Why an Odyssey ?

[judsonhonda]

I bought an 05 odyssey a year ago, I never researched it so my bad, i've had honda atv's for years and always heard great honda story's, This Odyssey is a POS...i've had nothing but little problems with it, Power steering, sliding doors, wheel bearing, you name it, i could have bought a caravan for half the price and less issues lol...i'm just curious why they have such a following etc...Thanks Rick

[Rascle Man]

I bought my 05 Touring new and it's been problem free. I only have 53,000 miles on it though. Part of the problem with yours might be how it was cared for by the original owner. Mines been so reliable that I've decided to keep it and run it into the ground. I just ordered new wheels and tires yesterday to get rid of the PAX run flat tires which should make it even more enjoyable for me.

Sorry you're having problems with yours.

[pkrface]

While any first model year of any brand is more prone to issues, I would say yours is worse than average. That is the very reason I opted to go brand new with an '06. It has been everything a Honda is supposed to be and has cost me a total of $275 in non-maintenance repairs in the first 160K miles. So while mine has been better than average and yours below, on average it is a much better product than the Chrysler and there are several Chrysler's in my extended family. Every one of them has needed extensive repairs before 100K.

[savan]

We bought our 06 exl res laser weekend. We looked at 5 used vans of similar vintage, town and countrys and grand caravans. Every single other van had either a head gasket leak or an ailing transmission or BOTH.

When we found an odyssey for a similar price, even tho It had about 10k more miles on it, I gladly bought.

[dagmando]

Quality, ride, innovation and resale. The Chrysler/Dodge minvans is the opposite; complete junk That is why although close in price when new (for the sucker buyer) are half the price used. Remember that people usually only post on forums when they have problems because they are looking for justification and make sure everyone knows what a POS they have. This forum is the largest Ody yet when there are discussion of quality, it really is only a 100 people or so complaining...out of Over a million Odysseys built 2005+. Go start looking at issue with the Chrysler/Dodge minivans, you find posts just on issues larger than this entire forum. I love my Ody, just got back from a 3000 mile round trip Chicago -> Miami. Unbelievable comfort, stable at higher speeds, the best road feel of any van made. I drove my brothers 2011 Town & Country Touring up to his house last summer (400 miles) and it was a horrible van. No road feel, noisey engine, very cluttered dash and not easy to use. I was blowing all over the highway, just crap. I kept thinking, why would they not just buy a Honda Odyssey and copy the best features/feel. Well..that is why Ody's have a long time following.

[baseball]

Agree with the OP. Lots of problems. My Odyssey has had more problems than my old Chrysler minivan. Costs more, breaks more. Got the "privilege" of having to go to the service dept more often with Odyssey because it needed so many repairs and found them incompetent. Service dept even botched a tire rotation, light bulb replacement. After trans replaced, plastic covers under car flopped and clunked. They did not secure it right. Transmission replaced, evap, doors, pwr windows, srs. Road noise, just another feature. My Honda is not your father's old reliable Honda. Always did service the transmission the way the owners manual said and used only Z1. What crap.

[cnn]

Back in the old days when I had the 1980s Civic and Accord, the those machines were simple and run really good to 200K miles.

Fast forward to 2012, 2013....The new reality is that: it does not matter what vehicle you buy, whether it is Volvo, Honda or Mazda etc., you need a repair manual and be handy as these newer machines are more complex. And you guess it right: more complexity ---> more repair.

The other option is make a lot of money and trade your vehicle after the warranty is over (3y/36K for most cars), this way you don't have to crack open a repair manual. But this is the minority of the people who are rich and can do that.

I am not rich ---> DIY is the way to go, even for the so-called "legendary Honda reliability", which was true in 1980s but not in 2010s....

Fortunately (or unfortunately as I am too busy with very little spare time) I am handy and can handle all the quirks of the Ody; otherwise my wallet will be empty by now with all the problems in the Ody.

[OUZO Power]

I have 4 hondas. No problems at all except with the Ody sliding doors.

I HATE THESE DOOR. I HATE THEM.

[DynaVator]

I have had a long list of problems with my 08 EX-L. The latest to go is both CV joints. I don't know if this van was made the day before a long weekend because it has been a piece of garbage wrt reliability. Between repairs it's a much nicer van than the Caravan but I have spent an arm and a leg on this thing.

I probably would have been better off buying two Dodge vans for the same money and keeping one of them in the garage as a spare!!

[cebu 888]

I always buy brandnew and after years of use, my Hondas are still problem free. See sig.

[achung73]

Most of today's car will have some type of problems. Only issue I have with dealership service department is that, they really don't pay attention to what the owner is experiencing.

They either stick the computer diag tool to get some kinda of code, or just drive around block or two to determine if your car has a problem or not. Even when problems are detected, techs are not as thorough as they should be, which leads to another problems later on.
This is due to the fact that techs gets paid by so called "standard repair hours", not by the actual job. For example, if you are doing a break job. Well, there will be a standard hour in a books says this brake job should take 3 hours and that's what you get billed for. However, if the tech can get the job in 1 hour, dealer and the tech still bill for 3 hours. I have no issue with this, if techs actually pay attention to putting everything back and double check the job to make sure everything is put together way it should...but they don't.

When that happens, little later down the road, things will break and possibly gets compounded by previous repair work. How do I know this?

When I got warranty work done by the dealership, then take my van to my trusty mechanic for maintenance work, he always finds something that the dealership tech massed up. I have him take some pictures and take it to dealership for them to fix the thing correctly. I've done this so many times, at different dealerships...I have to say this is norm.

Cars will break down. Especially Ody vans with so many moving parts. When I bought 05 Ody, I got a hondacare, just thinking that the power sliding door will have some issues in later date. Well, sliding door has handled well so far (150k+), however made other repairs to the van that got my moneys worth for the warranty.

Would I buy Ody again? Yes. Would it be completely trouble free? No. I just hope that any warranty repair job done by dealership gets done right the first time...so it won't have any issues later.

Everything now days is controlled by a computer...look at how Boeing is having so much issues with their dreamliners...well, should now call it a Nightmarer 787. 05 was first model year...which is expected to have more problems than later years....so next time, do some quick search and try to stay away from the first year models...

I think I rambled on too much now...so good luck. Find a honest mechanic who can help fix the car correctly, and those problems you are experiencing will go away for long time.

[achung73]

For got to answer the Q on "Why an Ody"...
1) It drives better.
2) more comfortable for everyone
3) seat configurations are much easier
4) well, wife liked the styling better than any others at that time.

[amati5]

We need new trans at k102 miles and it was disappointing but I have to say the way it shifts gears is very good. Power is linear and available instantly. Very stable at hwy speed. This may be good enough for some people. Compared to Totota trannies which refuse to down shift until you push your foot to the floor. All Totota cares is about mpg to put on their ads, and reliability which has been proven. Actually even up shifting is bad too, very jerky. We were Toyota fans for a long time and their car were/are solid but I always hated the way they drive around town, including Lexus (at least the model we had). Their cars are also very quiet, unlike Honda. Different philosophy for different folks. If you like to drive, Honda is better. If you don't want to take care of cars, Toyota. Actually my new brand now is Mazda, so much fun to drive and fairly reliable.