Embarking on an Odyssey
They may not set the heart alight with desire, but there is something relaxing about settling into a minivan. Clearly one of the four horsemen of impending middle age, it has nevertheless recently dawned on me that two grownups + two dogs + baby on the way + several friends and brother with no vehicles of their own = minivan.
Yes, we might consider a station wagon, even a roomy hatchback, but there are attributes of the minivan that appeal are rapidly outweighing any qualms about fully embracing that which we are about to become: suburban parents.
Now that we are actually considering a purchase we turned first to the Honda Odyssey - named both Best New Minivan and Canadian Truck of the Year by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada upon its last major overhaul in 2005; AJAC also chose it Best New Minivan in 2002 and in its debut year, 1999 (when it also picked up Truck of the Year).
It has also been bestowed Best Resale Value by Kelley Blue Book, seven times been named Best Van on Car and Driver’s 5 Best Trucks list, a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and in 2008, it received NHTSA’s five-star rating in front and side-impact crash tests.
In short, if there’s a minivan out there that is going to cement our growing infatuation, this was bound to be it.
(To anecdotally bear out Kelley’s resale findings, I did a quick check of resale prices on Autonet.ca: on average, a 2007 Odyssey with 70,000 km on it begged from $24,000 to $27,000; a less well equipped Dodge Caravan of the same vintage with the same mileage came back at $9,995; a Toyota Sienna and a Nissan Quest, $17,000. Granted, the when-new price for the Dodge was probably significantly lower than the imports, but that is a whopper of a difference just the same, and there’s no denying that Honda’s reputation for excellent resale values has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
There’s not much point in devoting a lot of ink to exterior styling — with the exception of the Quest, minivans are much of a muchness.
It’s what’s inside that counts — and in Honda’s case, what’s under the hood.
Its 3.5-litre VTEC V6 puts out 244 hp and 240 lb.-ft. of torque, offering ample giddy-up, especially when not overly loaded, and the ride is impressively firm and body-roll-free. That’s a healthy chunk of torque, and available at low revs (the specs say it maxes at 5,000, but there’s plenty available lower than that), it pulls away with ease. It has a comfortingly sturdy feel to it all the way around.
Inside, the Odyssey offers a well designed, attractive place to spend your time, which becomes particularly attractive after dark, so notably nifty is the interior lighting. It’s subtle through the centre stack, audio and climate controls, becoming unexpectedly stylish on the instrument cluster. The volume and tuner knobs have a distinct, translucent ringed edge that provides a modern touch. The climate controls are well designed with easily understood and manipulated front/rear synchronization that doesn’t take days to master and works beautifully.
Space for stuff is always a priority in a minivan, and I loved the centre bin with its perfect, useful places for drinks, keys, Kleenex, iPod, etc. There are in fact eight cupholders including a couple of dash pop-outs, which even a beverageaholic like myself — who almost always has a Diet Pepsi or chai latte on the go — found it a bit excessive. The doors’ map pockets were great too.
The centre stack-mounted shifter leaves lots of room on the flat floor in front of the centre bin for a purse, something every mom I know appreciates.
Standard features are ample, as they should be for the price: all Odysseys get antilock brakes, vehicle stability assist with traction control, a full complement of front and side airbags, rear roofline spoiler with brake light, intermittent rear wiper/washer, cruise control, tilt/telescoping steering wheel, in-floor storage, power windows in the second row (cool!), MP3/auxilliary jack input, 60/40-split third-row Magic Seat; the EX trim I drove comes with 16-inch aluminum alloy wheels, roof rails, auto-off headlights, power sliding doors, six-speaker stereo with in-dash six-CD player and more.
There’s no question in my mind Odyssey is a very fine minivan.
Embarking on an Odyssey
They may not set the heart alight with desire, but there is something relaxing about settling into a minivan. Clearly one of the four horsemen of impending middle age, it has nevertheless recently dawned on me that two grownups + two dogs + baby on the way + several friends and brother with no vehicles of their own = minivan.
Yes, we might consider a station wagon, even a roomy hatchback, but there are attributes of the minivan that appeal are rapidly outweighing any qualms about fully embracing that which we are about to become: suburban parents.
Now that we are actually considering a purchase we turned first to the Honda Odyssey - named both Best New Minivan and Canadian Truck of the Year by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada upon its last major overhaul in 2005; AJAC also chose it Best New Minivan in 2002 and in its debut year, 1999 (when it also picked up Truck of the Year).
It has also been bestowed Best Resale Value by Kelley Blue Book, seven times been named Best Van on Car and Driver’s 5 Best Trucks list, a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and in 2008, it received NHTSA’s five-star rating in front and side-impact crash tests.
In short, if there’s a minivan out there that is going to cement our growing infatuation, this was bound to be it.
(To anecdotally bear out Kelley’s resale findings, I did a quick check of resale prices on Autonet.ca: on average, a 2007 Odyssey with 70,000 km on it begged from $24,000 to $27,000; a less well equipped Dodge Caravan of the same vintage with the same mileage came back at $9,995; a Toyota Sienna and a Nissan Quest, $17,000. Granted, the when-new price for the Dodge was probably significantly lower than the imports, but that is a whopper of a difference just the same, and there’s no denying that Honda’s reputation for excellent resale values has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
There’s not much point in devoting a lot of ink to exterior styling — with the exception of the Quest, minivans are much of a muchness.
It’s what’s inside that counts — and in Honda’s case, what’s under the hood.
Its 3.5-litre VTEC V6 puts out 244 hp and 240 lb.-ft. of torque, offering ample giddy-up, especially when not overly loaded, and the ride is impressively firm and body-roll-free. That’s a healthy chunk of torque, and available at low revs (the specs say it maxes at 5,000, but there’s plenty available lower than that), it pulls away with ease. It has a comfortingly sturdy feel to it all the way around.
Inside, the Odyssey offers a well designed, attractive place to spend your time, which becomes particularly attractive after dark, so notably nifty is the interior lighting. It’s subtle through the centre stack, audio and climate controls, becoming unexpectedly stylish on the instrument cluster. The volume and tuner knobs have a distinct, translucent ringed edge that provides a modern touch. The climate controls are well designed with easily understood and manipulated front/rear synchronization that doesn’t take days to master and works beautifully.
Space for stuff is always a priority in a minivan, and I loved the centre bin with its perfect, useful places for drinks, keys, Kleenex, iPod, etc. There are in fact eight cupholders including a couple of dash pop-outs, which even a beverageaholic like myself — who almost always has a Diet Pepsi or chai latte on the go — found it a bit excessive. The doors’ map pockets were great too.
The centre stack-mounted shifter leaves lots of room on the flat floor in front of the centre bin for a purse, something every mom I know appreciates.
Standard features are ample, as they should be for the price: all Odysseys get antilock brakes, vehicle stability assist with traction control, a full complement of front and side airbags, rear roofline spoiler with brake light, intermittent rear wiper/washer, cruise control, tilt/telescoping steering wheel, in-floor storage, power windows in the second row (cool!), MP3/auxilliary jack input, 60/40-split third-row Magic Seat; the EX trim I drove comes with 16-inch aluminum alloy wheels, roof rails, auto-off headlights, power sliding doors, six-speaker stereo with in-dash six-CD player and more.
There’s no question in my mind Odyssey is a very fine minivan.
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