2011 Honda Odyssey
If you want to understand the Honda Odyssey, you need to look at the ’96 Chicago Bulls.
Why the sports reference? Because that’s the year Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman played on the same team, making the ’96 Bulls one of the most dominant teams in the history of sports. They won 72 out of 82 games and made the NBA championship look easy. No other team has dominated like the ’96 Bulls, and no other minivan has dominated like the Odyssey.
Until now, it’s been the minivan you bought if you wanted the very best. It wasn’t cheap, but it held its value better than most cars. It also had the kind of quality feel you would expect in a really nice car, which made its competition seem minor-league in comparison. Entering 2011, though, things aren’t so clear. Honda has introduced a brand-new Odyssey, which is always risky for an undisputed champion, but it’s also got stronger competition this year.
Toyota just unleashed the ’72 Dolphins with its new Sienna, and Nissan is selling the ’07 Patriots with its Quest. Throw in Chrysler — the perpetual Tiger Woods of minivans, absolute brilliance interspersed with gaffes — and it’s starting to make 2011 look like a real Friday Night SmackDown. OK, enough with the sports stuff. How good is the new Odyssey?
In a word, excellent. It has the same quality feel that made it such a standout in the past, with a similar driving experience to the Accord sedan.
The cabin is especially nice. I haven’t driven the 2011 Quest yet, but it’s clearly a notch above the 2011 Sienna I drove a few weeks ago. In the Sienna, the glovebox door felt flimsy and some of the trim seemed cheap and hollow. In the Odyssey, everything feels like it’s made of polished marble. You get the feeling it’s going to last 2,000 years and end up in some museum’s display case. It also has great features, like a rear seat that can fold flat with a little flick of the wrist. It’s amazingly simple. And there’s a double-wide video screen available that can show two different programs at once, seemingly inspired by the video board at Cowboys Stadium.
It’s not perfect, though. One weakness is the price. It starts at $27,800 and tops out at $43,250 for the Touring Elite model. That’s nearing A-Rod money. Another is the second-row seat. If you want to remove the seats to carry big cargo, you have to actually pull them out of the car like you would in a 1980s minivan. Chrysler’s Stow-N-Go puts it to shame with seats that can fold into the floor. And finally — I’ve got to say it — this isn’t a good-looking car, even by minivan standards. The front end is nice enough with its clean, modern face, but the back end just looks like it’s broken. Honda calls the look a “lightning bolt” design, but I’m not impressed. The exposed door rail and drooping window line make it look like it has a fractured tailbone.
Still, the redesigned Odyssey’s bright points make it the best minivan on the market. It’s not driving the competition into the turf like it used to — more of a solid triple than a grand slam — but it is enough to push Honda across the goal line.
