2009 Honda Odyssey Road Test Review

2009 Honda Odyssey Road Test Review

HONDA'S ODYSSEY is a surprising car. It is surprisingly responsive, unusually spacious, and, most unexpected of all, is an enjoyable steer.

This was my first time at the wheel of Honda’s ‘Battlestar’. It had always seemed to bypass me and, fact is, I’d never had that much interest; didn’t seem my kind of car – too long, too much like a bus, just too… well... beige.

I had the Odyssey packaged up as a car for ‘sensible Mums’. You know, the ones who don’t want a lumbering SUV but nevertheless need something big-ish for lugging around the various fruits of the neighborhood’s loins.

These Mums need something with more than two rows of seats. They thrive on that Saturday torture shuttling bodies between cricket, drama class and calisthenics (they’re the ones with their faces pulled back past their ears).

The Odyssey is made for this, and does it at least as well as a larger SUV without weighing in like a C-Class locomotive.

But for me, something happened. After two weeks at the wheel of both the Odyssey Wagon and Odyssey ‘Luxury’ Wagon, I found that living with it was not at all as I expected.

I liked it. Quite a lot in fact.

First of all, the Odyssey is not a chore to drive – far from it – and, second, it makes sense. It wraps into the one package a whole lot of capabilities without compromising the things that matter: fuel economy, refinement, interior space and driving enjoyment.

But it’s just a flatter, sleeker people-mover isn’t it?

Well yes, but no. It moves people, sure, and quite a few of them – six plus the pilot if you care to count ‘em up – but it’s as low as a dachshund, and it drives more like a well-sorted wagon.

And where most approaches to people-movers put bus-like qualities first and dynamic qualities a distant fifth, tenth or seventeenth, Honda has engineered the Odyssey without forgetting the driver and the experience at the wheel.

We took it – one Odyssey Luxury, three bodies, four guitars and assorted bloke clobber - on a nearly 2000 kilometre round trip; not heavily loaded, but with most space accounted for.

The route took us from Honda headquarters in Melbourne, through Canberra, a bit of a break under the testicles on the giant ram at Goulburn, a day or two poking around Bowral, then straight back down the Hume.

By the time we were nosing the Odyssey into Honda’s Tullamarine carpark, it had us converted.

It’s not without shortcomings, but for that combination of versatility, on-road dynamics, and frugality at the pump, the Odyssey takes some tossing.

So, what’s good and what’s not so good about the Odyssey?

Styling

The 2009 Odyssey, though carrying the same ‘chopped’ profile of its predecessors, has come in for a number of subtle styling changes. What you will immediately notice is that it is now less slabby.

Most who volunteered an opinion were quite approving of its revised road-hugging looks and on-road presence.

The narrowed ‘pig-eyes’ of earlier models have been replaced with more conventional rectangular headlights. And the front, with a deeper air dam, chrome garnish and heavier ‘chin’ looks a little more conventional and considerably more purposeful.

While still quirky, the Odyssey is now more in keeping with the Honda ‘family face’.

While both models are similar externally, the Luxury model comes with a subtle body kit adding a lower lip to the front spoiler, side skirts and additions to the rear bumper. For sure, they serve no useful function, but they look ok and set off the long low lines and the rake of the cabin nicely.

The style-less dumpy rear of previous models has gone under the surgeon’s knife and emerged distinctly less hearse-like and with a lot more character. There is now a subtle blister that rises over the rear wheel arches, with a raised crease wrapping into the lines of the more shapely horizontal-set tail-lights.

With smart wheels and decent rubber below, ‘our’ Luxury version in gleaming white and with stylish cream leather, looked the part. That said, the cheaper ‘Wagon’ version is similarly stylish – in that quirky ‘chopped’ way.

The brilliance of the design however is how it manages to combine people-mover seating and access, under a roof that is just ‘a nose’ (69mm) higher than a Sportwagon, with an overall length that is just 70mm (another nose) longer than an Accord Euro.

Interior

Get settled behind the wheel of the Odyssey and you become immediately aware of two things: the plush seating and fit and finish throughout is sensational, and the dash is hideous.

You have to wonder how Honda managed to get so much of the Odyssey so right, yet gave us a dash with more craters and escarpments than the moon.

Sure, it is well-fitted, with easily-navigated controls, and the blue-lit instruments are clear and modern, but it is a perfect clash of elements and lines going nowhere.

And the audio unit sits above the centre stack like someone glued it in afterwards. (“Omigawd, we’ve forgotten the radio… quick, where’s the glue?”)

I don’t suppose it matters; after all, as a functional feature everything there works the way it should, but I could not help looking at it and shaking my head. (There, that’s off the chest.)

On the bright side, everything else about the interior appeals. The seats are as good as you’ll find: deep, supportive, nicely shaped and very comfortable. Even after the drive back, around 700k in one hit, there were no aches and no complaints about the comfort.

The sumptuous cream leather in the Luxury model was the pick of the Odyssey interiors we sampled (as you’d expect). But it is $6k dearer than the well-equipped entry model, and, leather trim aside, for shape and comfort of the seats there is little between them.

Both interiors have a premium feel with flawless stitching, amber burr walnut highlights, and impressive fit and finish.

The multi-function steering wheel is tilt and reach adjustable; the deeply recessed instrument dials are immense and spookily clear, controls are also clear and well laid out (even those in that strange audio binnacle), and the dashboard-mounted auto-shift falls comfortably to hand.