpg city/highway. It meets California ULEV-2 emissions standards.
Rolling up and down I-30 with the cruise set to match traffic speed at 80 mph, the big, seven-passenger rig averaged 25 mpg. I’ve driven much smaller vehicles that did not do that well under the same conditions.
The Odyssey made the drive with ease. It handles with the same agility and comfortable ride as the Accord, on whose platform it is built. The engine had plenty of power in reserve for getting up and running away from those big, bad, road-hogging 18-wheelers. (Why can they jump into your lane like a cat playing with a mouse, but move back into the slow lane with all the haste of an old man queing up for an enema? One advantage of becoming an old man is that I get to ask these questions.)
Having the best drive train and driving characteristics in the segment is not the only reason the Odyssey was rated best-in-class by U.S. News and World Report, is a Kelley
Blue Book “Best Buy,” and consistently has the highest residual values, according the financial rating service ALG.
Additionally, the Odyssey is the only minivan to earn the highest possible ratings of GOOD in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s stringent small overlap frontal crash test and earned a 2014 TOP SAFETY PICK+ designation when equipped with optional front crash prevention.
The Odyssey also wins on build quality, available features and use of interior space. I’ve hauled four adults and two children across Texas, and everybody was comfy and relatively satisfied. The middle-row captain’s chairs are at least as comfortable as frontrow seating for pilot and co-pilot. The third row is big enough for a pair of adults, and roomy enough for kids to stretch out and play with devices.
In this particular instance, it all worked because of a cavernous storage area aft, big enough to hold luggage for the entire ensemble. No seats had to be folded. Heck, I came out of a Sam’s Club last week and unloaded a flat cart without moving a seat back.
The 2015 Odyssey’s interior is ideal for
families, with high-grade meter illumination and interior lighting, chrome-trimmed instrument dials and door handles, an available 7-inch touch-screen, and an ideally positioned DVD player for the available rear entertainment system. Sophisticated styling and white halo lighting make the instrumentation easier to read and the climate controls easy to operate.
On top of that it comes with its own vacuum cleaner.
Engineered for dry use, the HondaVAC™ operates on the vehicle’s 12-volt electrical system, and its performance easily surpasses that of a handheld rechargeable vacuum.
Integrated in the rear cargo area of the vehicle, the HondaVAC™ includes an extendable hose that can reach every interior corner of the vehicle. Two separate head attachments expand versatility, while a removable debris canister and replaceable filter bag makes maintaining the vacuum easy. To protect the vehicle battery’s state of charge, the HondaVAC™ runs up to eight minutes when the vehicle’s ignition is in Accessory mode—or continuously if the engine is running.
The Odyssey comes in seven trim levels, ranging in price from $28,075 for the base LX to $44,600 for the top-of-line Touring Elite. An EX starts at $32,275 and an EX-L comes in at $35,775. An EX-L with the navigation package is $37,775 and the Touring model is $42,030.
The LX comes with 17-inch steel wheels, variable intermittent wipers, rear privacy glass, a rear spoiler, keyless entry, manual two-zone air-conditioning, cloth upholstery, an eight-way power driver seat, a four-way power front passenger seat, a 60/40 split-folding third-row seat, a tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, full power accessories, cruise control, an 8-inch multi-information display, Bluetooth phone and audio connectivity, a rearview camera, text-to-speech functionality and a seven-speaker audio system with a CD player, Pandora compatibility, an auxiliary audio input jack and a USB/iPod interface.
Moving up to the EX model gets you seating for eight, alloy wheels, power-sliding side doors, keyless ignition and entry, tri-zone automatic climate control, a power lumbar adjustment for the driver, a multi-adjustable second-row seat, a removable front center console, retractable second-row sunshades and a conversation mirror. The EX also has Honda’s “LaneWatch” blind-spot camera system— which ought to be standard on all new cars.
EX-L models upgrade with a sunroof, power liftgate, forward-collision and lane-departure warning systems, leather seating (front and second row), heated front seats, a chilled storage box, an auto-dimming rearview mirror and satellite radio. Options include a choice of a voice-operated navigation system with a rearview camera or a rear-seat entertainment system, but not both.
Touring models come with 18-inch alloy wheels, foglights, front and rear parking sensors, driver memory settings, a 115-volt household-style power outlet, retractable third-row sunshades and a fold-down armrest for third-row passengers. The navigation and rearseat entertainment systems are standard. The Touring Elite model adds xenon headlights, the integrated vacuum cleaner, an upgraded rear-seat entertainment system (with a widescreen video monitor and HDMI input) and a premium 12-speaker surround-sound audio system with HD radio.
Our tester was the latter and we never tired of playing with all the cool gizmos. All the safety information was laid out in an easy-to-understand manner and, frankly, made the drive a pleasure.
Granted, it wasn’t as much pleasure as when PG got off the bus after a 168-mile mid-inning stretch and promptly put away the Crandall Pirates (second bright spot of the day), but it came close.
Bottom Line: Honda has the Odyssey dialed in.