1999 Honda Odyssey EX

1999 Honda Odyssey EX 1999 Honda Odyssey EX
Long-Term Road Test

When an automaker tries to gain a foothold in an existing vehicle market with a new model, it sometimes takes a couple of tries to get it right. GM needed a second go-around with its plastic Dustbuster-like minivans before it brought a truly competitive one to market. Toyota's first attempt at a full-size pickup --the T100 -- wasn't up to snuff, but the vehicle that replaced it -- the Tundra -- may have competitors rethinking their own pickups.

Honda's Odyssey minivan is yet another example. The first Odyssey of 1995, with its cramped interior and efficient but noisy four-cylinder engine, never mounted much of a threat to the larger, quieter, and more practical minivans that dominated the market. The Odyssey's redesign last year, though, knocked our driving socks off. Its polished VTEC V-6, roomy and handy interior, and easy handling earned it a first-place finish in its first comparison test ("Minivan Vacation," March 1999). Honda got it right, or so it seemed. To be certain, we ordered an Odyssey for some long-term scrutiny.

Our test minivan, an EX with just one option -- a $149 set of floor mats -- cost $26,364. Despite a serial number that suggested very early production -- No. 00086 -- our van felt solid and impeccably screwed together.

We put 1000 uneventful miles on the odometer, after which we took it to the track. There, we found it could round a corner at 0.74 g, brake from 70 mph in 195 feet, and launch itself to 60 mph in 9.4 seconds. That performance bettered most of the numbers turned in by the winning Odyssey in the aforementioned comparison test.

It didn't take long, though, to find a few chinks in the Honda's impressive armor. The power-sliding side doors seemed perpetually behind the eight ball. Wrote copy chief Maki: "One has to push the remote key fob's buttons deliberately, and there's a delay before the door opens or closes, during which you think the door isn't reacting, so you push again, which confuses it entirely." The door buttons on the fob don't override the locks, either, making you push two different buttons -- again, deliberately -- when approaching a locked Odyssey to open the doors. "Great idea but poor execution," wrote another driver after a long-weekend trip.

We eventually uncovered other design boo-boos. It's too easy to overshoot "D4" when using the shifter manually, and when D4 is found, the shift lever partly obscures the radio controls. The front-seat power point seems added as an afterthought -- it's hidden beneath the center-console storage bin, almost at floor level, making it inconvenient for radar detectors and just about anything else you might want to plug into it. Technoids Markus and Webster both complained about excessive road noise. Such grousings are surprising, considering this van's clean-sheet design.

But it wasn't hard to find things we appreciated. The interior is chock-full of clever features, from a folding tray between the front seats to the third-row seat, which folds down and dumps cleverly and conveniently into a well in the floor. Most drivers found the softly padded front seats comfortable for long distances. Nearly everyone swooned about the Odyssey's powerful six-cylinder engine, its responsive handling, and its supple ride. Dynamically, this Honda resets the bar.

The Odyssey requires service every 7500 miles for an oil change and a tire rotation. A brake inspection and an oil-filter change are called for at 15,000-mile intervals, and the engine and climate-control filters need to be changed every 30,000 miles. (A change of the major fluids isn't required until 45,000 miles go by.) The oil changes and tire rotations ran about $29 at our Ann Arbor dealer, Howard Cooper Import Center. The 15,000-mile service cost $71, and the 30,000-mile work took a $144 bite out of our bank account. After 40,000 miles, we'd paid just $303. Our long-term Oldsmobile Silhouette GL was even cheaper ($293), and a Chrysler Town & Country LXi set our frugality record at $212.