2009 Honda Odyssey EX Minivan - AWESOME!!!

Author's Rating:

Pros: 8th row seat, dual sliding doors, excellent performance on crash tests.

Cons: front window defroster does not work so great in cold weather (below 30).

The Bottom Line: 
Highly Recommend this if you need a minivan!! It is spacious, handles nicely in snow/rain, has dual sliding doors, and has performed excellent in crash tests!!!!!

Author's Review
This is my first time owning a Honda since I was in college. I usually purchase all Nissan cars, but Nissan has a terrible lease program for Mini-vans, that it makes it not worth pursuing. 

I seriously considered leasing : the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or the Volksgwagon mini-van.  I was sold on the Honda Odyssey for the comfortable ride, the performance in the crash tests, and the 8th seat.

I have been driving this car for 2 months now, and I absolutely love it!!!! It is quite spacious, and has a 8th (removeable) seat that goes between the 2 seats in the second row. 

It has a very smooth - solid ride, and I love the 2 sliding doors that can be controlled by the driver as well as the passenger.  I did push my arm in it while it was closing, and it does squeeze you a bit hard before retracting, so you definately want to watch little ones.

The 3rd row back seats fold up so easily ~ literally release and fold up so simple ~ a kid could do it. In addition, the 2nd row seats pop out very easily and you can push the 2 seats together or keep them separated. There is a storage area in front of the 2nd row, which allows you to store things underneath the rug in a compartment. It is not a huge area, but big enough to get some things out of the way.

The passenger windows go down which is nice on a hot sunny day. The 3rd row window does not go down, which does not seem like a issue to us so far. 

There is nice storage in this minivan on doors, in back compartments, as well as 2 glove boxes in the front of the minivan.  In addition there are a ton of cup holders (which i love)!! You can hold 6 cups in the front row alone!!!  If you decide to keep the 8th seat in the car (we do not), you can flip the seat over and it becomes a holder tray/drink holder - which can be nice for long trips.

The gas mileage is not the greatest ~ 17-20 mpg city driving. Unfortunately if you drive a lot of passengers that is the downfall of owning a mini van.

Honda does not have an option on minivans for all wheel drive (Toyota does - but it is an expensive feature), but it does has the Vehicle Stability Assistance ~ if the wheels start to spin it provides power to the individual wheels. I tried this feature in a long driveway in the country with 7 inches of snow. It took about 5 minutes of rocking back and forth, but i was able to eventually plow through the high snow on a 1/2 mile long driveway.  Without the VSA, I would have never been able to do it. It handles really nice on the snow and ice, as I drove it around snow country quite a bit ~ and it had a solid ride.

The storage in the truck is quite spacious ~ definately roomy!!

I would highly recommend if you are serious about buying this minivan or any new car that you use http://www.edmunds.com for pricing.  We bought our minivan this way (we did go into the dealerships as well to determine which minivan we wanted to purchase).  We never used it before, but gave it a shot this time, and I was  amazed at the incredible pricing we got!!!  There were 4 dealers fighting over our business ~ which ultimately gave us the best deal!! 

I absolutely LOVE this minivan ~ I have had great luck with it so far, and would highly recommend buying one!!

Update - I was hit from behind while sitting at a stop light on a 45 mph street, and i must say that although i did have a lot of damage ($$$ wise) the back end held up very well, and it didnt come anywhere near the 3rd row. I was annoyed about the accident ~ but happy to see that it didnt come near the 3rd row!! (my kids were not in the car thank god!!!)