I see a lot of issues and comments that say something to the extent of, Honda is relying on past success, etc.
1) Are there are any happy customers here?
2) This is my first Honda and I'm not super impressed. Lots of recalls, things that bother me (process and result of removing mid row seats, technology for technology's sake which I'm afraid is going to be less reliable, etc). I've been thinking about switching to a different Make or a previous Gen. Has anyone actually done that after owning a 5th Gen? What did you switch to?
1.) It has been a balancing act and at the end of the day it really boils down to if you could live with the downfalls or not. Overall I'm happy with the Ody as it was the best choice for us at the time. The short comings of the Ody still bother me, but the pros outweigh the cons. Will this likely be our last honda product? Yes. However, I'm making the best of it during the time of our ownership and am looking forward to our next family vehicle, which will address the short comings of the current Ody that we have now.
2.) The great Honda that we used to know has now become Honduh. It's absolutely insane to see the dumb decisions that they've made with the current models and it keeps getting dumber. Depending on what your needs are, there are other choices that are far more reliable and better thought out. But again it just depends on your needs.
I haven't had any issues with our 2020 Elite, but then again it barely has 2K miles on it so it's just getting started. As I've said before in another thread, honda is like apple in that they are indeed riding on the wave of success from the past that they once had, but that wave has receded and people are waking up to realize the reality, which you've experienced for yourself.
So like the new macbook pro, it's pretty on the outside, like the Ody, but it's a different story on how it's made on the inside. The skin of the Ody is beautiful with materials that appear to be of quality, which in some areas it's really good, but in other areas it's not so good compared to the competition. It has just enough of the qualities and characteristics of the honda that we used to know to get by for now, but come next year with other auto manufacturers with their refreshes in this segment, it's going to be a whole different ball game. There is no perfect vehicle like what others have said. I just really wish that we could build our own vehicle taking the best from the competitors, now wouldn't that be neat?
A lot of the complaints with the 5th Gen Odys boil down to build quality, which then naturally leads to reliability issues etc...
Engine? No complaints, except with the potential issues with the VCM, but that still has yet to be determined as we don't have enough data yet to know for sure for the current version, if the VCM3 will have the same issues as the previous engines. Likely? Maybe. We'll have to wait and see.
Transmission? So far so good. I'm liking the new in house 10 speed so far...it's smooth and feels much more refined than the previous ZF's so that's a plus.
My main complaints are with the fit and finish and the lack of certain features that should be on the Ody.
(360 camera view etc...) The build quality is dangerously close to GM products, which is not good IMO. From the gaps on the exterior with things not aligning to the exterior and interior just feeling like a cheap lego snapped together, the days are numbered. The irony? Honda and GM are partnering up with some projects in the near future... oh how times have changed.
It's a very interesting time in the auto industry right now with a lot of changes happening. We're only a few years away from seeing EV cars becoming more and more the norm and in some ways it almost feels like a reset button for auto makers to start building their rep in a new segment from scratch.
As far as the Ody, who knows... maybe they'll surprise us all with coming out with an AWD V6 Hybrid with everything that we'd want in a van. If that were to happen, I'd be very surprised. So far in the van segment the new Sienna seems to check the most boxes overall, but the big question with a lot of doubt is whether the i4/hybrid is adequate enough to accommodate a van full of people and cargo when it's purely running on petro? I'm reserving my opinion until I can actually drive one.
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