2019 Honda Odyssey Road Test and Review

Minivans aren’t exactly flying out of dealerships these days, but the popularity of the Honda Odyssey seems to be as endless as the vehicle’s awesome ability to move people and things. Now in its fifth-generation, the 2019 Odyssey is consistently one of America’s best-selling minivans.

Newly redesigned just last year, today's Odyssey offers families seating for eight passengers, a powerful V6 engine, class-leading safety ratings, and exceptional resale value. It competes with the Toyota Sienna, Kia Sedona, Chrysler Pacifica, and Mercedes-Benz Metris.

Honda builds every 2019 Odyssey in the great state of Alabama and offers the minivan in five trim levels: LX, EX, EX-L, Touring, and Elite. Prices start at $31,235, including a $1,045 destination fee, for an LX and max out at $48,115 for an Elite like our test vehicle. Standard features on the Odyssey LX include power sliding doors, push-button engine start, 18-inch alloy wheels, power front seats, a backup camera with multiple angles, and an automatic climate control system. All other trim levels get lane-keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, road-departure mitigation, and blind-spot monitoring. Most of these systems are standard on every Toyota Sienna.

All 2019 Honda Odysseys are powered by a 280-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 and a smooth shifting automatic transmission. Most models get a nine-speed transmission, while the Touring and Elite get a 10-speed, which surprisingly doesn’t affect its fuel economy ratings. All Odysseys are front-wheel drive. Only the Sienna offers all-wheel drive in this class.

In crash testing, the 2019 Honda Odyssey has impressed. It has received a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has named it a Top Safety Pick. The Odyssey is also the only minivan to earn a "good" rating for both the driver and passenger sides in the institute’s small-overlap frontal crash tests.

The Honda also offers more interior space than many of its competitors. Heck, it offers more interior space than many New York City apartments. The Odyssey is downright massive inside. If you’re looking for maximum room for the family, this is your vehicle. Somehow it feels spacious even with seven aboard. Our test car’s well-shaped second-row captain’s chairs recline, have adjustable armrests, and can slide forward or back to adjust the amount of legroom in both the second or third rows. The third row also fits adults.

We appreciated the Honda’s abundance of rear air-conditioning vents and drink holders. The second row gets up to seven cupholders, while there’s another four for those in the third row. Up front, there are four. Our van also featured second- and third-row sunshades. There’s also a massive amount of interior storage. The center console bin is huge, and there are large bins on each door with multiple tiers. The Odyssey also features a sizable glove box, and there’s an extra storage bin in its cargo area.

Visibility is outstanding, and all of the Odyssey’s knobs and switches are easy to reach. The interior is very well assembled. The van feels like a quality product. Some may find the push-button shifter a bit off-putting, but we acclimated to it quickly.

Although the Odyssey's 8-inch touchscreen is large and well placed, its infotainment system could be more intuitive to use, and the cartoonish graphics of its navigation system seem dated. It all functions well enough, and the system does offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration; it’s just more difficult to switch between the screens than it should be. Our Elite test vehicle also featured heated and cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, a large sunroof, a power liftgate, and wireless phone charging. It also included a Blu-Ray/DVD rear entertainment system with a remote control, wireless headphones, and a large screen that drops down out of the headliner. The system proved easy to use, and there are additional headphone jacks in both the second and third rows.

Other innovations include CabinWatch, which is a camera with night vision that lets the driver see in the rear seats; and CabinTalk, which allows the driver to talk to the van’s rear seat passengers through the audio speakers. The Honda’s coolest feature, however, has to be its built-in vacuum, which is standard on the Touring and Elite models.

The 2019 Honda Odyssey also offers more cargo space than many of its competitors and more than you get in any SUV. Behind the van’s third row is 38.6 cubic feet of cargo space. Fold the third row, which is split 60/40, and space expands to 91.0 cubic feet. These numbers are about even with the cargo space inside a Toyota Sienna, which offers 39.9 cubic feet of cargo space behind its third row and 87.1 cubic feet behind its second row.

Removing the Odyssey’s second-row seating opens up a massive 155.7 cubic feet of space, which is more than you get in the Toyota. Unfortunately, removing the seats isn’t very easy, and they need to be stored. Chrysler’s "Stow 'n Go" option in the Pacifica, which allows the second-row seats to fold into the floor, is still a better solution.

Although the Toyota Sienna packs a bit more horsepower than the Odyssey, it’s not as quick as the Honda. In fact, with a 0-60 mph time of just 6.6 seconds, our Honda Odyssey Elite is the quickest minivan you can buy. Jump on the throttle, and the Honda screeches its tires off the line and pushes you back in the seat. Merging on the highway is easy, even with the van loaded with people and luggage. The van’s V6 engine is smooth and quiet, and the 10-speed automatic transmission always seems to be in the right gear. The transmission also has a Sport Mode, which quickens its response, and most Odysseys come with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, so you can choose the gears manually if you wish.

The Odyssey also handles well, with responsive steering and brakes. Although we can’t really call the minivan fun to drive, the Honda is more agile than the Sienna.

You sit tall and upright in the 2019 Honda Odyssey, which gives you a panoramic and commanding view of the road. The seats aren’t soft, but they're not too firm either, and they’re very comfortable even after several hours behind the wheel. On a four-hour family road trip to visit Grandma, we also learned that the Odyssey’s interior is very quiet, even at speeds over 80 mph, and the minivan’s high-speed stability is exceptional. It’s more stable in high crosswinds than the Toyota Sienna.

At over 203 inches long and 78.5 inches wide, the Odyssey is a large vehicle, but it’s easy to park and maneuver around town thanks to its tight turning circle and responsive controls. It feels much smaller than it is from behind its thick leather-wrapped steering wheel. The Odyssey also cruises effortlessly on the interstate, with a compliant ride, even on the Elite’s 19-inch wheels and tires, and it has an overall refinement that buyers will appreciate.

The Odyssey’s fuel economy is above average for the minivan class. For 2019, the Odyssey is rated at 19 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. In mixed driving, including plenty of time in Los Angeles traffic, we averaged 18 mpg. On our mild road trip, the driving was exclusive to the interstate and we averaged 26 mpg. We should also point out that we used the start/stop feature extensively. The system shuts off the van’s engine at idle to save fuel. Although it’s not as smooth as some other start/stop systems we’ve tried, we did not deactivate it, which is possible with a button on the dash.

The Odyssey gets slightly better fuel economy than the Toyota Sienna, which is rated at 19 mpg city and 27 mpg highway with front-wheel drive and 18 mpg city and 24 mpg highway with all-wheel drive. The most fuel-efficient minivan is the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which is the only electrified minivan available. It can travel about 33 miles on electricity alone and has a total range of about 560 miles. Prices start at about $40,000.

Since the Honda Odyssey was all new just last year, there are no significant upgrades or changes for 2019. This includes the van’s exterior, which is one of the most radically designed in the class. While most minivans do the slab-sided box thing with a few rounded edges, Honda has spent some time styling the Odyssey, adding an innovative broken D-pillar design, along with intricately carved doors and fenders. Its look takes more chances than the shapes of Honda’s Passport and Pilot SUVs.

We’ve always been big fans of the Odyssey, and the 2019 model is Honda’s best, most family-friendly minivan yet. It’s comfortable, powerful, and luxurious. And it’s stacked with cool features and high quality. If you’re in the market for a minivan, the 2019 Honda Odyssey is a very desirable choice.