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Things Every New Owner Should Know

669K views 386 replies 212 participants last post by  kernel 
#1 · (Edited)
If you've encountered any quirks, been confused by a feature, or discovered any cool little "Easter Eggs" with the 2011 Odyssey, this is the thread to talk about them!

The hope is that others will find the information useful.

For a starter list, here's what I think is worth knowing.

1. The Honda Nav/GPS system comes equipped with free FM traffic, but it's turned off by default. You can turn it on in the nav settings on the big screen (HUD). After doing so, traffic incidents show up as icons along the road, and heavy traffic shows up as a red line alongside the road on the screen.
2. Want your car to not lock the doors when you turn the ignition off or unlock all the doors when you push the button on the key? You can change those settings by pressing the "Info" button (the one with the "i") on the steering wheel, going to the intrument-displayed settings (near the speedometer, not the HUD) and tweaking things from there.
3. You can also adjust automatic headlight sensitivity with the menu mentioned in item 2.
4. If you're interested in XM radio, you can call them up and ask for the "$77 deal" instead of having to pay about double that normally. It's a well known internet "coupon".
5. If you have an iPhone/iPod, Wii or other device hooked up to the RCA input in the back, you can play its sound over the car speakers by both setting the "Rear Source" and the front audio to "AUX Input". If both the front and rear aren't both set to use the input, you'll only hear the rear sound for 30 seconds before it switches to headphones-only and reverts to whatever the front input was originally playing.
 
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#2 ·
I forgot one.

6. Extended Honda Care warranties can (and probably should) be bought from any Honda dealership, not just the one selling the vehicle. There are salesmen online willing to sell an extended warranty for less than $1,500 while my dealer in particular originally quoted a price of $2,500 if I remember correctly! I mentioned getting the deal online and they immediately dropped their price to be competitive, however.
 
#4 ·
a4000 said:
What about the POI Icons in the nav. They are also all unchecked by default.
Good one.

I'm still trying to learn how those work. As far as I can tell, it only seems to show POI icons close the road you're traveling on. If there's a nice restaurant a few blocks away, you'd never know, even if it's only a little off-center of the displayed map. Is this right, or is there a way to change it that anyone's aware of?
 
#6 ·
This might be a good place for a list of the miscellaneous stuff that these vans are supposed to come with. I'm still wondering if I really have everything I'm supposed to have.

I know my EX-L gets 2 remote keys + 1 vallet key.

Standard carpetted floor mats. How many?

No RES, so not sure what extras you should get with that.

Any other little things I should make sure I got?
 
#308 ·
Didn't see a response to this, so sorry if I missed it. Find myself in a similar situation so thought I'd ask.

We bought a new 2015 Touring yesterday in the northwest Chicago suburbs. The salesman at the dealership was new and I suspect wasn't very familiar with the delivery procedures. When we've bought Odysseys in the past they've walked us through all the features and showed us some basic setup. Yesterday we got none of that. We also almost drove off without the RES remote and wireless headphones. I thought to look through the vehicle and noticed they were missing and so asked, at which point they were given to us. So, it makes we wonder: what else was missed? Hopefully someone can either point me to a standard list, or based on what I received (below) let me know if anything is missing. Here's what I was given:

2 keys (which, based on a forum search, I understand is normal)
Owner's guide (which is MUCH thinner than the one for our 2009 Odyssey)
Owner's CD
Consumer information booklet
RES remote and headphones (once we asked for them).

How many floor mats should I have received?
Anything else that may be missing?
 
#7 ·
boulder_bum said:
I forgot one.

6. Extended Honda Care warranties can (and probably should) be bought from any Honda dealership, not just the one selling the vehicle. There are salesmen online willing to sell an extended warranty for less than $1,500 while my dealer in particular originally quoted a price of $2,500 if I remember correctly! I mentioned getting the deal online and they immediately dropped their price to be competitive, however.
While I totally agree with this.. it boggles the mind why some dealers charge so much. I had such a crazy time getting a decent price for my Honda Care since I live in California and have to buy it here. In the end, I think I did well, but I couldn't figure out why a dealer wouldn't want to make such an easy profit. Seems like it is just a little paperwork to them.
 
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#8 ·
tl01 said:
While I totally agree with this.. it boggles the mind why some dealers charge so much. I had such a crazy time getting a decent price for my Honda Care since I live in California and have to buy it here. In the end, I think I did well, but I couldn't figure out why a dealer wouldn't want to make such an easy profit. Seems like it is just a little paperwork to them.
Is it just California that does that, because people around here used to all get them from the same dealer in Lexington Kentucky (I think thats where it was) I even still have the guys name. They were going for a 100 dollars over invoice which I believe made the standard price about $700
 
#9 ·
Sorry, I looked up in my records and it was Moss Honda in Lafayette, Louisiana. I knew the city started with an "L":D
 
#10 ·
After calling 2039840239 dealers and trying to get a good deal, I got my original selling dealer to match the deal of another dealership since I had to stop by there anyway. What other dealers were charging $1900 I was able to get for $700. I think I could have done slightly better if I'd been able to buy out of state... but the funny part is that the finance guy who did the transaction said they were taking a loss on the warranty plan. Right...
 
#12 ·
Don't feel badly... I only leased the car for 3 years and 52,500 miles... so I only got the 5 year 60K warranty (I believe... I know it has 60 K miles.. but I"m not totally sure about how many years as I will only need the mileage portion. I know it can be had for less in other states but here in CA I think it is a great deal!
 
#14 ·
Our buddy Eric, from the dealer mentioned earlier, in Lafayette Louisiana sent this out when folks were warranting their 2nd generation Ody. As I remember, it was almost scandalous, because apparently if you didn't get it during the very early stages, you never got it. I got it forwarded to me about a month later from my neighbor who got the 100k one on his Ody. Unfortuatly though for us, Eric doesn't work their anymore so I don't have the point of contact. There are similar copies of these figures in other forums if you look back to the 2nd generation era. It was a cash cow for the dealer on Odys alone with the power door motor and tranny failures. Not to mention it took six months to get one.

Honda Care :
$850.00
7yr/100k mile warranty with $0 deductible

$630.00
7yr/75k mile warranty with $0 deductible

$720.00
6yr/100K mile warranty with $0 deductible

$585.00
6yr/75k mile warranty with $0 deductible
 
#17 ·
a4000 said:
To get this thread back on track....how bout this one.

When vehicle is in reverse, slide the mirror selector switch to either side to have the corresponding outside mirror angle downwards so you can see the curb when paralllel parking.
I believe 07+ Tourings also do that, however the big question is, do they return to their original setting, or just a standard one, which I believe was a complaint on the previous generation.
 
#19 · (Edited)
a4000 said:
To get this thread back on track....how bout this one.

When vehicle is in reverse, slide the mirror selector switch to either side to have the corresponding outside mirror angle downwards so you can see the curb when paralllel parking.
Is THAT why only ONE does it at a time, and i find it alternating all the time?

ha! i was going to call honda about that. I thought that they BOTH were going to turn down. I HATED the driver side turning down. I was actually wondering if i could turn it off all the way, when the passenger side started turning down, not the drivers side. LOL!

Okay, after looking at pge 198 in the manual, to turn it 'off' put the mirror switch in the middle.

Ah. This board rocks! :D
 
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#20 ·
Re: Opening/Closing all windows + moonroof with the Remote or the Key

BigBoat said:
Useful, especially closing them all at once is very handy. Check your manual pages 193-195

Note: you cannot close the windows or the moonroof with the remote transmitter.
Thanks for that!
 
#21 ·
Re: Opening/Closing all windows + moonroof with the Remote or the Key

BigBoat said:
Useful, especially closing them all at once is very handy. Check your manual pages 193-195

Note: you cannot close the windows or the moonroof with the remote transmitter.
Thanks indeed!

To explain to everyone:

If you press unlock twice on the remote and hold the button down for 10 seconds on second push, it will roll the windows down and open the moonroof.

If you put the key in the driver's side door, then turn counterclockwise twice and hold on the second turn, it will do the same.

If you do something similar for a clockwise turn, it will roll all the windows up and close the moonroof.
 
#22 ·
For those with a HDD in their Ody, I found that the artist, album, song information displayed for a recorded CD is based on a static copy of the Gracenote database (CDDB). I recorded/imported a brand new CD and no title information was displayed. Here is the website describing how to update the database:

http://www.navteq.com/gracenote/honda/index.html
 
#364 ·
for those with a hdd in their ody, i found that the artist, album, song information displayed for a recorded cd is based on a static copy of the gracenote database (cddb). I recorded/imported a brand new cd and no title information was displayed. Here is the website describing how to update the database:

http://www.navteq.com/gracenote/honda/index.html

this website no longer provides access to this
 
#25 ·
Wajo357 said:
thanks for all of the great tricks! Just a friendly request, if you are talking about a feature that is specific to a version of the vehicle (like only to the tourings), please specify that. For instance, I don't think my EX-L does the reverse tilt door mirror feature (it says in the manual "if equiped"). Is this only for the tourings?
yep
 
#26 ·
Re: Opening/Closing all windows + moonroof with the Remote or the Key

BigBoat said:
Note: you cannot close the windows or the moonroof with the remote transmitter.
Yes, I noticed that too. I think it would be more useful to be able to close them remotely than to open them remotely. Think "cloudburst" while sitting in a restaurant watching your van fill up with rain!

Serious oversight!
 
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