Tell of the storm-tossed van, O Muse, which drove long after leaving Troy… Oh, wait, wrong Odyssey. While Homer’s Odyssey is an epic story, the 2016 Honda Odyssey SE is an epic minivan. You won’t have to battle through mystifying technology or deal with the wrath of uncomfortable seats with the Honda Odyssey, because it’s the perfect minivan for any length of travel.
As minivans go, the 2016 Honda Odyssey is well-designed. The front fascia utilizes Honda’s current design language with a piano black and silver grille surrounding the Honda badge. Side panels offer straight body lines, large windows, and 17-inch alloy wheels covered in all-season tires.
Power side doors opened with the touch of a button on the keyfob or on the door’s handle. You could also open them from the driver’s seat or from a button on the inside of the car (which you can also child lock for minimal shenanigans).
When children have been granted entrance and safely stowed via a button tap, keep them happy with a rear-seat entertainment system ($1,050 option). DVDs can be inserted into a player under the front infotainment system and the 9-inch screen swings down from the ceiling just rear of the front seats. There’s a remote control and wireless headsets, too, so the front-seat occupants don’t have to listen to whatever they’re watching. In the third row seats, there are Red-Yellow-White inputs for alternative modes of rear-seat entertainment.
When your kids have finished putting the rear seats into disarray, there’s even a built-in vacuum in the rear cargo space to help you clean it up. Though we didn’t get the vehicle dirty, we did check out the vacuum and it sucks (in a good way).
While you’re driving around in child-quiet bliss, you’ll have 10-way power driver seating controls (4-way for front passengers), tri-zone climate control (driver, passenger, and second- and third-row controls), and other creature comforts. Even if your journey takes 10 years, driving the 2016 Honda Odyssey will ensure a relaxed and satisfied ride the whole way.
A 7-speaker, touchscreen infotainment system entertains you with integrated Bluetooth-connectivity for smartphone and access all your favorite apps (ours is Pandora… if you haven’t noticed in all the photos). The sound from the speakers was bass-filled and audibly good, and the voice-recognition system was swiftly brought up the correct contact.
The 2016 Honda Odyssey is imbued with HondaLink, which allows access information about the vehicle directly from a smartphone. Find destinations or points of interest to send to your Honda or get convenient maintenance reminders. There’s also a HondaLink Navigation app, Aha App and an App Launcher for HondaLink that integrates iHeartRadio.
A push-button ignition starts the standard (across all models) 248-horsepower 3.5L V6 engine. It connects to an automatic transmission with grade controls for hills. The get-up-and-go of the 2016 Honda Odyssey was seriously fun on on-ramps and green lights (to the speed limit), especially when you get a peek at the other drivers faces at the next stop light.
Safety features include the usual slew of airbags, stability and traction controls, brake assists and other standard safety systems. Most comforting is the 5-star overall NHTSA safety rating.
As Honda spoke they infused fresh vigor into the 2016 Honda Odyssey SE, making your journeys less combative, and a covenant of peace between front-seat and rear-seat contending parties was achieved.
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This peace treaty MSRPs for $34,255 (as driven, $29,550 for base models) and features an entertainment for the little ones, technology connectivity for adults, and a vacuum for whoever has the unfortunate task of cleaning. And that’s pretty epic to us.
Please visit Honda.com for more information about the 2016 Honda Odyssey.
