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The 2018 Honda Odyssey minivan may be the long-distance cruiser of choice for larger groups, rather than an SUV. Honda has crafted a vehicle capable of repose, comfortable travel for six to eight. A raft of entertainment technology helps the passengers pass time, while a near state-of-the-art ready of commuter assists lightens the load.

In a game of leapfrog amid the just-launched 2018 Odyssey, the year-old Chrysler Pacifica, and the aging simply refreshed Toyota Sienna, the race favors Honda. Chrysler has a lot going for information technology, including hide-away second row seats and a plug-in hybrid version. The Sienna dates to 2011, but it's the clear (as in simply) pick if you want all-wheel-drive.

2018 Odyssey in a nutshell

This Odyssey offers 4G LTE Wi-Fi and video streaming; a simpler roof-mount video screen; smartphone control of rear entertainment and rear climate command, and the power to send destinations from a smartphone to the car. Navigation is by Garmin, which translates to: very good. A rear-facing camera (CabinWatch) monitors the second and 3rd rows, while a PA system (CabinTalk) can accost the rear-seat miscreants. The Brandish Audio infotainment arrangement center screen will go on to polarize owners, with just a single control knob (for book) and 1-3 USB jacks for eight passengers.

The commuter gets adaptive cruise command that is not yet full-range, blind spot detection, lane departure warning, and a lot more. The V6 engine jumps from 248 hp to 280 hp, while the automatic transmission either has nine or x speeds, depending on trim level. At 60 mph, the 10-speed I tested allows the engine to loaf at 1,560 rpm and get nearly 30 mpg highway. The instrument console is digital. With more advanced materials, including more than sound boring and laminated acoustic glass for a truly tranquility cabin, vehicle weight is down by 75 pounds, to iv,400-iv,600 (over again depending on trim level).

The Odyssey holds equally many as 8 passengers. The Magic Slide second-row seats slide left-right to permit super-easy tertiary row access if yous remove the narrow middle seat of the 2nd row. The Odyssey's row-two seats are amend padded, more comfy, and heavier (to remove) than on Chrysler Pacifica, whose thinner (less comfortable) seats fold into the floor and don't need to be removed.

More driver aid technology with Honda Sensing

Savvy family-oriented automakers are bundling their driver assist and safe offerings into a single branded package offered on about all models–except, sometimes, the lowest trim line that exists for a low teaser price in ads. Honda calls it Honda Sensing; Toyota the Toyota Condom System (TSS).

Honda Sensing is standard on every Odyssey, except the entry Odyssey Sixty that comprises 5 percent of sales. It includes:

  • Adaptive cruise control (ACC) paces the car ahead at speeds of 22 mph or more. Information technology lacks full-range ACC capability or low-speed follow.
  • Forrard standoff alarm (FCW) with collision mitigation braking (CMBS), at speeds above 10 mph (for tracking vehicles) and with a closing differential of at least 10 mph, warns the commuter ("Brake!" flashes in the instrument panel), then applies the brakes to avert or mitigate a collision with the motorcar in front. Honda says CMBS differentiates betwixt vehicles and pedestrians and brakes for both.
  • Lane keeping assistance (LKAS) with route departure mitigation (RDM), a pace up from lane departure warning. Together, they pull the car back into lane when it veers likewise close to the lane edge. It is not, nevertheless, continuously self-centering (lane-centering assist), as on some college-stop vehicles. Honda uses haptic feedback, a steering wheel shaker, to warn the commuter. Route departure mitigation works at 45-90 mph.
  • Blind spot detection (BSD), chosen blind spot data by Honda, is non technically a office of Honda Sensing. But the trim lines that get Honda Sensing also get BSD, along with rear cantankerous traffic alert (rear cross traffic monitor in Honda terminology). The warning is a beep, not haptic feedback, but at least the beep is not annoyingly loud. Bullheaded spot detection replaces LaneWatch, the passenger-side-simply camera that displayed a rear-facing view on the eye stack screen, with three distance-gauging lines that allow the driver decide if it was rubber to change lanes.

The top two trim lines, Touring and Elite, the ones selling in the mid-forties, also get front and rear parking sonar. Lower grades can add it as a dealer option, only the labor accuse makes it pricy.

Other active condom features across the line include electronic stability control (vehicle stability assistance, VSA, in Honda parlance), traction control, electronic brake distribution, a multi-bending rear photographic camera with dynamic backing-up guidelines, tire pressure level monitoring and Tire Fill Aid (the horn chirps while calculation air when the tire reaches the proper pressure), auto high beams, and daytime running lights.

One disappointment amid driver assists, as mentioned above, is that adaptive cruise command doesn't go down to 0 mph and back to speed, as is available on other, less expensive Hondas including the Civic and CR-V. Honda says the vehicle platform that includes the Odyssey, the Ridgeline pickup, and the Airplane pilot midsize SUV would need a new VSA (vehicle stability assist) organisation to let total-range ACC. (The platform likewise includes the Acura MDX, which does have total-range ACC.) Dealers selling the Chrysler Pacifica or Toyota Sienna will exist happy to note their minivans practise full-range ACC.

Infotainment done correct on higher trim levels

Amusement is key on a vehicle chauffeuring kids on long trips, or well as around town. Honda upped its game with the 2018 Odyssey, adding a telematics module on the superlative two lines for streaming entertainment (AT&T service), Wi-Fi, and infotainment updates (simply not engine software updates). The system is Android-based and quicker to respond than the previous generation.

The integrated cellular link is but on the top two Odysseys, Touring and Elite. The midgrade EX-L offers rear entertainment and can use a tethered telephone for internet access. At that place'due south even a built-in PBS Kids app. If navigation is set to a destination, a How Much Farther app shows time to the destination. For limited access interstates, it would be overnice if it showed the time to the next rest area as well–although as parents well know, a child never admits to a virtually full float until you've just passed the rest cease.

Honda CabinControl

The outgoing Odyssey's xvi.ii-inch dual image screen for the second and tertiary rows gives way to a more practical 10.2-inch, unmarried-paradigm WSVGA (1024 x 600) display (photo above), Honda realizing more than passengers have their own tablets or phones for viewing. (The Chrysler Pacifica offers 2 screens, with each set up in the front seat seatback.)

CabinWatch and CabinTalk let the front seat go on an eye on the dorsum seat, and keep gild if necessary. CabinWatch is an ultra broad-angle camera with IR illuminators that covers all rear seats and shows the video image on the 8-inch forepart display. Using pinch and scroll finger movements, you can zoom in on a single seat to continue an eye on a sleeping child. CabinTalk is a PA organisation to pass along orders to the rear seat miscreants. It interrupts the infotainment programming audio for anyone connected via the infrared headphones, the third-row headset jacks, or listening to the rear speakers. The audio is a little spooky and repeat-y because feedback from the rear speakers gets picked upward past the front microphones. It's overcome by mom or dad speaking louder.

The Odyssey has its own smartphone app, CabinControl. Load the app and you can command the rear amusement organization, cabin heat, and AC, and send directions to the navigation system. This terminal characteristic is a fashion around nav systems that lock out touch-screen address entry one time the auto starts rolling. Until Honda and others figure a way to tell the nav organization information technology's the rider directly entering a destination onscreen, not the driver, this is a passable workaround.

Terminal generation Brandish Audio annoyed owners because it had no physical buttons or knobs. Now there's a volume knob.

Display Audio: They added one knob

Honda'south center touch-screen brandish and interface is called Display Audio. Originally, it was touch-screen exclusively, with no knobs or buttons. But customers and focus groups whimpered about the difficulty of striking the right part of the screen on all merely the smoothest highways, not to mention having to tap at small upward-down icons to control volume or tune station-to-station. Long-time Honda customers recalled the good sometime days with big concrete buttons to the left and right of the screen.

Honda listened. Honda acted. Honda added a volume knob.

Another outcome is the stingy supply of USB jacks. On a vehicle that holds up to eight passengers, you lot get one minimum, three maximum (with the rear amusement system). The third row gets headphone jacks and 12-volt sockets. Want USB charging back there? Buy a couple of USB power adapters, Honda says. And try not to lose them.

The only style to get a 115-volt AC outlet is to buy an Odyssey with the rear amusement organisation, meaning you lot're paying at to the lowest degree $40K. Honda links 115 VAC to RES because some passengers will bring game consoles along to plug into the overhead brandish, says Honda, ignoring passengers who desire to run a laptop, recharge camera batteries, or run whatsoever other device that uses AC and not 12-volt battery ability.

On the road with the Odyssey

2018 Honda Odyssey shifter.

Honda introduced the 2018 Odyssey on Hawaii'southward Big Island, then we didn't arrive whatever long-distance interstate driving. Merely at 55 mph, the Odyssey Elite with extra noise insulation, active racket cancellation, and laminated front end and side glass, provided what Honda bills as a "conversational cabin." It is. The digital instrument console has a digital (e'er displayed) speedometer, a ribbon tachometer at the acme with a faint rpm needle, and a color multi-information display showing the driver'due south choice of audio, navigation, phone, or auto functions.

A new-design shifter machinery (photo correct) is moving across Honda models, with a vertical stack of center stack buttons you lot can press or, in the case of reverse, pull backwards. It takes getting used to. Paddle shifters let you shift gears manually.

The V6 now direct injects gasoline into the combustion chambers, allowing for a higher compression ratio (11.5:1) and 32 more horsepower (280 total). Combined with the Honda-designed ten-speed automatic, the marketplace at present has a 2.25-ton minivan capable of hitting lx mph in about 7 seconds by my stopwatch tests. The 10-speed is on the tiptop two trim lines only, Touring and Elite. The entry and middle levels get a ZF nine-speed automatic (on LX, EX, EX-L) that has generated some user feedback on other Hondas about rough shifting, odd noises, dropping into neutral, and early on reliability issues.

Overall, Honda has engineered a minivan that's fun to bulldoze. Y'all won't mistake it for a Borough Blazon R. (Hint: only i autocrosses competitively and but one carries three cubic yards of bagged cedar mulch). But Honda is the benchmark for fun-t0-bulldoze among minivans.

The second row seats are enough comfy for adults, more than and so than in the Pacifica. The third row actually fits adults reasonably well, improve than any SUV (discounting the 225-inch SUVs) I've ever driven. The Odyssey is 203 inches long, about the same as a Chevrolet Tahoe, just the Odyssey will be much better for three rows of passengers. On the flip side, a full-size SUV like the Tahoe tows near vi,000 pounds, whereas the Odyssey can simply pull 3,000.

With the new transmission, active grille shutters and a body one inch narrower, all trim lines render 19 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, 22 mpg combined on regular fuel, meaning a highway cruising range of 500-plus miles. Compared with the outgoing Odyssey, that's a ane mpg comeback on highway mileage. All have eight airbags including Honda'southward first driver/passenger articulatio genus airbags.

The trim walk: What'due south on what model

The base Odyssey, the Threescore, $thirty,930 including $940 freight, exists mostly to say in that location's an Odyssey priced nether $xxx,000, ignoring that y'all must pay shipping; yous can't become information technology waived by picking it up at the Lincoln, Alabama Odyssey factory. Simply one in 20 Odyssey buyers goes with the LX. It'south missing several driver assist condom features that assistance avoid accidents, simply it has the aforementioned airbag configuration, seat belt, and Advanced Compatibility Applied science (ACE) body structure as the rest of the line. The manual is a nine-speed with paddle shifters. There's 1 USB jack and ii 12-volt sockets. The audio arrangement has seven speakers. The center console colour LCD is 5 inches diagonal. Tail lamps are LED.

The Odyssey EX, $34,800, adds Honda Sensing. Running lights are LED. Row ii seats have the Magic Slide feature. It gets Brandish Audio with an viii-inch screen, Hard disk drive and satellite radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats and outside mirrors, and 2d row sunshades (very useful). Sliding doors are powered. The engine can be remotely started.

The Odyssey EX-L, $38,300, gets leather interior trim that includes the steering bike, an auto-dim rearview mirror, HomeLink (garage door opener), a ability moonroof, and a power tailgate.

The Odyssey EX-L Nav/RES, $40,300, gets navigation, voice recognition, a multi-review rear camera, a rear entertainment system with a Blu-ray player and wireless headsets, CabinTalk, and a 115-volt outlet.

The Odyssey Touring, $45,450, adds the 10-speed automatic and engine finish/kickoff, CabinWatch, mobile hotspot, HondaVac, 2d-and-tertiary row sunshades, a hands-free power tailgate (kick under the bumper to open), LED headlamps with auto-high axle, LED fog lamps, and forepart-rear parking sonar.

The Odyssey Elite, $47,610, adds premium 11-speaker sound, a wireless phone charger, a heated steering wheel, ventilated/heated forepart seats, ambient cockpit lighting, xix-inch blend wheels, rain-sensing wipers, and power-folding mirrors. It also gets even more than audio-visual treatments. Despite prices in the mid-forties, Honda estimates one in four Odyssey sales will be either the top-level Touring or Elite.

Should y'all purchase?

The U.s.a. market for SUVs and crossovers, ranging from the Bentley Bentayga ($250,000, 884 sales last year) to the Honda CR-5 ($thirty,000, 357,000 sales), amounted to 100 models and seven.0 million units. That's 13 times the size of the minivan market (550,000 in 2016). Millennials who rode to soccer practise when the minivan marketplace peaked circa 2000 with 1.3 million sales may have fond memories of them, and they might create a second wave of demand. Maybe the stigma will go away.

The ii top minivan sellers in 2016 were the aging Toyota Sienna, and Chrysler's legacy edition Contrivance Yard Caravan, essentially the frozen-in-time K Caravan held over with affordable pricing ($27,000 entry model) compared with the Chrysler Pacifica ($30,000 with shipping). Both sold well-nigh 130,000 units (Odyssey sold about 5,000 less). The Thou Caravan is old; buy it if you want to booty a lot of people cheaply. The Sienna at to the lowest degree has the all-cycle-bulldoze choice and a very proficient powertrain to recommend it in its final two years earlier a complete 2019 practice-over.

The Chrysler Town & Country is the upscale cousin to the aging One thousand Caravan. The Kia Sedona is a contempo entry in the minivan category and has a tricky characteristic: second row captain's chairs with fold-out leg rests, similar business class airplane seats. The Nissan Quest was recently discontinued. That's pretty much the minivan market. Ford and GM are long gone.

So, for the many looking for the newest and well-nigh useful technology, it comes down to the Odyssey versus the Pacifica. Chrysler'due south is well-nigh as new, and feature-rich, as the Odyssey. The 2d-row Chrysler Stow 'northward' Go seats that fold into the flooring make sense for people who don't desire to wrestle them in and out every time they've got lots of cargo to booty. The Pacifica offers a plug-in hybrid version (called "hybrid" by Chrysler) that goes 33 miles on batteries, mayhap good enough for soccer practice chauffeuring and shopping chores. Yous might never need gasoline except on weekends.

The Pacifica also wins a few features battles against the Odyssey, such as full-range adaptive cruise control or 20 speakers to Honda's xi, and matches Honda in offering a built-in vacuum cleaner (Honda had it beginning), Garmin navigation (Chrysler had it first), agile dissonance cancellation to clammy road dissonance, and tailgates that open when you make a kicking motion under the rear bumper (Ford and BMW had information technology first).

Otherwise, it's reward Honda: more and newer features, a quieter cockpit, more comfy second row seats, and better driving dynamics. If anything helps button minivans dorsum toward a 1000000 sales, it volition be vehicles such equally Odyssey. That, and perhaps a generation that grew up in the back of minivans.