It's been said that the reason so many people are buying SUV's is because they really need a station wagon or mini-van but just can't bring themselves to stoop that low. The Ody continues to chip away at that concept. We took off on the 5 hour drive up to North Alabama this past weekend where we picked up two other couples and headed to Lake Guntersville. Rather than caravanning in their two SUV's, we put two coolers and everyone's luggage behind the third seat and all pilled into the MINI-VAN. Like we used to say in the Army, one grenade would have taken us all out. It's down right amazing how much stuff can be loaded behind that 3rd seat! With 6 adults and a load of luggage, she was down on the bump stops. I really don't know of another vehicle that we could have done this in that would have been as comfortable for all the passengers and as economical. I ran about 85mph with the AC going full-tilt-boogie on the way up (I know, that's too fast) and then polished off the rest of the tank hauling that load around and got 20.4 MPG. Can't complain! Only problem was the occasional buzzing noise caused by a loose section of the rubber windshield trim.