With larger, active family requiring a people and cargo hauler, a minivan is your best bet. While most modern SUVs can accommodate this situation, they unfortunately focus more on style way, where the minivan outshines them all with practicality and versatility. When it comes to minivans, the Honda Odyssey still reigns supreme. Honda practically invented the minivan segment years ago, and it hasn’t stopped pioneering it since. Honda loves its Odyssey so much they introduce a lot of their new technologies first on their minivan. After years of completely outclassing and outshining its rivals, Honda decided it was time the trusty Odyssey got a full makeover.
The 2018 Honda Odyssey is completely new, now entering its fifth generation. While there were many evolutionary improvements throughout the years, the same basic formula had remained, leaving one problem for the new version – will the completely redesigned 2018 Honda Odyssey blow the previous versions out of the water?
EXTERIOR DESIGN
The exterior of the 2018 Honda Odyssey blends the traditional Honda corporate fascia with a modern and sleekly styled body, creating a sporty looking minivan. The front end looks futuristic and purposeful, with that traditional V-shape fascia. The headlights are the highlight of the front end, as they’re beautifully integrated with the grille and the large Honda logo in the middle. You might even mistake the front end for the Honda Civic if it weren’t for the height of the Van.
The side view of the 2018 Odyssey is where the real modern design shines through with a slightly sloped roofline, side skirting and sporty accent lines and curves. These upward and downward sloping lines on the side panels break up the otherwise would have been boring slab of metal nicely.
The roofline of the 2018 Odyssey fades away at the rear, giving way to a small roof spoiler. The rear end design matches the front end and ties it all in nicely. While this shouldn’t surprise you, it’s quite common on modern vehicles for the rear end to have a completely different style, leading one to believe that the front was styled by a different company than the rear.
INTERIOR FUNCTIONALITY
Inside the 2018 Honda Odyssey, it’s straight down to business as usual. The beautifully designed dash has a futuristic look. The materials are top notch accompanied by a high quality build. If Acura, Honda’s premium brand, built a minivan, it would be very similar to the Odyssey. Upon stepping into the cabin, you are immediately surrounded by a feeling of luxury. While the 2018 Odyssey may not be meant to exude premium luxury, it certainly feels like it!
The 2018 Honda Odyssey offers three rows of seating with all of them offering ample amounts of headroom and legroom. Whether carrying passengers or cargo, you will find the Odyssey to be practical, versatile and spacious vehicle with plenty of flat folding, sliding and reclining seats to allow for any combination of passenger and awkward sized cargo.
The 2018 Odyssey strives for convenience, allowing for opening and closing either of the sliding side doors or the rear tailgate with the press of a button from the driver’s seat. The power tailgate even offers a programmable height control and hands free operation. Other convenience and comfort features include, a heated steering wheel, push button and remote start, a vacuum to keep things clean with its own storage area in the back and a hose that reaches all the way to the front, and triple zone climate control ensures all passengers remain comfortable.
ENGINE AND DRIVE
The 2018 Honda Odyssey retains its single engine option, eliminating a choice and instead equipping the ideal engine for the vehicle. The perfectly sized 3.5L V6 engine produces 280hp and 262 lb-ft of torque, making it one of the fastest minivans on the market. The engine is paired with front wheel drive and a nine speed automatic transmission (ten speed for the top of the line Touring model).
Driving the 2018 Odyssey around town or on longer trips brings a real appreciation to the 280hp engine. The large amount of torque provides some get up and go at any speed and it really doesn’t matter if you’re driving by yourself or with a van packed to the brim. Not only is the acceleration powerful, but the nine speed transmission cycles through the gears smoothly. Overall the Odyssey provides a very pleasurable ride with great visibility, an amazingly quiet cabin and smooth accelerations and cruising at any speed.
While the 2018 Odyssey is not a performance vehicle, it does have superb handling and road feedback. Through corners, it never feels like it’s going to topple over and instead feels quite planted to the ground. For a minivan, it drives surprisingly un-minivan-like!
Hauling the 2018 Odyssey around town and on road trips with a 280hp engine may seem like an expensive task, but the econ mode and variable cylinder management and idle stop all help to keep fuel consumption in check. Rated at 12.6 L/100km in the city and 8.4 L/100km on the highway, our 100km test drive produced a 10.7 L/100km combined fuel consumption – well within the posted rates.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The new 2018 Honda Odyssey is still the best minivan out there and for many great reasons. It’s practical, economical, versatile and most importantly it drives like a dream. The interior is luxurious and full of the latest safety and technology. So many features, we couldn’t list them all. You really need to spend a decent amount of time exploring the 2018 Odyssey to fully realize what it has to offer.
