Honda Odyssey: The Most Under-Rated Vehicle in America

Описание: Let’s test drive and review the 2025 Honda Odyssey!

The Odyssey is a minivan, and the minivan was once an American staple. There were some early minivan-ish vehicles, like the 1930s Stout Scarab and the 1950s Volkswagen Microbus, but MANY people trace the modern minivan trajectory to one vehicle: the 1984 Dodge Caravan. The Caravan and its Plymouth Voyager sibling ushered in a new era for American automobiles, and the subsequent minivan boom lasted from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.

The idea was for minivans like the Caravan to be a mixture between a traditional van and the popular-at-the-time station wagon, and early ads for the car called it "one vehicle that takes the place of an economy car, sporty car, station wagon, and van." 

The minivan project was huge for Chrysler, which was struggling financially at the time, and the official beginning of a new era for the automobile in America. The company sold 209,000 minivans in the first model year. Other automakers hopped on the bandwagon, and early competitors included the Chevrolet Astro, GMC Safari, Ford Aerostar, and mid-engined Toyota Passenger Van, which had an icemaker in it! The Odyssey arrived in 1995 based on the Accord platform, and it’s been through five generations since.

The new Odyssey is great. It has a 3.5-liter V6 engine called the “J35” that makes 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque. The J35 is a very popular engine that’s in all kinds of Honda vehicles, and if you ever pop the hood of an Odyssey from the second generation, which began in 1999, you’ll find an early version of this engine. Imagine how easy the maintenance work and replacement parts are on that.

Every feature, system, and technology in the Odyssey is lovely (minus the lack of a 360-degree camera, which makes parking-spot navigation impossible). There’s tons of cargo space; the interior Cabin Watch camera lets you keep an eye on the kids; my car had a second-row entertainment system that reminded me of the car DVD players I watched as a kind; adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist make driving long distances (and short ones!) a breeze, even in bad weather; there’s not a lot of sound from the road or wind outside; the Odyssey was so low to the ground that I dreamt of an Odyssey Type R build; and in America, minivans are the cheapest option for a new car from the dealership with this much space and capability.

The fact that minivans are in production and for sale today, yet don’t absolutely crush the sales of other cars, is wild. The only thing the Odyssey lacks is a hybrid system and a redesign (as it is right now in America, it looks a little old in the front). The Odyssey falls behind other minivans in its lack of a hybrid.

So please, join me for a drive around Texas in the humble 2025 Honda Odyssey, and join my side: The supporters of minivans.

Thanks for watching my YouTube channel. Enjoy the drive (and the video)! If you want to watch more videos or car reviews, I have tons of them.

#cars #honda #hondaodyssey #odyssey #minivans #vans #suvs #trucks #truck #suv #familycar #familycars #automotive #carreview #carreviews #alanisking

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