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2018 Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey Touring

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey

Honda

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2018 Honda Odyssey Touring CabinWatch™

Honda

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This year marks a redesign for the Honda Odyssey minivan, now in its fifth generation since making its debut back in 1995. Minivans have come a long way in the past 20 years, but what was once a large family staple seems to have lost some of its appeal as of late.

There are only six different minivans left available on the market today. Three of those come from the same manufacturer, with the Dodge Caravan, Chrysler Pacifica and Pacifica Hybrid. Kia follows with the Sedona, and Toyota wraps up the list with the Sienna. With gas prices staying somewhat steady, the new American family is moving away from what was once a staple towards an SUV.

However, as we sat down to write this article about the new and definitely improved Honda Odyssey minivan, Craig got a text from his business partner Mike, showing a Facebook post with seven Honda Odyssey minivans parked in front of a church that Sunday, the FB poster wanted to know if he had somehow stepped into a Honda dealership.

So yes, the minivan may not be gaining much ground nationwide, it is still very much a staple here in Utah with many evidently gravitating towards Honda’s offering. So, with this in mind, we embarked on our weekly journey and our first time out with a Honda Odyssey. It seemed only fitting that Honda had chosen to bring forth a fifth generation of minivan, and we were sure they had us in mind during the design phase!

During the week, we got an invite from the Intermountain Foundation to attend Utah Jazz game on Saturday night so, of course, we had the optimum vehicle to take four adults to Salt Lake. Off we set with our son, Landon; and Craig’s boss, Rhett Long, for not only a great game, but also a very comfortable ride to downtown Salt Lake.

The fact that the rear seats slide both forward and back, along with sideways — with a system called Magic Slide — made sitting in the captain’s chairs in the second row very enjoyable, even for our 6-foot-4 son Landon. He and Rhett were easily able to find the best spot to make themselves comfortable on the ride to the Jazz game.

The only complaint with the Odyssey was that those same chairs would not fold into the floor as other minivans will do. They would come out of the van, but were on the heavy side and would take an adult to get them in and out of the van. The third-row seat did, however, easily stow into the floor of the van. Planning ahead would be imperative if dad wanted to purchase something large on Saturday and still keep the kids in tow.

Over the past seven years, the Odyssey had been the best-selling minivan in the American market, as evidenced by the many vans at church on any given Sunday. We would attribute this to the different look that comes with the Honda, and being built on the same platform as the Pilot. It is a larger vehicle and handled as such, especially getting around in tight parking garages as we found out on our trip to the Jazz game.

The exterior design, however, has a different look than other minivans with a flowing design that swept our eyes from front to rear. This year, the design takes an even bolder look with a floating roof as the D pillar is masked with black plastic at the bottom, giving our eyes the illusion that the roof was floating above the vehicle. We have seen this effect work very well on sports sedans and tilt our hats to Honda for offering a very cool design element to be part of the Odyssey.

Of course, the new Honda came with all the great safety features that we have come to love on any Honda design. Blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning and the really fantastic lane-keep assist that, in a Honda, keeps the vehicle centered in the lane, not just bounding from line to line. There was also adaptive cruise control, which we found very helpful in the heavy traffic on the way to Salt Lake, rear cross-path detection with pedestrian detection and forward collision warning, and brake assist.

Inside the Odyssey is the penultimate family cruiser, having not only all the features that mom and dad could want to help with the ride, the designers have also kept the kids and rear-seat passengers in mind with add-ons that will keep them wanting to remain in the rear and enjoy the ride!

For mom and dad, the front screen can be set to watch the rear of the van with a ceiling-mounted infrared camera and system named CabinWatch. Combine this with a system called CabinTalk, which allows the driver to communicate with the rear passengers via the speaker system, and parents now have the ability to watch and talk with the kids in the back without having to take their eyes off the road. This system will also help avoid those inevitable road-trip fights with little Billy teasing Sally, mom can watch all that is happening in the back, in high definition on the front screen.

For the kids, the rear entertainment system can be controlled via a downloadable app called, of course, “CabinControl.” It will also control heating and air conditioning and can send destinations to the navigation system. There is also an embedded program in the system called “How Much Farther” that allows the kids to know exactly how far they have to go and not have to keep asking mom and dad. Now that is a great feature that alone would have been a reason for us to grab a van like this when our kids were younger.

Also for the kids as part of the CabinControl system is an option called Social Playlist that allows up to seven passengers to upload their favorite music to the system from their smartphones. This could be bad or good for mom and dad but a way cool feature. Keeping up with the times the entertainment system can stream movies right from the net via the built-in Wi-Fi system, making the Odyssey one of the most connected cars we have driven to date.

To keep dad happy, the Honda comes equipped with a V6 engine that now produces a very nice 280 horsepower, up 32 ponies from the previous generation. It is connected to a 10-speed automatic transmission that slipped seamlessly through the gears. We managed 23 mpg for our week with the Odyssey, a little above the EPA estimate.

The new Honda Odyssey is top family contender in the minivan market and will keep the kids smiling for all those long road trips and can also keep them entertained. See the new van today at Ken Garff Honda in Orem, 115 E. University Parkway, (801) 714-2200.

Base Price: $46,670

Price as Driven: $46,670