Minivans Are For Real
Five hundred thousand minivans were sold in America last year. Is that enough confirmation, maybe even permission, to give you the confidence to own a minivan? Case in point is the 2021 Honda Odyssey, now in its fifth generation. It can haul up to eight comfortably, is loaded with safety technology and has excellent road manners. Oh, and there is even an available built-in vacuum. More on that later.
Drivetrain
The 2021 Honda Odyssey is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 putting out 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque, which smoothly gets power to the front wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters.
The engine barely let out a whimper when highway cruising or in-town driving, even when under aggressive acceleration or climbing a grade. Driver selectable drive modes of Drive, Sport, Econ and Snow set the stage for finding the most comfortable combination of ride and performance. The paddle shifters hold a gear a bit longer when you need to control the torque.
Hitting the Open Road
Clean Fleet Report spent a week in the top-of-the-line Odyssey Elite, cruising Southern California. We challenged ourselves to better the EPA fuel estimate of 19 mpg city/28 highway/22 combined, and averaged a combined 26.8 mpg over 300 miles. With 201 of those miles freeway only and the adaptive cruise control set at 65 mph, we averaged 32.1 mpg. While these numbers are not as good as the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid or the Toyota Sienna hybrid, they are still respectable for a big family hauler. Fuel economy numbers reported by Clean Fleet Report are non-scientific and represent the reviewer’s driving experience using the dash gauge computer. Your numbers may differ.
The Odyssey handled as would be expected, with body lean when diving hard into corners. The best remedy is to slow down and drive a minivan like a minivan. Leaving tight corners behind, the Odyssey shines on the open road, where the 235/55 all-season tires on 19-inch wheels (standard on the Touring and Elite trims) offered a smooth stable ride with good traction for accelerating and stopping.
Smooth Exterior
The fifth generation Odyssey hit dealers in 2018; the 2021 model receiving a freshening. New for 2021 are a restyled black grille with a bold chrome strip, LED head and daytime running lights and a new front bumper fascia with integrated LED fog lights. The sides have a sculpted line towards the bottom of the doors, and a tasteful chrome strip just below the windows. The rear features LED tail lights and a programmable power tailgate.
Clean Fleet Report’s Odyssey Elite was painted in Forest Mist Metallic with gloss black pillars, body-color power, heated and folding exterior mirrors and tinted privacy glass. The overall design makes even a large, boxy minivan look not so large and boxy.
Accommodating Interior
The 2021 Honda Odyssey interior is where owning a minivan really it pays off. The driver on the Odyssey Elite trim level gets leather 12-way and the passenger eight-way power adjustments, both include four-way power lumbar. The fronts also are heated (as is the steering wheel) and ventilated. The front occupants are taken care of nicely, but that only begins to tell the story of the Odyssey seating scheme. The second and third rows are where it gets interesting.
Honda calls them Magic Slide seats, which they say “offers the ultimate in second-row seating flexibility.” This includes outboard seats that fold nearly flat, making them easier to remove for maximum cargo space. The standard three-across mode offers enough room to conveniently fit three child seats, and by removing the center seat, you have Wide Mode, which creates a wide pass through to the third row. With the click of a handle mounted on the outboard seats, the two can be pushed together at the middle or moved to either side, allowing easy outboard access to the third row which splits 60/40 or folds or can be removed. With all the seats laid flat or removed, go ahead and slide in a 4’x8’ sheet of plywood.
Access to all these seating and cargo options are through two remotely powered sliding doors, and a remote hands-free tailgate. The Odyssey is more family friendly than a crossover SUV, offering increased leg and shoulder room, and the third row is far roomier.
Up front, the cockpit design is driver-friendly with a digital dash and audio, telephone and cruise control buttons on the leather-covered steering wheel. The center console truly is the center of activity in the Odyssey, where the transmission shift-by-wire gear selector is, as are the controls for the driver selectable drive modes.
The tri-zone automatic climate control sits below the 8.0-inch color LCD screen, which houses the navigation and rear view camera that includes a bird’s-eye view. The screen is also home for the 550-watt, 11-speaker audio system with a subwoofer for the FM/AM HD radio, SiriusXM (90-day trial), Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The only thing lacking on the radio was a channel selection knob, which could have accompanied the volume knob to make the system even more user-friendly.
Convenience Features
The second-row passengers on the Odyssey Elite get a ceiling mounted, flip-down Blu-Ray DVD player with two wireless headsets. Both the second and third rows have manual sunshades on the side windows, and occupants sit under a power moonroof. But if those sitting in the rear seats think they can get away with shenanigans and messing around, they need to be aware the driver has CabinWatch and CabinTalk, managed through the Cabin Control app. The former is a camera that spies on the rear passengers, while the latter allows the rear passengers to speak with the driver without shouting.
The cool factor of the Odyssey Elite is the HondaVac, which is exactly what it sounds like: a built-in vacuum cleaner so all those Cheerios and gummy bears don’t muck-up your interior.
Additional convenience features include wireless phone charging, mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, remote and push button engine start, floor mats, rain sensing windshield wipers, tilt and telescopic steering column, automatic dimming side and rear view mirrors, a tire pressure monitoring system, hill start assist and anti-lock brakes.
Safety
All Odyssey models come standard with active and passive safety features such as front, side, curtain and front knee air bags (although the number of airbags varies based on trim level). Models include Honda Sensing, the company’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) safety technologies that include forward collision and road departure mitigation, lane keep assist, blind spot with cross traffic monitoring, and front and rear parking sensors.
The 2021 Odyssey is a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), while the US Government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has awarded it their highest rank of a Five Star rating.
Pricing and Warranties
The 2021 Honda Odyssey comes in five trim levels of LX, EX, EX-L, Touring, and Elite, with base pricing ranging from $32,910 to $48,940. All pricing includes the $1,120 destination fee. Clean Fleet Report’s Odyssey Elite, with $395 in options and the $1,120 destination fee, had a MSRP of $49,335.
All 2021 Odyssey models come with these warranties.
- Powertrain – Five years/60,000 miles
- Basic – Three years/36,000 miles
- Anti-perforation – Five years/Unlimited miles
- Roadside Assistance – Three years/36,000 miles
Observations: 2021 Honda Odyssey Elite
Starting with the high level of build quality, the 2021 Honda Odyssey is an impressive vehicle. Considering the number of people and how much cargo can be hauled–and with careful driving getting 30+ miles per gallon–saying “I will never drive a minivan” loses much of its credibility.
With final assembly in Lincoln, Alabama, this attractive family vehicle should cover all your driving needs, whether it’s commuting, in-town errands or long road trips.
Next up for the Odyssey is electrification, as Honda has set a goal that two-thirds of its 2030 global vehicle sales will be electrified. Until then, visit a Honda dealer and get comfy with rear seat entertainment and stay tidy with that vacuum.
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Story by John Faulkner. Photos by John Faulkner and Honda.
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Our last time in the Odyssey (2014)
Disclosure:
Clean Fleet Report is loaned free test vehicles from automakers to evaluate, typically for a week at a time. Our road tests are based on this one-week drive of a new vehicle. Because of this we don’t address issues such as long-term reliability or total cost of ownership. In addition, we are often invited to manufacturer events highlighting new vehicles or technology. As part of these events we may be offered free transportation, lodging or meals. We do our best to present our unvarnished evaluations of vehicles and news irrespective of these inducements.
Our focus is on vehicles that offer the best fuel economy in their class, which leads us to emphasize electric cars, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and diesels. We also feature those efficient gas-powered vehicles that are among the top mpg vehicles in their class. In addition, we aim to offer reviews and news on advanced technology and the alternative fuel vehicle market. We welcome any feedback from vehicle owners and are dedicated to providing a forum for alternative viewpoints
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