As enthusiasts, we sometimes trick ourselves into thinking that our cars either look faster than they are or, somehow, slip by as somehow stealthy. In reality, everyone knows a Tesla is fast these days. Your de-badged SRT8 Charger isn’t fooling anyone. Matt Hardigree is only human, don’t think I haven’t been through the same predicament. But if you want to be fast and truly want to sneak around town, your best bet is a new Honda Odyssey minivan.
I’m serious! Every year I drive a minivan from New York to Michigan as a road trip, with family, is always the best way to understand the state of the latest and greatest in rugrat transportation. A minivan is designed to get abused on a daily basis and yet still provide extreme comfort, which is basically half of the job of being a parent.
This is my third year running this test and the Odyssey isn’t the most luxurious van I’ve driven, nor is it the most fuel-efficient. It’s not even the cheapest. It is, however, the fastest and best handling. If you’re going to drive a minivan you’ve got a lot of choices and all of them do the basic job of moving kids from place to place. Why not get the one that’s fun to drive?
Will you use the relative sportiness of your minivan often? Probably not. Kids are an incredible amount of fun, but that fun is usually on their terms and you may get a kid that vomits when the road gets twisty. Then again, perhaps you’ll find a moment, on a back road, and then you’ll get to live your old life just for a fleeting moment.
Why Does This Car Exist?
Honda is unique among the biggest automakers in that it’s quite restrained with its product line in North America. It only has one truck in the form of the peculiar Ridgeline, which is a platform-mate with the Odyssey (and the Pilot and Passport). It has none of the big, truck-based SUVs that Toyota and Nissan have.
If it plays in a space, Honda expects to be competitive. That doesn’t mean Honda is overly conservative. It still gives us exciting performance cars like the Honda Civic Type R, oddballs like the hybrid Acura NSX, and even mainstream attempts at brilliance like the lovable Honda Element. It just means that Honda seems to do things slowly, and carefully, only entering a market if it thinks it can be competitive.
When it entered the minivan market in 1994, the Accord-based Honda Odyssey was most notable for its lack of sliding doors. It was more like an MPV than a true minivan. By the time the second-generation van rolled around it was bigger, V6-powered, and got the sliding doors it needed. Since that time, the Odyssey has been one of the more competitive vans on the market.
The current generation has been around since 2018 without many changes, so 2025 brought a visual upgrade in the form of an aesthetic that feels a lot more like the Acura NSX than, say, the new Honda Accord. This isn’t a coincidence. The new rear bumper, for instance, takes the vertical reflectors from the NSX. This, along with the new front fascia and larger foglights, is designed to give a more “premium, aspirational” look according to Honda.
I don’t know that many people aspire to be minivan owners. It just sort of happens.
Does It Do Minivan Things Well?
The default seating arrangement for American families is a seven-seat vehicle. That’s two parents, maybe three kids, and a couple of friends. Or it’s a family with one kid and a family with two kids. This doesn’t make sense to me. I keep running into situations with other families where we need eight seats.
A minivan, then, can be the perfect option here. Most minivans come either in a seven-passenger version with captain’s chairs or an eight-seat version. My family much prefers the seven-seat version because my daughter loves a captain’s chair, harboring the child’s belief that she’s the one in charge (a belief contradicted by her experience… usually). I want eight seats. Hell, I want nine seats. I don’t want a center console so much as I want a way to cram one more person in with me. I’m social like that.
The Honda Odyssey Elite I had featured seating for eight, with two up front, three in the middle, and three in the back. The car uses the same gauge cluster as my CR-V and therefore I was amused every time I saw how many seatbelts I could get plugged in at the same time.
So close…
Every year when we go for Christmas church service with my in-laws we either have to hope someone is sick or we have to take two cars. Not this year! All three kids, all four parents, and one grandma got to come along for the ride in comfort.
I’ve been barred from sawzalling the pillars off cars, so here’s a photo from Honda that shows you what the interior looks like if you remove the entire side:
I asked my family what they thought about being cramped back there and my sister-in-law was impressed with the comfort and everyone, even my mother-in-law, said they’d be fine being carted around like this for a few hours. The kids in the back were far enough away that I could barely hear them even if they did have complaints.
It’s here I should probably mention all the fun little tricks Honda does to make this an ideal situation for parents. First up is what Honda calls its “Magic Slide” second-row. This means you can remove that middle seat in the second row and either shove the two seats on the outside together or, if your kids are beaking too much for no reason, you can slide them apart. Here’s what that looks like:
The van is full of small, interesting features like this that you’ll definitely get the most out of if you’re road-tripping something like this.
One of my favorites is this two-stage sunglas holder that creates a mirror that looks back at your inhabitants. There’s also a camera mode, similar to what you find in other vans, but looking at the screen while driving isn’t something I like to do for too long. This is simpler and works better in my experience.
There’s a fold-down screen. I’m usually mixed on these because most kids have their own devices. Still, I don’t love the idea of my daughter on her iPad for the entire 14-hour drive. For some reason, it’s better that she watches Home Alone on a screen slightly further away and dangling from the ceiling.
All of this was made possible by an Amazon Fire Stick connected to the HDMI port in the center console that was hotspotting off of the car’s WiFi and then blasting audio via a pair of headphones that came with the car. You could probably also do this off of your phone if you don’t want to pay extra for your car to have WiFi.
This system worked for about 97% of the trip, with only a few short interruptions due to a loss of signal. My kiddo watched both Home Alone movies and more seasons of The Simpsons than I want to think about. We did make stops along the way and pointed out interesting places to her. We took some time to enjoy Cuyahoga Valley National Park and she earned another Jr. Ranger badge, so it wasn’t a trip completely devoid of education.
Admittedly, though, both my wife and I were a little burned out by the end of the semester and it was nice to be able to unwind and talk without a lot of interruptions. In theory, I could have used the “Cabin Talk” feature to chat with my kid via her headphones, but we discouraged her from listening too loudly to audio so it wasn’t necessary.
If there’s one downside to this particular setup it’s that my daughter kept losing the remote for the Firestick every time we stopped to do anything. It was never long and, yet, it was always annoying. My buddy has a previous-generation Odyssey and he loves it. It also has this:
A remote holder! Genius!
If there’s one minivan feature that rises above all others it’s the completely flat-folding floor, which Chrysler is still the king of right now. No one can top Stow-n-Go. Stellantis doesn’t do a lot of great things now, so you have to give them credit for having the absolute best seat-folding system in the business. Honda’s seats fold easily and create a flat floor in the back, but you can’t make all the seats disappear, which is always a disappointment.
This Thing Kinda Hauls
What it lacks in chair-stowage, the Honda Odyssey more than makes up for in low-key Q-ship performance. I think we’ve all gotten used to the idea that some SUVs are quick and powerful, even if few of them can shimmy on backroads without an expensive dose of magnetorheological dampers or other electromechanical trickery. The Odyssey doesn’t have any of that. It’s just an honest setup with MacPherson front struts up front and a multi-link rear suspension with trailing arms for the unpowered rear wheels.
That’s right. There are no powered rear wheels. While you can get various levels of “nice” in the Honda Odyssey depending on trim level, there’s only drivetrain configuration. You get Honda’s tried-and-true 3.5-liter V6, this time with VTEC and producing 280 horsepower/260 lb-ft of torque. I’m old enough to remember when that was a lot of power. The Sienna makes do with 245 horses while the Carnival Hybrid shuffles along with just 242 horsepower, though more torque. Technically, the Chrysler should be the hot rod here with 287 horsepower.
Ultimately, though, the 0-60 mph time is as low as 6.4 seconds when Car and Driver does the testing, making it faster than any minivan sold in the United States that isn’t a pure EV, including every varietal of Chrysler. It’s also faster than my Honda CR-V and, on a good day, Thomas’s Porsche Boxster. Torque steer is minimal, though you can chirp the tires a bit on a damp road if your goal is to please your kids or upset your in-laws.
I usually charge up a few on-ramps when I have a minivan just to test the vehicle’s acceleration in its most likely environment, and my family almost never even notices. They noticed with the Odyssey. When the VTEC kicks in it makes a not-terrible sound and pulls pretty damn good for a vehicle that can haul six kids and all their necessary snacks. The Odyssey also features a 10-speed automatic with a push-button interface and flappy paddles. The gearing for this is definitely more oriented for spryness than you get in any other traditional minivan.
Because it shares much of the switchgear with my Honda CR-V it was easiest to compare the two, and the Odyssey handles better in almost every way. Being FWD, it pulls itself straight across hundreds of miles of interstate (aided by Honda’s lane-keeping software). It doesn’t exactly dance around turns, but the lower center of gravity and rear stabilizer bar help keep the big van surprisingly well-planted. The electronically-boosted rack-and-pinion steering is a touch light, but more communicative than either my CR-V or any other minivan I’ve ever driven (excluding, of course, the short-lived Mazda5).
This doesn’t make it fast, per se. It’s not secretly a sports car. Don’t take it to your local SCCA Autocross expecting to take home any trophies. It’s a between-the-lines kind of fast. A maybe-the-kids-are-asleep-and-won’t-notice-me-apexing-this-turn kind of fast. A no-one-is-around-and-I-need-to-hear-noise kind of fast.
[Writer’s note: I feel compelled to point out that the Honda Odyssey is currently the only minivan sold in America with a factory racing team. We wrote about it, it rules. –TH]
The Sharon, Lois & Bram In The Room
Having only one drivetrain means that the Odyssey is now the only minivan on the market that lacks a hybrid option. With the Sienna, a hybrid powertrain is the only option. With the Pacifica, you’ve got to get the plug-in version. And with the Carnival, it’s an option. Because the Odyssey is older, Honda hasn’t yet decided to give it a hybrid option. Given the volumes it does, the CR-V, Accord, and Civic were first on the list to get the company’s hybrid system.
In theory, as Thomas pointed out, the Sienna is the no-brainer here as it’s hybrid only and starts under $40,000. In reality, it’s hard to get a Sienna at anywhere near MSRP so most other options are going to be cheaper.
I missed the hybrid, though. I drove almost 1,700 miles of around-town and highway driving and got an admirable 26.7 MPG. The Sienna gets 36 MPG city/highway/combined. That difference adds up quite quickly. The Carnival Hybrid gets 33 MPG combined, which is also significant if you drive these things long enough.
The Odyssey I borrowed was the Elite trim, and so it starts around $52,000 for all the goodies, including the 10-inch center screen, rear-seat screen, wireless phone charger, and hands-free liftgate. You’ll have to consult your family about whether or not all that’s worth it. As with most Honda products, the lowest trims end up being surprisingly nice and well-featured.
Would I Buy This One?
I assume a hybrid Odyssey will come along at some point, but it might not be this generation. It’s a shame, too, because it makes recommending the otherwise pleasant Honda van to people a little harder. I liked the Pacifica PHEV, but only as a rental or a lease, and would be wary for a long-termer. Give me the Honday any day. The Kia Carnival is the most attractive and most comfortable of all the minivans, and in base trim the hybrid is still a couple of grand cheaper than the cheapest Odyssey, which starts in the $42,000 range. It would be mighty tempting.
We’ll have a Sienna review from Thomas soon and I’d like to do the same test with the new version of that van, though I’ve also driven a rental version of the hybrid and thought it was quite capable, if not a touch overstyled and numb. Hopefully, the new version has improved.
Being a parent is expensive and the best deal might be the best deal. You can’t go wrong with a Sienna, a Carnival, or an Odyssey, so if you cross-shop and get a nice price on one the other that’s maybe your answer. If reliability is your key metric, then a Honda or the Toyota are safe bets. If you’re struggling with the idea of owning a minivan, the Carnival is the least-minivan-y.
If you’re less interested in a hybrid and fancy yourself a Max Verstappen, albeit one with a full brood, then the Odyssey is really the only choice.
We finally entered the world of minivan ownership this year after much resistance and hesitation from myself – due to vanity, as embarrassing as that is to admit.
I wanted a Sienna or an Odyssey, but used examples are still $20,000 or more even with north of 100,000 miles. They are very capable and reliable vehicles, yes. But with that many miles, who knows in actuality how the previous owner(s) treated the van maintenance-wise?
We settled on a 2018 Kia Sedona SX from CarMax with a scant 48,000 miles and zero signs of ever having hauled a child. It was a 1-owner vehicle with no child seat marks, talk radio stations as all of its XM presets, shiny garage-kept paint, and a faint cigar smoke smell. This was clearly a Papaw’s van.
Being wary of Kia’s reliability or lack thereof, I opted for the 100,000 mile “MaxCare” warranty that CarMax offered.
And yeah, the thing hauls as well. I pulled out into traffic the other day and gave it near full throttle and was mightily impressed. Who knew minivans were virtual rocket ships?
I’ve been tempted to manual swap an older odyssey since there are so many with dead transmissions. It would be fun to drive, and the J35 engine sounds good too. But I have no need for a van.
Do it – you don’t know you need a van until you own one!
I miss my old Odyssey dearly, and my wife won’t let me get a minivan as the family car…
My dad has a 16 Odyssey with 176k. He recently put 7 kids and all their skis in it by taking out the center console and middle 2nd row seat. When I drive it, I’m surprised by the speeds I can pick up in it without thinking about it.
As others have mentioned you’ll still come out far ahead financially with this vs. the Sienna even with the worse MPG. We cross shopped them last year and the Sienna would’ve been $~8k more OTD for a version with worse equipment. That buys a lot of gas.
The ability to be an 8 seater or have captain’s chairs is fantastic. We use the captain’s chairs day to day to leave room for the dog or slide the seats together if the kids want it, but put the middle seat in for road trips so one of us can be back with the kids if needed while still having a truly massive cargo area. This flexibility should be the default for a kid hauler IMO, but only the Carnival has a similar arrangement.
The convex mirror in sunglass holder is the greatest thing ever. Had one in our 2015 Caravan. I was amazed that they actually used a low-fi $3 part that was absolutely perfect for its job rather than trying to shove in another multiple hundred dollar tech doo dad to achieve the same result, only not as well.
10/10 no notes
Our 2018 Sedona has this as well and I really like it to keep an eye on what the heathens are up to back there.
We just got the 2019 version of this van because our Juke is waiting on a new ECU from the factory. I have to drive a twisty road to pick up my kid and I tell you, this can get around a corner. I was surprised to feel it handle much better than the Elantra rental we had. I love that it has the beans to go fast, but really encourages to be safe and efficient. Not too much nannying but enough keep you from turning into a jerk. The Juke turned me into a jerk, now I’m a minivan dad (who will dust you!).
I’m not in the minivan demographic nor in the market for one, but I love them. What a practical form factor. The Honda’s styling has been odd over the years and I have never cared for any generation of Odyssey’s looks.
The current generation has that really odd disjointed notch thing in the rear doors that looks so out of place and ruins the lines of the vehicle. Is there a practical purpose for that or is it purely terrible and ugly design?
The Ody is my van of choice, when I have to drive a passenger van. Smooth V6 and lux feel in the higher trims.
The Sienna is also nice, but rare. They still have a multi month wait list and MSRP+ pricing. A neighbor got a Sienna shortly after COVID hit drove it 20K miles and sold it 2 years later for a $10k profit. She’s a single mother with one teenage kid, so when a dealer made her an offer she couldn’t refuse, she jumped on it.
my uncle got a brand new 2023 Sienna with a Braun wheelchair conversion. He had to wait about 4 months for it but considering all the work involved it wasn’t half bad.
Honestly it’s the best vehicle for his needs, so roomy, easy to access and quiet inside, but having driven it a handful times it doesn’t have the beans from the Odyssey, Pacifica nor the previous gen Sienna with the gas V6.
I guess the MSRP+ is a combination of the Toyota tax as well as maxed out capacity towards other better selling vehicles like the Highlander, but when it comes to driveability it feels so much slower than 245hp could suggest and the EV only mode is very hard to achieve due to its weight and small battery pack so it only gets around 29-30 MPG combined. The cabin is also a sea of hard gray plastics that would make even a Chrysler product blush.
I’d rather save thousands on a late previous gen Sienna and pocket the money for gas. Or maybe the Carnival if I want a Hybrid van. I guess different strokes for different folks.
The 3.5 Turbo on the Transit is also surprisingly quick
I’m a huge fan of the Odyssey. I have a 2024 EXL, which is all the trim we needed with the wife and big dog, who does not watch TV. Yes, there’s no hybrid or AWD, but if you know how to drive in the snow, I’ve never found this to be an issue (this is my second Odyssey). We looked at the Sienna, but the fact you cannot remove the second row at all and to get the basic stuff we wanted with maybe AWD pushed the price difference (to say nothing of the unobtanium status) to the point where the lack of hybrid on the Honda at the lower price point made it a financial wash. One other thing I discovered on watching the reviews of the Sienna is that it’s one of those new generation of vehicles where the tailgate is functionally flush with the bumper, which means that any rear-end owies are likely to require a new tailgate. No thanks, I like my Odyssey. I’m sure it will last at least 14 years like the other one did too.
The non removable second row of the Sienna is a real bummer. I know a lot of people don’t remove the second row often, but for me half the appeal of the van is cargo versatility.
the Sienna also feels much slower than 245hp might suggest. It’s one of the very few Hybrids I’ve driven that feels overtaxed by the size and weight of the vehicle.
My uncle’s Sienna LE Hybrid only gets 29 combined, doing a 60% city / 40% hwy commute. The EV only almost never kicks in, and when it does it only stays on for few seconds before switching back to gas only.
It also feels dated and cheap inside compared to pretty much any other new minivan out there. It almost feels like an unfinished product, something IMO very non-Toyota
I drove a Hybrid Sienna as a rental car from Chicago to Utah and back a couple years ago. It handled and drove well enough and we averaged 37mpg for the journey. But I agree the interior seemed chintzy and the floors sloped weirdly, and the only 12v outlet was in the dash, which made it stupid to plug in the cooler. At the time I was shopping the only way to get an outlet in the cargo area was the top trim level.
I had the ’05 version of they Odyssey when my kids were small enough to justify it. I fell in love with it in the first week. I was picking my sons up at their day care provider after work, at the time they were 1 & 3. It was raining like crazy that afternoon with no indication I could wait for the rain to ease up without risking getting caught in horrible tunnel traffic. So I grabbed my key fob, opened the sliding door remotely and carried both them as quickly as I could into the van. With clicker in hand I closed the door behind me as soon as we cleared the threshold. Now in the dry, warm van I could buckle both boys in without having my rear end hanging out of a car door while I secure them in their car seats. Then, I could step into my seat without even going back outside. With an SUV or even regular car it might have taken two trips and I would have been soaked at the end of the operation.
Long live the mini-van, best family car every made.
Our Pacifica Hybrid 12V battery died on a trip across the Midwest and we had to rent a Honda Odyssey Sport to do most of our trip.
The Honda might be my choice in a city with perfect roads and plenty of curves to drive on. Pacifica comfort seemed measurably better and that is what we value.
The Odyssey is a fantastic road-tripper.
An underrated feature are the little, dim, directional lights that shine down into cubbies so that you can see where to put your drink or whatever without having to snap on the overhead lights.
An annoying feature in ours is the tailgate, it raises to a point (barely horizontal even) where I can run my head right into it, and I’m only 6ft. My FIL’s Fit has a tailgate that raises nearly straight up and down. Why Honda?!?
Another “feature” is that the middle seats fold, but somehow not flat against themselves. Makes it really difficult to take them out as they won’t lock properly. These are my two main complaints, otherwise the van is great, but it’s admittedly quite bad in the snow (vs our other cars with all-seasons).
Still, minivans are so versatile, it’s too bad we are largely stuck with inferior SUVs everywhere.
The tailgate height can’t be adjusted? It can in so many cars, I would expect it to be in a Honda.
It can be, you can adjust it to stop at any position in it’s range, but I don’t think it goes quite as tall as some others. I’m 6’0″ and I can barely stand under it at it’s tallest setting.
This is true for the power tailgate, but I don’t think there’s a higher max for the manual one other than it’s quite low version.
Ours is a 2019 manual tailgate and you absolutely cannot stand under it at 6ft. It’s about 5’10” when raised fully. It’s ridiculous and all over the internet.
One such thread here – https://www.odyclub.com/threads/problem-with-opening-height-of-tailgate-on-2019-honda-odyssey-ex.349995/
For the power tailgate yes, for the manual one….. Apparently not. It’s just an absurdly low max height. The thing thirsts for the blood of foreheads.
The height limit on tailgates typically corresponds to the inside height of an open garage door. They presume someone will try to open it while it’s parked in the garage and crush it up against the back of the garage door or ceiling.
Remember, when there is a rule or something like it, that means that 100+ people have necessitated it. I promise you, many people have probably done this and then tried to complain or sue the manufacturer for their own stupidity.
We are limited by the dumbest among us.
I would normally agree, but it’s like 5’10” at full raise.
Never been in a 6ft garage before. If it was simply 3 inches higher I probably wouldn’t hate it so much.
The difference between 26.7 mpg and 36 mpg doesn’t add up quickly though. At $3.50 per gallon, that’s only $337 difference per 10,000 miles. Gets lost in the noise or the cost of option packages or how good a deal you get at the dealer, especially for someone willing to buy new instead of used.
Or $57 on the 1700 miles that Matt said he drove. So maybe one fill-up or less.
Those are highway numbers though. 19 city/22 combined for the Odyssey while the FWD Sienna is 36 across the board, that can about double the savings. But still a good point if you lean more to highway driving, especially since Odysseys tend to be more available in inventory.
I might have little driving experience with the Sienna Hybrid but the one my uncle owns only does 29 combined with a 60/40 city HWY mix. It feels quite heavy for the small powertrain and battery. It doesn’t stay in EV mode that much, perhaps only when taking off from a stop sign or on a green light. Or if you’re on a perfectly flat road at less than 60, otherwise the gas engine goes on.
My aunt drives that van much more than I do, and her Rav4 is way closer to the EPA combined mileage, she’s doing 27 combined vs the EPA’s 30.
There might be other more positive scenarios out there but that’s what I can tell from my experience with 2 vehicles from the same brand, same drivers and similar commutes.
So if you ask me, no the Sienna is not worth it in MPGs over an Odyssey, not sure about the others but the Carnival seems promising
I see all different takes on the real-world mileage of Toyota and Honda hybrids – some high, some low compared to the ratings – so I appreciate another example. 29 is still good for the segment but a steeper difference from the rating compared to V6 vans. When I see cars sitting in the school pickup lanes waiting for end of the day I always think how that specifically is a great use for a hybrid, even a smaller vehicle might dip into the teens there.
I’ve wondered about the Carnival real-world too; my dad has an early Niro and has always met or exceeded its ratings, but some reviews for the turbo 1.6 hybrids seemed lower though.
Not to mention you also have the cost of a battery replacement hanging over your head at some point. I think, once that gets factored back into the mileage it lasted, there may be no savings at all.
My butt dyno is not finely tuned enough to tell the difference between one of these and a Pacifica, having had both as rentals. Or the Sienna for that matter. Haven’t driven the Korean vans. All are faster than they have any need of being. I would prefer less speed and more efficiency. Which is where the Toyota scores, but the prices of Siennas are *ridiculous*, as is the availability so on top of ridiculous MSRPs, you have inevitable added dealer greed too. I’m with you on not entirely trusting the Hybrid Pacifica, especially as unlike the regular one, it isn’t ever cheap. Ultimately, I see vans as completely disposable vehicles so I would never buy one new anyway. The good old last of the Dodge Caravans are entirely adequate, and nice ones owned by grannies are quite cheap.
Vans are the answer if you have people to haul around, not idiotic 3-row CUVs. But too many wives need to pretend not to be the soccer moms they actually are.
“All are faster than they have any need of being. I would prefer less speed and more efficiency.”
I am with you in principle. I value fuel efficiency more than speed and a bit higher than agility.
I will say however I found the efficiency of the plain Jane Pacifica impressive. On a road trip across the Southwest I managed an average close to 32 mpg in a rental that looked like its life had been hard. Granted that’s almost all highway strictly observing the speed limits and I dunno what I might have managed in heavy traffic but 32 mpg carrying 5 folks plus luggage is quite good.
230hp and 35mpg for less money would be even better. They are terrible around town of course.
That’s what the hybrid is for.
In theory yes, but the added cost of a hybrid buys quite a lot of gas… Lighter and slower increases efficiency for *free*.
Ultimately, there is simply no need for a van to go 0-60 faster than 10 seconds or so. Or any other “family” vehicle.
Oh I agree! But only if there are efficiency gains to be had. I don’t think for instance putting in a weaker electric motor will help an EV much and it might even hurt braking performance.
“Lighter and slower increases efficiency for *free*.”
Lighter also helps agility, a trait I value more than power. The heavier nose of the V6 in the Gen7 Accord was quite noticeable vs the 4cyl.
Exactly why I preferred my “slow” e30 318is vs. an e30 325i. Faster in a straight line is rarely all that useful, when the car is already “fast enough”. And TANSTAAFL always applies, so you pay for that extra speed in various ways, not just money.
There is the question of NVH. How’s that 318 I4 compare to that 325 I6?
Perfectly lovely, albeit completely different. They rev like they are Italian. The 318is was very much the “poor man’s M3”. Don’t try one, you will want one, and they are *stupid* expensive at this point. Shoulda kept mine, it was mint. Sold it for ALL the money 15 years ago, and now it’s worth 4X that.
Have a 2015 Odyssey that is still going strong–feels quite new in many ways. I love it. Most reliable car I’ve ever owned.
Only problem was when my kid opened a sliding door into a high curb while it was parallel parked. Not her fault, but it messed everything up badly–the powered sliding door pulley broke and it was $1800 to fix it. I looked up trying to do it myself and it was not a job for a beginner.
Minivans are perfect for families and perfect for the outdoors–hauling gear. Not going to take it into Jeep territory of course, but it will go most places you need to haul stuff.
I also finished my basement with the 2x4s and drywall hauled in it. So yeah, kind of does it all.
Minivans are cool. Always thought so. Still think it’s true based on this.
I have two of the second gen Mazda MPVs, both with the Ford 3.0 Duratec engine. They are comfortable and useful 7/8 scale minivan rockets!
I wish they still made vans the size of a Mazda5. I’d be all over it.
I have spent significant time in both a Sienna and a Town and Country; I would take the comfort of the middle row and the sacrifice in practicality of the Sienna over the stow ‘n’ go seats, which, in my experience, are like sitting on boards. However, my experience is limited to the Town & Country. Have the seats improved in the Pacifica?
Came here to say this. I’ve rented a lot of Pacificas as my kids are older and SUVs are basically torture chambers when you get past 5′ tall. In the hybrid (non Stow ‘n’ Go), you get nicely bolstered usable seats. In the gasser, the things are flat and devoid of any real support. The potential to spontaneously have to need a flat floor is a lot lower than the potential to hear complaints on a long trip…I’d rather throw seats in the garage when I need that floor than have uncomfortable seats.
No. And that is why I would only buy one with captain’s chairs in the middle row. Stow and go seats suck as seats.I’m with MikeInCO – I would rather heft those seats out on the rare occasion I would need max cargo room.
The 2004 Quest was a real burner. Maxima motor and huge, low-profile tires made it haul ass compared to the others of the day. I could tell it was designed to convince husbands.
Still, I’m glad we got the Sienna instead.
A guy at work still has his Quest. I think it’s an ’02 but it’s definitely showing its age. The car is rusting around that beautiful 3.0L.