2003 Honda Odyssey Long Term Update w/ Mega Gallery

June 2015 in Acadia NP

What an exciting time! The Odyssey has surpassed its 200k birthday!

Okay, it actually hit 200,000 miles in May. I "didn't have the time" to write about it. Now, though, I'm home in Texas on summer vacation just back from a trip to Maine with Daddy-o driving the Odyssey. I literally have all day to write this review.

I'm going to split it up in four sections. First comes how the van drives and rides. Then follows an examination of the interior, what we've done with the car, and finally how the car has held up over the 70,000+ miles my family has driven it.

I've actually already reviewed this car back when we bought it in 2012. For that review, click the link right here.

Driving

Now that I've been driving for a while, I can actually evaluate the dynamics of a car firsthand!

That being said, driving the Odyssey is not a hard time at all despite its minivan size. Visibility is great through the giant windows, the steering offers decent accuracy, and the engine is strong enough in everyday driving while also being slickity smooth. Still, with the car's old age comes some undesirable nuances. The brakes, for one, have no bite in the first half of the pedal travel and shake if you're slowing from high speed. Around-town steering has gotten heavier and more lifeless, too.

Otherwise, the absolute biggest complaint I have is ROAD NOISE. There is so much road noise this car, it should be illegal. Wind noise gets prevalent at interstate speeds, but takes a backseat to the incessant droning or whining generated by the tires on coarser or grooved pavement. It's too bad, since the Odyssey is such a stable cruiser on long trips.

The suspension and structure crash whenever the car goes over a pothole or bump, but it's fairly absorbent. It's reach the point where I can't feel anything most of the time; I hear banging from the whatever bump the car hits, but it doesn't transfer to the seat. As a bonus, the isolated ride hasn't seemed to have affected body lean in corners, as the van keeps surprisingly flat. An Odyssey with less mileage might feel different, however, because I don't remember the ride being this floppy earlier in our ownership.

Interior

The main theme of this car is space. There is generous space in all three rows, with a tall ceiling and plenty of width. Being an older car, the giant windows further the already-airy cabin.

Typical of a minivan, cargo space is cavernous. If you fold down the rear seat and remove the middle row, there is sufficient room for two average-sized adults to sleep on the floor. Unfortunately, getting to that point is a chore. Honda was the first to introduce the backward-tumbling rear bench thats a staple in most minivans today, but it's not executed that well. The bench folds in one piece, which limits flexibility and makes the seat itself really heavy.

I'm not going to go into detail about interior quality since the car is so old. My main impression is that the plastics seem more solid and thicker than those in newer cars despite being hard.

Did Anything Go Wrong?

Unsurprising for a Honda, the van has not broken down at all. There was a scare when the engine started fluttering and shaking after a tune up, but it turned out that one of the spark plug wires wasn't plugged in fully.

That doesn't mean the van hasn't developed its fair share of little problems. Most worryingly, the transmission started to hesitate in the first-to-second shift in addition to the existing intermittent bog between second and third. As mentioned above, the suspension doesn't seem to be as tight as before. In fact, a shop actually recommended us to replace some bushing or whatever because it was cracked.

Speaking of the shop, the dealerships we've serviced the car at have come up with a long lists of issues that change each time we take it in. The problems ranged from oil leaks, faulty suspension components, to fluids we know that have been changed recently. None of those things, except for maybe the suspension components, seemed to have affected how the car drives.

Cosmetically, the van is in very bad shape. In addition to the ridiculous amount of nicks and scratches the previous owner put into the body, Daddy-o encountered some parking lot scrapes of his own. Plus, an Accord rear-ended us at a toll booth in New Hampshire this past road trip and engraved the shape of its front license plate into our bumper. Interestingly enough, in spite of the countless imperfections, most of the paint still shines like new when the car is freshly washed. Only the hood is starting to lose its clear coat.

The interior isn't doing so hot, either. The hard plastic paneling in the cargo area scratches quite easily, the front dashboard has some chips in its painted portion, the front armrests' seams are busting open, and the leather on the driver's seat is in danger of cracking. Furthermore, some of the backlighting of the little LCD displays in the dashboard don't always light up.

In summary, the Odyssey has been a trusty and pleasant old van to drive. At its age, though, the small problems are building up both mechanically and aesthetically. Sadly, it seems to be reaching the end of the line after many, many years of service.