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2000 OdysseyHonda offered a class-exclusive accessory for 2000: a satellite-linked onboard navigation system, optional only on the upscale EX minivan....
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Honda offered a class-exclusive accessory for 2000: a satellite-linked onboard navigation system, optional only on the upscale EX minivan. Similar to the one available in the TL sedan from Acura, Hondas luxury division, the navigation system used an in-dash touch screen to display a map or point-to-point driving directions. The latter could also be provided as audio prompts. Otherwise, little changed for 2000.
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147 Reviews from Epinions.com
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2000 Odyssey
Update:
One year later.....
We've had the Odyssey for a year now, and we still love it. Here's why:
Those wonderful doors!!!
We have the 2000 EX model, on which the sliding doors on both sides can be operated by remote. The convenience of this feature alone makes me an a true-believer in the Odyssey.
Some friends of ours have a Toyota Sienna that they purchased around the same time we got our Odyssey. Only the passenger side door on their van opens by remote. I think this would drive me crazy. It's so nice to be able to pop open the slider on the driver's side so the kids can start piling in the van as I'm opening my door. It would be a hassle and also less safe if they had to go around to the other side of the van in a parking lot, or for me (with hands full of whatever we'd just purchased) to have to open the driver's side sliding door manually.
The dual remote doors on the Odyssey EX are exactly what we needed.
That "oh-so-magical" third row seat...
I'm not big on planning ahead. I go to town and then decide to buy a new dresser or some lumber or do a month's worth of grocery shopping. If I had a van from which the third row seat had to be removed and stored somewhere else, my life would be a disaster. I can just see myself standing in the parking lot with a new high chair in a giant box, trying to figure it how on earth I'm going to get it in the van with the third row seats in there. Or sitting in the parking lot of my son's school, with two friends waiting to home with him, only to realize the third row seat is at home in the garage.
Fortunately, I will never be faced with these problems. My third row seat is always with me. I can simply fold it into the floor when I need to haul big stuff, or pull it up when I need to haul children. This saves me a huge amount of grief!
The cup holders...all 9 of them
I can go through the drive through at McDonalds, and get 4 Happy Meals for my kids and their buddies, and no thank you, I don't need the cardboard drink holder. Everybody has their own cup holder, within their reach, that holds their drink firmly in place!
The Gas Mileage...no, really!
I was plenty surprised that my Odyssey got better gas mileage than my previous car ( a Ford Taurus). The van consistently gets 25+ miles per gallon. I'm absolutely thrilled with this unexpected benefit.
Reliability
The Odyssey gets us where we're going with no worries. It has been in the shop only for routine maintenance, and the problem described below.
Problems....well, there is one...
Those pesky sliding doors...
I love 'em, I really do. But they have prompted two trips to the service department. Here's the deal, about once every month or two one of the sliding doors will stop mid stream when we are closing it or opening it with the remote. This occurred once with the driver side slider and the rest of the time with the passenger side slider. Further attempts to use the remote are unsuccessful. The doors must be then turned off with the button near the steering wheel, and closed manually.
Both times I took the van in for this problem, no "problem codes" had been recorded in the computer, and the problem could not be duplicated (i.e. they worked fine there). This is annoying, obviously. However, I've since realized that simply turning the doors off, closing the effected door manually, and then turning them back on seems to fix it. Since at this point it happens less than once per month, it's not a huge issue for me.
Original Review:
Just a few short years ago, my husband said with great certainty "WE will NEVER be mini-van people." A couple of kids later, and the family sedan started to seem sooo much smaller than it used to.
We did our research, and it was quickly clear that the Odyssey was #1 on our short list. Unfortunately, it was #1 on everybody else's list too. In fact, there wasn't one to be had in the state! We waited a while, and even considered buying our #2 or #3 pick. In the end, we held out for the Odyssey, and are thrilled that we did.
Here's the Odyssey in a nutshell:
Aesthetics: The Odyssey is a beautiful van. All of the colors are just gorgeous. We purchased a Canyon Stone Silver, which is a deep charcoal metallic. It hides dirt very nicely. The body styling is sleek, modern, and has a look that is a little different from the look-alike Windstar/Caravan/etc pack. The Odyssey gets a lot of admiring looks.
Comfort: I could sleep in the Odyssey. The seats are so comfy, with well-positioned arm rests, a foot support for the driver's left foot, great back support, and all controls in easy reach. The second row captains chairs also have arms rests, which the kids love. Even the third row bench seat has plenty of leg room, and headrests for all three occupants.
Convenience Features: The Odyssey has them all. Cupholders everywhere (nine to be exact), a tray between the driver and passenger seats that can be folded away, an anti-theft device on the stereo, two lighted vanity mirrors, roof rack, two cargo nets, separate a/c controls for the back, tinted windows, CD player, electric driver's seat adjusting, and low to the ground styling that makes it easy to load and unload from the back. And of course, there are the two best features of all: keyless entry and the magic seat. Both sliding doors open with the remote, so handy when you have multiple children. The third row "magic seat" folds easily into the floor creating a large cargo space. No taking the third row seating out to haul large items! The magic seat is light and easy to fold away and pull back out.
Safety: The Odyssey comes with dual airbags, ABS, and a traction control system. It brakes easily and smoothly, and traction on slick roads is very very good. Childrens' car seats fit easily and snuggly into the Odyssey as well. Additionally, to protect children, the sliding doors can't be opened when the vehicle is not in "park." The sliding doors can also be locked so that they can only be opened from the outside. Safety is also built right into the keyless entry. To open or close doors using the remote control device, the button must be pressed down for 2 seconds. This prevents accidental movement of the door, should the remote be jostled or buttons touched accidently.
Driving: The V-6 gives you all the power you'll need in a minivan. The Odyssey is peppy and easy to drive. It's very responsive, so you get comfortable driving this van very quickly.
Value: I paid ALOT for my Odyssey, $27,000. I bought it during the height of popularity, when Odysseys were darn hard to come by. But I firmly believe it was a great value, even at that price. The biggest reason is that all of the features I listed above, and many more, came standard on my Odyssey EX. With all of the other vans we considered, adding on these features added on significantly to the price. The Ford Windstar starts out lower, but by the time we added in the price of the features we wanted it would have been well over $29,000. The same was true for the other vans we considered.
Overall Rating: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Odyssey is a 10+. I can't think of a single thing I'd change on my Odyssey. It's as if Honda execs sat down with a group of moms and asked them to list everything they ever wanted in a minivan, then put all those features standard on the Odyssey EX. It's everything I ever wanted in a vehicle. Heck, my husband even loves it.
They Thought of Everything! - Odyssey Update
| Author's Rating: |
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Pros: Designed for the family with many convenient features
Cons: expensive
| Ease of Conversion: |
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The Bottom Line:
The Odyssey is a high-quality mini-van with numerous features that make driving convenient, easy, and fun.
Update:
One year later.....
We've had the Odyssey for a year now, and we still love it. Here's why:
Those wonderful doors!!!
We have the 2000 EX model, on which the sliding doors on both sides can be operated by remote. The convenience of this feature alone makes me an a true-believer in the Odyssey.
Some friends of ours have a Toyota Sienna that they purchased around the same time we got our Odyssey. Only the passenger side door on their van opens by remote. I think this would drive me crazy. It's so nice to be able to pop open the slider on the driver's side so the kids can start piling in the van as I'm opening my door. It would be a hassle and also less safe if they had to go around to the other side of the van in a parking lot, or for me (with hands full of whatever we'd just purchased) to have to open the driver's side sliding door manually.
The dual remote doors on the Odyssey EX are exactly what we needed.
That "oh-so-magical" third row seat...
I'm not big on planning ahead. I go to town and then decide to buy a new dresser or some lumber or do a month's worth of grocery shopping. If I had a van from which the third row seat had to be removed and stored somewhere else, my life would be a disaster. I can just see myself standing in the parking lot with a new high chair in a giant box, trying to figure it how on earth I'm going to get it in the van with the third row seats in there. Or sitting in the parking lot of my son's school, with two friends waiting to home with him, only to realize the third row seat is at home in the garage.
Fortunately, I will never be faced with these problems. My third row seat is always with me. I can simply fold it into the floor when I need to haul big stuff, or pull it up when I need to haul children. This saves me a huge amount of grief!
The cup holders...all 9 of them
I can go through the drive through at McDonalds, and get 4 Happy Meals for my kids and their buddies, and no thank you, I don't need the cardboard drink holder. Everybody has their own cup holder, within their reach, that holds their drink firmly in place!
The Gas Mileage...no, really!
I was plenty surprised that my Odyssey got better gas mileage than my previous car ( a Ford Taurus). The van consistently gets 25+ miles per gallon. I'm absolutely thrilled with this unexpected benefit.
Reliability
The Odyssey gets us where we're going with no worries. It has been in the shop only for routine maintenance, and the problem described below.
Problems....well, there is one...
Those pesky sliding doors...
I love 'em, I really do. But they have prompted two trips to the service department. Here's the deal, about once every month or two one of the sliding doors will stop mid stream when we are closing it or opening it with the remote. This occurred once with the driver side slider and the rest of the time with the passenger side slider. Further attempts to use the remote are unsuccessful. The doors must be then turned off with the button near the steering wheel, and closed manually.
Both times I took the van in for this problem, no "problem codes" had been recorded in the computer, and the problem could not be duplicated (i.e. they worked fine there). This is annoying, obviously. However, I've since realized that simply turning the doors off, closing the effected door manually, and then turning them back on seems to fix it. Since at this point it happens less than once per month, it's not a huge issue for me.
Original Review:
Just a few short years ago, my husband said with great certainty "WE will NEVER be mini-van people." A couple of kids later, and the family sedan started to seem sooo much smaller than it used to.
We did our research, and it was quickly clear that the Odyssey was #1 on our short list. Unfortunately, it was #1 on everybody else's list too. In fact, there wasn't one to be had in the state! We waited a while, and even considered buying our #2 or #3 pick. In the end, we held out for the Odyssey, and are thrilled that we did.
Here's the Odyssey in a nutshell:
Aesthetics: The Odyssey is a beautiful van. All of the colors are just gorgeous. We purchased a Canyon Stone Silver, which is a deep charcoal metallic. It hides dirt very nicely. The body styling is sleek, modern, and has a look that is a little different from the look-alike Windstar/Caravan/etc pack. The Odyssey gets a lot of admiring looks.
Comfort: I could sleep in the Odyssey. The seats are so comfy, with well-positioned arm rests, a foot support for the driver's left foot, great back support, and all controls in easy reach. The second row captains chairs also have arms rests, which the kids love. Even the third row bench seat has plenty of leg room, and headrests for all three occupants.
Convenience Features: The Odyssey has them all. Cupholders everywhere (nine to be exact), a tray between the driver and passenger seats that can be folded away, an anti-theft device on the stereo, two lighted vanity mirrors, roof rack, two cargo nets, separate a/c controls for the back, tinted windows, CD player, electric driver's seat adjusting, and low to the ground styling that makes it easy to load and unload from the back. And of course, there are the two best features of all: keyless entry and the magic seat. Both sliding doors open with the remote, so handy when you have multiple children. The third row "magic seat" folds easily into the floor creating a large cargo space. No taking the third row seating out to haul large items! The magic seat is light and easy to fold away and pull back out.
Safety: The Odyssey comes with dual airbags, ABS, and a traction control system. It brakes easily and smoothly, and traction on slick roads is very very good. Childrens' car seats fit easily and snuggly into the Odyssey as well. Additionally, to protect children, the sliding doors can't be opened when the vehicle is not in "park." The sliding doors can also be locked so that they can only be opened from the outside. Safety is also built right into the keyless entry. To open or close doors using the remote control device, the button must be pressed down for 2 seconds. This prevents accidental movement of the door, should the remote be jostled or buttons touched accidently.
Driving: The V-6 gives you all the power you'll need in a minivan. The Odyssey is peppy and easy to drive. It's very responsive, so you get comfortable driving this van very quickly.
Value: I paid ALOT for my Odyssey, $27,000. I bought it during the height of popularity, when Odysseys were darn hard to come by. But I firmly believe it was a great value, even at that price. The biggest reason is that all of the features I listed above, and many more, came standard on my Odyssey EX. With all of the other vans we considered, adding on these features added on significantly to the price. The Ford Windstar starts out lower, but by the time we added in the price of the features we wanted it would have been well over $29,000. The same was true for the other vans we considered.
Overall Rating: On a scale of 1 to 10, the Odyssey is a 10+. I can't think of a single thing I'd change on my Odyssey. It's as if Honda execs sat down with a group of moms and asked them to list everything they ever wanted in a minivan, then put all those features standard on the Odyssey EX. It's everything I ever wanted in a vehicle. Heck, my husband even loves it.
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