The Japanese auto companies are not all that smart. It took them about a decade and a failed attempt or two to realize that large pick-ups, minivans, and SUVs were hot and get competitive products to market. For example, both the Toyota T100 and original Honda Odyssey were well off the mark. But these companies tend to be very good at learning from their mistakes. The second generation of each of these products is stellar. Each threatens to hurt the Detroit auto makers where they can least afford to be hurt. Once plant capacity is expanded to meet demand, maybe hurt them badly. In this review I’ll cover the second-generation Honda Odyssey.

Few companies learn from their mistakes better than Honda. The original Odyssey minivan had some good features, most notably very car-like handling and a third row seat that magically disappeared into the floor. The importance of the latter cannot be stressed too much. It eliminated the need to remove a bulky seat in order to expand cargo room to the floor. The problem with the original Odyssey was that it was much smaller than other minivans. Its compact size helped make it a HUGE success in Japan, but it hurt sales a great deal in the American market. People who bought this van tended to love it, but most quickly wrote it off because they wanted far more space in a minivan.

Well, this is no longer a problem. When developing the second generation Odyssey for the 1999 model year, Honda kept the good things from the original one and changed everything else. Most importantly, they greatly increased the size of the vehicle. The second-generation Odyssey is almost exactly the same size as the extended wheelbase Chrysler minivans. (To read my reviews of related vehicles click on the blue hyperlinks.) Since the Chrysler vans were introduced about the same time Honda was deciding the size for the current Odyssey, this is surely no coincidence.

Even since its introduction, the Odyssey has sold at or over sticker price. Waiting lists have been lengthy. My favorable review of the 2000 model year van can be found here. Still, Honda did not leave what many felt was the best minivan alone. For 2002, the Odyssey received a number of upgrades, most notably to its powertrain and chassis. I drove a 2003 recently to see what difference these changes made.

Honda Odyssey Reliability

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Styling

The Odyssey, though well-proportioned, is not the prettiest van going. No nifty “hidden” door tracks here. Just clean, boxy, angular styling. About as stylish as the current Civic. Which is to say, not much style at all. This isn't a minivan that will appeal aesthetically to people who need a minivan but really, really don't want one. Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not saying the Odyssey is ugly. It isn’t. It’s just in that vast middle ground between ugly and beautiful occupied by good appliances everywhere. For pretty, get a Chrysler. Or wait until 2004, when Ford, Nissan, Toyota, and Honda all redo their minivans. The Nissan at least will be striking. I haven’t a clue about the others.

The look of the dash is also all about utility. All the controls are very well located and easy to use, but there’s very little style here. As with the exterior, think Civic, just larger. Much larger. The interior is nicer and considerably sportier in the Odyssey-based Honda Pilot. For 2004, I would suggest an interior more like the Pilot’s.

Honda did fix a couple of my major issues with the pre-2002 Odyssey’s interior. First, the seats’ styling has been altered just enough—the panel seams no longer run all the way across the seats—that they no longer resemble something out of a 1980s Chrysler. Second, leather became an option since I last drove an Odyssey. Put these two changes together, and the interior now has a semi-luxurious feel to it. Still too much matte black plastic on the dash, though.

As in other Hondas, the quality of the interior materials is quite good. For example, the lids for the third row storage compartments are a separate pieces of plastic with smooth latches and conventional metal hinges. What’s so special about this? Well, in the Chryslers, even though selling for well over $30,000, this lid is the same piece of plastic as the interior body panel, with the hinge just a thin part of this piece of plastic. Like the hinges found in some cheap children’s toys.

Accommodations

Much has been made of the versatility of the Odyssey’s interior, and rightly so. As in the Honda CR-V, you can create a walk through to the second row by folding up a retractable tray table. No need to decide whether you want a tray or a walk through between the front seats—you can have one or the other at will. The second-generation van retains the disappearing third-row seat of the original. Unlike in other minivans aside from the Mazda MPV, this seat does not have to be removed from the vehicle to get a flat load floor. I have no doubt that in the future every minivan will have this feature. The second major innovation, a second row seat that slides sideways to form either a bench or two captains chairs, is a bit less useful, but innovative nonetheless. (The Mazda has this feature as well.) I suppose this might be useful since passengers prefer separate seats, while a bench makes getting to the third row easier. Finally, the EX comes standard with the dual power sliding doors available on just about every minivan these days.

The Odyssey’s size translates into a very roomy interior. Cargo room is a bit less than in the Chryslers, probably because the disappearing seat has been retained. However, there is still a huge amount of room inside this van for people and cargo. If you need much more room, you’d better be ready to live with the compromises inherent in a Ford Excursion or full-size van.

The front seats are overly flat and a bit firm, but reasonably comfortable. The driving position, as in other minivans, is high, and visibility is excellent all around.

The second and third rows are more comfortable than I remember. Perhaps they were revised in 2002, or the leather might make a difference. Unlike in some other minivans, even the third row is high enough off the floor to provide good thigh support. Legroom is adequate for adults in both rows. Shoulder room is adequate for three adults in the third row. (It should be: at 75.6 inches the Odyssey is as wide as a large car, and like the Chryslers significantly wider than the average minivan.) My main quibble remains the shape of these seats, though even this is much better than I remember in the 2000 model year van. Like the front seats, they are overly flat. A little contour, as in the Chrysler vans, would be nice.

A DVD-based entertainment system with a screen that drops down from the ceiling is available only with the EX-leather model. A very good feature to have on trips with children. Other vans offer similar systems without forcing you to get a loaded minivan with leather.

On the road

For 2002, the 3.5 liter V6 gained 30 horsepower and the transmission gained a fifth gear. Though the Odyssey was far from sluggish before, its fairly quick now. Since the Odyssey weighs 4,400 pounds, even 240 horsepower isn’t going to make a rocket out of it, but it’s all 99 percent of minivan buyers could want. Even with the power increase the engine runs on regular gas. The EPA ratings of 18/25 are quite reasonable considering the vehicle’s weight and the engine’s power. A few minivans do better, but not by much.

The largest shock this time around is again how the 2003 Odyssey rides and handles. But not in the same way as before. When I first drove an Odyssey a couple of years ago, I was quite surprised by what it was like to drive. The “Civic, just larger” theme continued on the road. That same day I’d driven a Ford Windstar and Plymouth Voyager, and the Odyssey felt nothing like those vans. To begin with, from the driver’s seat the Odyssey felt much smaller than it is. For such a large vehicle, it handled very nimbly. Not like a sports car, but almost like, well, a Honda sedan. The engine also helped. It sounded much more similar to other Honda engines than to the lower, throatier sixes in the domestic competition. Words, at least my words, can’t quite capture the sensation. Let’s just say that my immediate impression was that Honda did everything possible to make the Odyssey sound and feel much more like a Civic than any other minivan.

The flipside of these sensations was that they lent the Odyssey the feel of a utilitarian vehicle rather than of a near-luxury vehicle. Isn’t utility what minivans are about anyway? Maybe so, but many minivan buyers also desire the fluid moves, silent ride, and overall feeling of substance found in near-luxury sedans. In my review of that minivan I noted that these buyers would be much happier in a Chrysler Town & Country than in an Odyssey. The Odyssey rode well, but in the tightly controlled, uncushioned manner of other Hondas. In addition, road noise was considerably higher than in the new Chryslers.

Well, all that was then. The 2003 rides and handles much more like a Chrysler than like a 1999-2001 Odyssey. The new van is much smoother and quieter. This makes it feel more luxurious. This comes at a cost. The handling is not nearly as sharp as I recall, and the vehicle now feels as large as it is. As I noted then, I suspect this makes it a better van for the great majority of people, but something special has been lost. The revised Odyssey isn’t nearly as fun to drive as the 1999-2001. I’d say they transferred this attribute to the Pilot, which went on sale a few months ago, but Honda’s large SUV also leans towards the lux end of the lux-sport spectrum.

Last words

With its 2002 revision, the Odyssey matched the class leading Chrysler minivans in ride quality and exceeded them in acceleration. Though it lost some of its previous agility, this is a tradeoff most people buying such a vehicle will gladly make. The Odyssey remains an excellent vehicle at a reasonable price, even at sticker. The only strong reason not to get one is that the Chrysler is more stylish and offers more features while the GM minivans are a couple grand less. But beware buying a different van because of a lower price. The Honda holds its value much better than the others, so any savings will likely be lost, and then some, at trade-in time.

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Amount Paid (US$): 30,360
Model and Options: EX with leather and entertainment system