2011 Honda Odyssey

[regfootball]

popped into the honda dealer yesterday as friday night i saw a new odyssey in the wild. It sure looks like a new age techno barge out and about. Actually, it trailed behind a ford edge in a line of cars, in motion it sort of looked like a stretched and pulled and lowered edge with a kim kardashian bigg butt.......

it definitely looks better than the current crop of minivans including Honda's own. It's sort of clumsy look keep the rest of it in check from looking 'too sporty'. I will say this, even with its clumsiness and questionable detailing, its probably the most appealing minivan out there, looks wise. And the minivan segment is taking off again, so has Honda hit it at the right time?

so, considering that i have real interest in this vehicle someday I was JONESING to check it out.

no test drive, just looked it over. I was primarily interested in the interior function, seating, space, and features.

its pretty easy to be brief here. inside of this thing is more or less minivan nirvana from a function standpoint. Everything that has been touted about in articles really is just reinforced when poking and prodding the interior. What is a surprise delight is how much closer to a sedan feel the cockpit is than previous vans. The roof is not high above your head (the sunroof cover is so sleek and cleverly integrated as are all the ceiling functions) and the view out the front is perfect. Setting the chair low in front renders to me the ideal driving height for a van. Its not SUV high, and of course it is not sedan low.

Every metric by how you judge seating space is well satisfied. Leg room is big. the third row in particular is so roomy in leg room its almost criminal. the second row seats are so easy to adjust fore and aft and yet still allow ridiculous easy access to the third row, it makes the Lambdas seem like a complicated joke. this is even before you move the second row center seat fore and aft, or fold down that seat as an armrest....or spread the second row into wide mode.

What else is ridiculously silly easy is how the third row seats fold into the floor. Easier than any other van, and easier than even the super easy seats in my Taurus X. Its so bone headed easy and slick you will wonder why everyone else hasn't done it this way already. The big ass behind the rear wheels with the deep well trunk (which is HUGE) is why this can be done.

Anyone who bitches about anything related to flexibility with seating on this vehicle should be shot.

Vehicle appears to be vast and long looking from the driver's seat backward. But because the roof is lower than before and the glass is smaller, it has more of a crossover / SUV style view out the rear view mirror. It does not appear to be the vast open wasteland view you get out of some current vans.

The whole interior feels smaller and more intimate than a current Chrysler van while being as or more useful and spacious at the same time.

This might be because the step in height of the second row is so much lower than the stupid sto and go setup. Sto and go is a nice idea but is not packaged well. I will take the Honda solution every day.

The front perches are comfy and while all the seats probably lack lateral support, this is still a van and the seats are probably more supportive than most vans. The new center console between the front seats is great. 4 cupholder and a lidded compartment that WILL likely swallow a purse (women dig this). If you don't put your purse in there, you have plenty of room to put it on the floor between the CHILL BOX and the console.

Interior plastics (in gray) i thought were mid grade. some cheapness, somewhat haphazard design, i wouldn't call assembly and mfg quality the best, but certainly not below other recent terrible hondas. I don't think the interior issues are a flaw, it meets the standard of care.

what i do like and even LOVE is the dash and center stack design (with exceptions).

The dash in general is laid out well and the shape of the dash is interesting and the dash top is a nice texture.

no problem with the gauges. the steering wheel looks a little 90's but whatever.

the new huge color display screen at the top is handy and welcome. on nav units it will be the nav screen. color big screen is standard even without nav. sure beats a three line LED display!

the grouping of controls is sound. climate is up higher, but is in a small cluster that is only as big as it needs to be. and its fairly logical. Hondas button clusters are usually androgynous, and that is the case here, but at least for the climate control its not too complex. there are climate controls in the ceiling above the 2nd and 3rd row which are well integrated for the THREE zone climate control.

the media center controls were messy. i liked where they put them, but Honda needs to add more tactility and logical layout, groups, and shapes.

there is a handy drawer that pops out of the dash for your devices. brilliant! out of sight, out of mind, and accessible while driving.

The chill box is at the bottom and folds down to hold i think 4 bottles. Brilliant! pop, juice boxes stay cold, and if they spill, stay away from dash electronics. AWESOME.

I had a bitch with the shifter. In photos it looks like soomeone FINALLY figured out the best place for a minivan shifter. Almost sedan placement, although here i felt like i had to reach too far forward and too high to get to it. Still, its way better than the chrysler and its a not a column shifter. this is the best it gets for shifter placement in a minivan.

leather quality is about the same as the previous odyssey. Grade B, and it has the loose look just a bit that you see on recliners at the furniture store. My guess is as long as it wipes up, doesn't wear, and doesn't rip easy, that is what most folks are concerned with. I think it looks a tish cheap but at least I will say it looks consistent with the level of the plastic.

I didn't try to locate every whiz bang gizmo, and play with a lot of stuff. It just seemed to me the timing is right to jumpstart the minivans again and Honda has made the user space more current here, getting rid of more nerdiness and just really shining big time in flexibility and functionality.

That fact that someone did that in a half decent looking package is a big score. I think honda needs about 30 more ponies under the hood of this thing but at least the MPG is bang up now.

This is a vehicle I would have no problem buying either sight unseen or without a test drive, for reasons of functionality alone.

suspect in question was an EXL with leather and roof, MSRP 35. I am almost inclined to believe its worth its sticker price.

Good job Honda. Way to go. Someone finally made the minivan relevant and dare I say, cool, again.

Edited October 10, 2010 by regfootball

[pow]

I looked at one at the OC auto show yesterday, and as a driver of the 1999-2003 model, it still feels like the same car, just more refined. You can legitimately seat 8 adults comfortably in the new van, and there's a ton of storage and clever little spaces they've carved out. By keeping the sliding door track low, outward visibility from the third row is great, and there's more shoulder room, too. Outboard passengers can now sit closer to the side of the car, leaving more room for the middle passenger, without feeling cramped. Rear center armrest is a nice touch.

That said, it is pricey, and Honda forces you to go for the posh models to get certain features. Leather is a must. I sat in a base 8-passenger Sienna LE, and preferred that interior to a cloth EX. I love the Sienna's second row; it probably has the most rear legroom of any car. SUPER comfy.

[regfootball]

Sienna has the available reclining seat. But it's a toyota, and the box is even uglier (your results may vary).

I like the Odyssey's sedan like dash. the siennas dash is old school.....sprawling mess spread out horizontally.

[SoCalCTS]

Someone finally made the minivan relevant and dare I say, cool, again.

Too far! Let's not get carried away.

I really do want to see this in person based on what you have said.

[regfootball]

That said, it is pricey, and Honda forces you to go for the posh models to get certain features. Leather is a must. I sat in a base 8-passenger Sienna LE, and preferred that interior to a cloth EX. I love the Sienna's second row; it probably has the most rear legroom of any car. SUPER comfy.

i am sure the honda cloth is indeed nasty like it was on the previous gen. honda usually makes you go up a few levels to get things like window shades and power doors and a video screen. no one wants chrysler vans, that is why chrysler makes sure to bait you even on low end models with the cool stuff.

[regfootball]

Too far! Let's not get carried away.

I really do want to see this in person based on what you have said.

when i saw it the first time, it was trailing a new Edge, and the ody just looked like what a stretched and pulled edge with a fat ass might look like. it rode low and long, and despite how weird the van looks in a photo, it grabs your eye in motion because of the sheer size of it. My biggest looks issue is the side glass arch to me isn't quite right and the roof comes down too low, but i understand wanting to limit the amount of heavy and heat introducing glass on a vehicle so huge.

the biggest thing is while the 'lightning bolt' is somewhat hokey, the van succeeds looks wise because it doesn't look like a huge breadbox (chrysler vans) or something terrible (quest). It's one of the few vans ever you could classify as 'sleek'. if a van can do that, then part of the coolness battle has already been won there.

with crossovers becoming passe this van looks positively sporty in comparison. the cx-9 is one of the few crossovers that would not look dowdy next to it. but the cx-9 has 20% the utility of this van.