Initial Thoughts After 2 Weeks

I have had the EX for two weeks now and I thought I would share some thoughts on the new family transportation.

Handling - We never test drove an Odyssey before I purchased it. We picked up van
and drove about 40 miles home and it handled great. A small fox came out in front of the van and I had to stomp on the brakes for a second to avoid hitting it. I did notice that there was a split second where the
brakes/wheels locked up then released as the ABS system kicked in. Worked great! No big skid, no tail end sway, just braked nicely and in a straight line. I have not noticed any pull to the right during driving or braking like some other people have mentioned in this forum. On the highway it was
great! Even in very high crosswinds I only noticed slight problems with wind buffeting the van around. It might be a different story if I had a large object on the roof rack like a carrier or a canoe. By the way has anyone tried to carry a canoe on the roof rack on top of their Odyssey???

Inspection for fit and finish - Everything was perfect except for the often-noted complaint of the third seat not folding totally flush in the seat well. Mine does stick up a bit more than I would like but not above the level of the trim for rear door. The body panel gaps are even and the paint is flawless.

Functions - Everything is working perfectly! The sliding doors of the EX have not been a problem (knock on wood) and appear to be functioning fine. I did have one of the sliding doors unexpectedly open while it was parked in the driveway but I had my pocket loaded with keys and change and it may have been accidentally activated by all the junk in my pocket pushing one of the buttons. The low gas light came on at about 1/16th of a tank and I put 15.6 gallons of gas in the van at that point.


Sound - I just got rid of a 1982 Chevy Suburban with well over 230k miles on it (no not the original engine!). Needless to say I don't notice any road noise on this compared to the old Suburban. As they say, everything is relative The stereo in the Suburban was down to one speaker functional and was painful to try to hear over the road noise. No major complaints here either, but I have been in rental vehicles with much nicer (better designed) sound systems. I never have heard any sloshing of the gas in the gas tank...

Load carrying ability - With a couple hundred miles on it the wife and I loaded up 3 boys and 2 dogs for a camping trip. I took out one of the middle seats to make room for an ice chest up front and loaded down the back
with camping gear. It was tight, but the Suburban was also tight with camping gear for 5 people and two dogs. I thought the rear end might sag more but the van did great. The cargo tray was and is a necessity!!!

Summary - A perfect choice for our family. The higher dependability of this
vehicle and the better resale of the vehicle should pay off in the long run. There are used Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth minivans everywhere in the paper and if I was trying to sell one of them I would be up against a lot of competition. If I had to sell the Odyssey for some reason (perish the
thought), I am sure it would sell in a heartbeat.

The most important item is that my wife loves it!



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'01 TW EX