2021 Honda Odyssey review: Carry kids and cargo, no crossover required

Crossover-SUVs may well be scorching scorching scorching, but do not price reduction the minivan. What when was a nerdy manner of household transportation is now a fashionable way to haul children and equipment. Scenario in place, the refreshed 2021 Honda Odyssey.

If you’re very seriously in the current market for a minivan, I do not envision driving dynamics are your key problem. Alternatively, you’re probable a lot more intrigued in the tremendous comfy entrance seats, or the three-across second row with a detachable center section. With out that center seat in place, the outboard chairs can slide from aspect to aspect. This tends to make acquiring into the 3rd row even much easier, and indicates dad and mom can different their bratty children if they get started preventing. The 3rd row has room for three children or two average-sized grown ups.

Regardless of where your children are seated, you can preserve an eye on them with the out there CabinWatch aspect, which displays a video feed of the rear compartment on the entrance infotainment screen. It even has night vision so you can see your children in the darkish, and now functions with the rear seat reminder to not only explain to you if you still left a child in the auto accidentally, but present you which one particular. What a entire world. Also, the CabinTalk tech employs a microphone to undertaking the driver’s voice as a result of the rear headphones and speakers.

Admittedly, I didn’t have any reason to use the child-monitoring capabilities. But I did get to check out the vacuum cleaner. It functions as marketed.

Infotainment tech in my completely loaded Elite tester is managed on an 8-inch touchscreen with standard Apple CarPlay and Android Vehicle, but the foundation model will get a five-inch unit without the need of smartphone integration. Nevertheless, even the larger sized Exhibit Audio software isn’t really my favored, due to the fact there would seem to be one particular further stage for every functionality. Not excellent.

In back again, the Odyssey Elite has a ten.2-inch dropdown screen with two wireless headphone sets. 2nd-row kiddos get one particular HDMI port and two 2.five-amp USB-A stores. The 3rd row has two headphone jacks (sorry, no wireless models for these unfavorites), as effectively as one particular 2.five-amp USB-A port and a twelve-volt, 800-watt outlet. Up entrance, mom and dad are flush with charging possibilities, too, such as a few of USB-A ports, a twelve-volt outlet and a lot more.

As for cargo-hauling — children often occur with cargo, right? — the area at the rear of the 3rd row has up to 38.6 cubic feet of area. I dig the very low, large-load area that enables the 3rd row seats to fold flat, and when they are stowed, cargo area will increase to 91 cubic feet. Nevertheless, if I want to unleash the Odyssey’s real hauling likely, I have to consider the second row seats out, which is no effortless endeavor. Each and every seat weighs about 70 pounds and just has me craving for the Stow-N-Go seats located in the Chrysler Pacifica. Absolutely sure, the Odyssey has a lot more area when the chairs are eliminated, but I am going to consider a somewhat smaller area for effortless-peasy stowing.

When it will come time to actually travel, the Odyssey doesn’t disappoint. The 3.five-liter V6 and lots of zip for merging on to the freeway. The engine is paired with a ten-pace computerized transmission that routes ability to the entrance wheels. All-wheel travel is not out there, which stinks due to the fact the Pacifica and Toyota Sienna now provide this aspect. There is, however, a snow manner that recalibrates the traction handle parameters to manage the slick things.

The Odyssey returns an EPA-estimated 19 miles per gallon in the metropolis, 28 mpg on the freeway and 22 mpg combined. Throughout a 7 days of tests I actually conquer the EPA, averaging 24.6 mpg combined. Nevertheless, households who are on the lookout for even much better gas economy should glance at the hybrid powertrains in the Pacifica and Sienna. The Sienna will get up to 36 mpg combined whilst the plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica has 32 miles of all-electric variety and will get 82 MPGe.

The Odyssey behaves much better than you’d hope on curvy roads, but it genuinely excels at everyday driving. The journey high-quality is outstanding, it under no circumstances feels severe or jarring and the cabin is silent all the whilst. New for this 12 months is an electric brake booster, which increases brake truly feel and features a shorter pedal stroke.

All of present-day modern-day driver-assistance capabilities are below, and most are standard. Blind-spot monitoring does not grace the entry-amount LX trim, but other driving aids are standard. It’s wonderful to see that adaptive cruise handle now has very low-pace following, due to the fact in preceding years, it would disengage down below 22 mph, building it useless in cease-and-go website traffic. Also new for this 12 months are website traffic-indication recognition, which functions like it should, and pedestrian emergency braking, which I fortuitously haven’t expert. The lane-preserving help mostly functions effectively, but it can be a small iffy at periods. A very good reminder to preserve your arms on the wheel.

Although the 2021 Honda Odyssey begins at $32,910 such as $1,a hundred and twenty for place, my prime Elite tester will come out to $forty nine,335. The sweet spot in the lineup is the EX-L for $39,580. The EX-L is effectively-equipped with heated entrance seats, four USB-A ports and three twelve-volt stores, the 8-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay, Android Vehicle and tri-zone computerized local weather handle. I get rid of ventilated entrance seats, CabinWatch and CabinTalk, as effectively as the rear-seat entertainment method, wireless charging, a Wi-Fi hotspot and the vacuum cleaner, but I’m not certain people capabilities are worthy of the $ten,000 upcharge for the Elite.

The refreshed 2021 Honda Odyssey is an outstanding selection for people who need to haul children and equipment, but do not want to get into the three-row SUV current market. The Pacifica and Sienna do provide electrified possibilities and all-wheel-travel functionality, building them very seriously intense rivals, but the Odyssey at minimum has a ton of household-welcoming capabilities and a peppy V6 to boot.