'09 Odyssey - Excellent minivan

Author's Rating:

Pros: Remote open/close of sliding door and rear hatch.  Excellent dash layout and materials

Cons: Worst navigation unit ever made!!!  Rear window should open independent of the entire door

The Bottom Line: 
Recommend to anyone with kids.  Buy the base models, but don't get the RES and Navigation from Honda -- cheaper and/or better from after market.

Author's Review
This is the first minivan and first Honda we've owned and we love it.  When we decided to get a minivan we focused on the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and the Chrysler Town & Country.  We researched and compared all the reviews online and spoke to several friends and neighbors that owned many of these vehicles.  We test drove several versions of all 3 several times at various local dealerships over a period of 2 months.  We decided against the Chrysler because we weren't sure if the company would survive the summer of '09 and what that would mean for warranty and parts.  Now it became a run-off between the best minivans on the market.  After testing driving a few more times, it was the poor road noise, dashboard materials and seat comfort in the Sienna that made us choose the Odyssey.

The Odyssey EX-L w/ Navigation and Rear Entertainment System (RES) is what we ultimately ended up purchasing.  The RES is a must if you have kids; however, we found out that we could have done an after market install of a dual display for about the same price as the Honda factory install.  The dashboard layout, seating options, comfortability and road noise are excellent.  The child safety features are outstanding - sliding doors don't open if the car is not in park, sliding doors don't open all the way if that window is down in case a child or pet has their head or arms sticking out the window, pressure sensors on the doors that keep from crushing a child in the door when closing,.... 

The one thing we do not like (actually hate) about the Odyssey is the Navigation system that they use.  It is by far the worst GPS system we've ever used.  A complete waste of $1100!  You can't simply search for Target or Wal-Mart in the local area.  You have to pick a category and then sub-categories and hope you picked the right one.  Several times we found the particular store we were looking for was listed under pharmacy or bakery, but not under departement store.  There is no way we have found that you can automatically narrow the store list to 25 or 50 miles of your current location like you can with some GPS units.  Instead you will get every listing in the country for that particular category/sub-category.  For example, we had to find a store in order to get diapers for our child while we were in St Louis, MO.  When we searched for Target and thought we had selected the correct categories, it told us the closest one was near Houston, TX.  We switched stores and decided to look for Wal-Mart instead and it gave us somewhere in CA as the closest.  We stopped at a random gas station in St. Louis and they told us there was a Target and Wal-Mart within 10 minutes, but those never showed up anywhere in the searches.  While waiting in the Target parking lot, I decided to input the store address to see what category it was listed under and that store is not in the database.  We understand that there is a limit to the number Points of Interest (POIs) in a GPS unit, but when you are paying $1100 for one it better more than the $100 units you can find in any store.  That $1100 does not include any updates either.  We bought our van in July '09, but the maps were from '08.  We asked and were told that an upgrade would cost us extra to get the '09 map sets.

Other than the navigation, the rest of the van is fantastic and I would recommend to anyone especially those with kids.