2021 Honda Odyssey review: Better than the new Kia Carnival?

CarExpert

The Honda Odyssey is synonymous with the people mover segment. But, we haven't really heard much from Honda lately in terms of the Odyssey. So does the latest update bring with it enough competition to take down the all-new Kia Carnival? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to find out!  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Honda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda More Honda Odyssey content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/honda/odyssey  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:53 Interior 02:24 Infotainment 03:41 Safety Tech 05:05 Practicality 05:58 On the road 13:13 Verdict 18:03  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #honda #review #odyssey

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So if you haven't been sucked in by the SUV craze, but you still need a car with plenty of seats,

00:06 a people mover is probably on your shopping list. This here is the Honda Odyssey. It's just been

00:11 facelifted for 2021. This competes with things like the Kia Carnival, which is kind of a personal

00:16 favourite of mine, the Volkswagen Multivan, and also the Mercedes-Benz Valente. This one here is

00:22 the top spec, it's called the V-i-l-x-7. It's priced at just over $51,000, but if that's a little bit too

00:29 much, the entire range kicks off at a little over $44,000. Today we're going to do a detailed review

00:36 of this car. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you've got time codes up on

00:40 the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, there are chapters below that you can click on. And if

00:44 you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could subscribe to our channel and press the bell

00:47 icon as well. That's going to tell you every single time we drive one of these big old buses.

00:52 So let's talk exterior design. You've got four colours to pick from, and they are all

00:58 free of charge. What about the styling? There is a lot of chrome up the front here. So this has

01:02 changed a lot since the last Odyssey that I remember. Well, I don't know, the one that I

01:06 enjoyed the most, and that was the really low-slung version. It was kind of sporty to drive as well.

01:11 It's now very much gone down the path of, I guess, American is what you could call it with that

01:16 design. So it's got a giant grille, that chrome that I mentioned, and then a lot of these piano

01:20 black portions that are blacked out. It's really only these sections here, and then the bottom that

01:24 actually lets air into the car, and a big Honda logo there as well. In terms of headlights, you

01:29 have full LED headlights with an LED daytime running light. These also have a semi-adaptive

01:35 beam, which means that when you turn the steering wheel, there's still little portions here light up

01:39 to give you a bit more colour down this side of the road, and you also have progressive indicators as

01:43 well. So when you pop those on, they come along the top there as a little sequence. Down the bottom

01:48 there, you have LED fog lights as well. Whip around to the side. Down here, you've got 17-inch alloy

01:54 wheels and a fairly chubby profile tyre, which means it should ride nicely. In terms of the

01:58 design, it seems to follow the trend of what we're seeing in a lot of cars these days, which is a

02:03 darker interior section, and then a sort of brushed chrome look on the outside. Over on the wing

02:08 mirror, you have an indicator built in, privacy glass, and then if you come around to the back,

02:13 you'll see LED taillights here as well. These actually look really cool at night time, they

02:18 sort of give this quite a unique design, and then a little bit more chrome along the back there with

02:23 another Honda logo. So we're inside the Honda Odyssey. I'll show you the key to start with,

02:28 so that's what it looks like there. You've got unlock, lock buttons to remotely open the two

02:33 power doors, and then a button to open the boot. On the back, you have a Honda symbol. Now this is

02:38 a proximity sensing key, so you can just leave that in your pocket, and then once you're inside

02:42 the cabin, you have a push button start that glows, waiting for you to give it a hit. Now in

02:47 terms of the actual design, I reckon this feels and looks a whole lot more premium than the Kia

02:52 Carnival. The reason I say that is just the materials that they use throughout the cabin

02:56 just feel soft to the touch, and it has that sort of premium vibe to it, including this wood grain

03:01 along the top that carries over to the sides here. It all just looks nice, including the seats. I

03:07 love that sort of grouped leather look. It's kind of old school, but it really suits the demeanour

03:11 of the car. Now what about your touch points? Well, we don't have a centre console here, which

03:15 is a little bit strange. We'll go into a bit more detail on that when we talk storage, but you do

03:19 have a touch point here on the door that is really nice and soft. How soft is it? Well, we've got our

03:23 durometer. We've tested all the main surfaces in this car. If you want to see how this car compares

03:28 to others that we've tested before, simply follow the link in the description. Now what about build

03:32 quality? There's nothing here for me to grab, but the rest of this kind of feels nice and solid.

03:38 Nothing really feels out of place here, which is good. Let's talk about infotainment. So Honda has

03:43 upgraded the infotainment system. It's now an 8-inch colour infotainment system. It's a

03:48 touchscreen and you've got shortcut buttons on either side. Now this comes standard with some

03:54 inbuilt smartphone mirroring, and that is Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Both of them are wired

03:59 though, so no wireless here. I'll show you what Android Auto looks like to start with. There it

04:03 is there. So full screen integration. Look at maps. That'll look nice as well. Nice and easy to use.

04:09 And it also pairs with a voice recognition system. You can forward commands straight through to your

04:13 phone as well, so the cloud will recognise them. And this is what Apple CarPlay looks like.

04:18 So full screen integration again. Nice and fast and smooth, which is great. Now the thing to note

04:25 here is you get a six-speaker sound system, but unfortunately you don't get any digital radio. So

04:30 you just have AM/FM, USB and Bluetooth and your smartphone mirroring. So you know, it is 2021.

04:36 Digital radio would be nice to have, I think. But it does come with inbuilt satellite navigation.

04:42 It's a third-party Garmin system. This works pretty well. Comes with traffic recognition there

04:47 as well. So if you don't have a smartphone to pair to the car, at least you have this and,

04:52 you know, it'll solve most of your dramas. Ahead of the driver is a seven-inch display,

04:56 and this gives you things like your tachometer and also some of the trip computer functions.

05:00 Also easy to use with a little scroll wheel here that allows you to transition between all the

05:04 menus. Let's talk safety technology. So you have low and high speed autonomous emergency braking.

05:09 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror, lane departure warning and a lane keeping assistant.

05:14 There's also a semi-autonomous steering setup for your radar cruise control. Doesn't really work

05:20 very well though. On the way here this morning, it was sort of veering over the lines and I don't

05:24 know, just didn't really feel me with confidence. So I switched that thing off. You have blind spot

05:28 monitoring built into that wing mirror. And in terms of parking, you have a rear view camera,

05:32 but no front or rear parking sensors. So you're going to just rely on the camera.

05:36 Let's have a quick look at what that looks like. Pop that into reverse. The quality is actually

05:40 pretty good. And then you can change your angles as well, depending on the view that you want.

05:45 And if you are connecting a trailer, which you won't really be doing much towing with this,

05:48 but just in case you are, you've got that top down view. It also has rear cross traffic alerts,

05:52 so you can see cars and pedestrians coming from the rear that you can't actually see yourself.

05:57 Now, moving on to practicality, and we'll talk about connectivity options. You have one USB

06:02 port down the front here, and that's used for your smartphone mirroring. Next to that is a 12 volt

06:06 outlet. There is a second USB point for your front row, and that's located up here in this little

06:12 cubby hole. Then in terms of the rest of your storage, get rid of this cable for a second,

06:18 where are you going to put your phone? Well, the phone can really only live here. There's no

06:22 center console, which I find really strange. Would have thought this would be the perfect

06:25 opportunity to have a whopping big center console here. Maybe it's available as an option. I don't

06:29 know if it is. Let me know in the comments section, but for the moment, your phone lives down the

06:33 front there. Now, what about cup holders? So you have a few options to choose from. Over here,

06:37 you have one that comes out of the dashboard. It's adjustable as well, easily fits the coffee cup

06:42 nicely, so it's easy to reach. Down here, this actually moves outwards, so you can put that in

06:48 or out, and then that also comes with two cup holders as well. Easily fits the coffee and holds

06:53 it in nicely. It'll also fit your bottle as well without any dramas. And finally, what about

06:59 our big whopper bottle? Does that fit in the door? It does, but you've got to kind of cram it in

07:03 there for it to fit. Then you also have a glove box over here, which is generously sized. I'll

07:09 show you how much room there is in that. And finally, another storage slot up the top here.

07:14 See if it actually fits our bottle. Look at that, perfectly. No dramas at all. And then on top of

07:22 the driver, you have a sunglasses holder with a mirror built into it as well, so you can see the

07:27 kids in the back, and a tiny little slot just next to the driver's knee. Okay, let's talk about

07:31 comfort. So this is probably the thing I'm liking the most about the Odyssey, and that is how comfy

07:36 these seats are. So I mentioned before you get that sort of old-school grouped leather look, but

07:40 they just hug you in nicely. It's a super soft seat to be seated in, and it just, I don't know,

07:46 just really cocoons you. Then you have the armrest here that you can adjust to get the perfect

07:51 cruising position. Both the front row seats are heated, just using this little switch on the door

07:57 here. Both are electrically adjustable, and then the driver's side includes memory as well. In terms

08:02 of the steering wheel, it has both tilt and reach adjustment. In terms of climate controls, you have

08:08 dual zone automatic climate control for the front, and then a third zone of climate control for your

08:13 second and third rows as well. And then in terms of reach, everything here, importantly, is easier

08:18 reach while you're driving. Okay, now before I show you what the second row looks like, I thought

08:23 I'd explain how you can actually use your power side doors, and there's a number of different

08:27 options. So from the driver's seat, you can use these buttons here to open and close them, so it

08:31 means you don't need to get out of the car to let someone in. You've also got this option here,

08:35 which is your key. You can open and close both of those doors just from the key. You then can just

08:40 simply pull this handle lightly. It will then open and close the door, or you can use the wireless

08:46 COVIDSafe door opener, and you can see that little flashing light there. It's a proximity sensor,

08:50 so you just put your hand up there, wait till it all lights up, run your hand across it, and then

08:54 away it goes. Cool feature, but I don't really understand the logic in it. If you've got time to

08:59 put your hand there and do that, you've probably got time to just do that, which is all you need

09:03 to do to actually open and close the car. So yeah, I don't know, let me know what you think.

09:08 Let's see how much room there is in the second row. So we'll shut this door. Now you can see

09:13 I've got a ton of knee room. That's not an issue, but in terms of toe room and leg room, it's a

09:19 little bit weird because there's this raised section on the ground. It kind of makes it a

09:23 little bit awkward. Yes, I can move this second row forwards and backwards to give myself more

09:28 room, but that means you're kind of restricting the third row in terms of the access they get. So

09:33 wish there was just a little bit more room there. Tons of headroom though, which is no drama.

09:36 I've got mat pockets in the back of the seats. Unfortunately, there's no USB charging points

09:41 back here, so your second row passengers really don't have anywhere to charge their devices.

09:46 The seats are versatile though. So these are what they call captain's chairs. They're the

09:50 luxury version, so you get seven seats here instead of eight seats like you do in the

09:54 Kia Carnival, but it does mean that your second row passengers sit in a little bit more luxury. So

09:59 you can see the slight wings on those seats. You can recline the seat back as well if you want to

10:04 have a kipper. You've got these armrests that you can pop your elbow on. You've also got a really

10:09 strange option to move the seats sideways. So that means you get easier access to the third

10:15 row through the centre here. So clever feature. I haven't seen that used before. Bottle storage,

10:20 you can pop your water bottle here or also on the door. In addition to that, the windows go down

10:26 here in the second row, so you can get a little bit of cooling almost all the way down. And the

10:31 thing that I like the most, you have your air vents above your head, they're directional air

10:34 vents, and then your third zone of climate control is down here on this panel. So that goes all black

10:39 when the car's switched off, and then if you do want to adjust the controls, you just use that

10:43 panel right there for the second and third rows. Now let's talk third row. So I want to show you

10:47 how much room there is, and I'll demonstrate two ways of getting in there. So first up,

10:51 to get in there, I'm going to walk down the centre here. So you can see for an adult,

10:55 you can pretty easily fit through there. And then what you can also do, if that's not a practical

11:01 solution, you can move that forward so you can walk straight in through there. In terms of leg

11:05 room, I actually have heaps of room here. So plenty of knee room, lots of toe room as well.

11:10 Off to the sides, I have water bottle storage, and then over on the left-hand side, there's a 12-volt

11:15 outlet, but still no USB charging back here, which is pretty bizarre. And then you can see here that

11:20 this is a three-seat arrangement, but I think you can quite comfortably fit two adults here if you

11:24 need to. This centre section also folds flat if you need easy access to the boot. And in addition

11:30 to that, you have your directional air vents here to keep you nice and cool. Let's talk cargo space.

11:35 So you have a powered tailgate. It is incredibly slow, but it does get there eventually. You've

11:40 got to step back as well because it's quite a long tailgate. All right, there it is. So in terms of

11:46 space, there isn't a great deal of room here behind the third row. So the Carnival offers a whole lot

11:51 more, I guess, usable space behind here. This is only around the sort of 300-litre mark, so you can

11:56 get an idea there how much space there is with our bags in. I'll get those out of the way. You can

12:01 see the cargo floor there. Down here you have a jack built into the side. You also have storage

12:06 off on the side there as well. In terms of the way the seats fold down, they individually drop

12:11 just like this. Then you have to pull this and this at the same time. It lowers the seats into

12:19 that cavity in the floor, and then you lock them into position. So it's not the most advanced system

12:23 in the world, but once that happens, you get a little over 1600 litres. And then if you want to

12:28 push those two seats all the way forward, that increases the space to around 1900 litres. Now,

12:34 I know what you're about to ask. Where is the spare tyre? Well, it's in a very creative location. Let

12:40 me show you. So you remember that hump I spoke about before where our feet don't sit flat? Well,

12:46 there's a reason for that. If I pull this back and then grab this and yank that out of the way,

12:53 what you'll see there is the spare tyre. So in the Carnival, it sits beneath the passenger side

12:59 second row, whereas here it's actually physically inside the car. So I don't know if that's better

13:03 or worse. I guess it's good because it keeps dry and easy to reach, but I don't know. I think I

13:08 would probably prefer it outside of the car as opposed to compromising your legroom inside the

13:12 cabin. So we've hit the road in the Honda Odyssey. Powering this is a naturally aspirated 2.4 litre

13:20 petrol engine, makes 129 kilowatts of power and 225 newton metres of torque. That doesn't sound

13:27 like much, that's because it isn't. And you can just imagine that when this thing is full of

13:32 people, it is really going to struggle with getting up and moving. So it's all mated to a

13:37 CVT, which is a continuously variable transmission. That means when you do punch it,

13:41 makes a whole lot of noise, gets into the peak torque band and starts pulling the car along. But

13:47 that is literally flat to the floor and barely anything's happening. So I don't know, I just wish

13:52 they could fit a turbocharged engine to this or something just with a little bit more punch,

13:56 because it really is going to feel sluggish once it is full of people and luggage. Honda claims a

14:01 combined fuel economy of 8 litres per 100 kilometres. Let's have a look at what we're

14:06 achieving at the moment. 9.9, so it is above that claim and it kind of makes sense given the second

14:14 you leave a freeway at the natural confines of sort of constant speeds and get into the twisty

14:19 stuff, the engine really has to work hard to move the load. Let's talk drive mode. So you don't

14:24 really have any per se, you do have an economy button. You press that and the air conditioning

14:29 goes down a little bit, the throttle is a little more dulled. There is also a sport mode for the

14:34 transmission. So you'll notice here with the tacho, when I pop that down into sport, the revs rise,

14:38 so it's a little more eager to stay within the torque band as opposed to when it's in drive and

14:43 it's slightly lazier in terms of the way that it picks up revs. Honda doesn't quote an official

14:50 0-100 time, but we thought we'd put it up against our stopwatch. This is how it all went.

15:11 Let's talk road noise. So we're on a country road here, it's quite coarse chip, we're doing

15:15 about 80 k's an hour. Road noise is actually not too bad. You do hear a little bit of tyre noise

15:20 coming into the cabin, but certainly not as bad as some of the cheaper end of the people movers

15:25 where you kind of feel like your head is outside the cabin. What is a little noisy though is that

15:30 engine. Once you step on it, it sounds really thrashy inside the cabin, so you get a fair bit

15:36 of noise coming through. But it is interesting to see on the corner here you have these little LEDs,

15:41 the harder you push the throttle, the less green they go, so it's kind of like an

15:45 economy indicator. Now if you put the engine and that lack of punch to one side, Honda's done a

15:51 really good job with the ride. It's very smooth, it's like a magic carpet, it just glides along,

15:56 it soaks up bumps beautifully and then in and around the city, takes care of speed hubs,

16:00 potholes, cobblestones, you name it. And out here in the country, if you pick up the edge of a road

16:05 where it gets a little shady, it all just feels nice and compliant. So the ride is really good.

16:10 And you need something like that in a people mover because if you do have kids and stuff inside the

16:15 car, you're going on a long road trip, you don't want everyone feeling sick all the time. This

16:19 really is just a good, comfortable ride that they've spent a fair bit of time tuning.

16:24 Okay, let's talk handling. So we've got a couple of corners here, give it a punch,

16:28 I'm literally flat to the board and not a great deal is happening. Getting a little bit of wheel

16:33 slip on that inside wheel. But in terms of the handling itself, if you can hear me over the

16:37 engine, it's reasonably good. So a couple of generations ago, that Odyssey was actually quite

16:43 sporty in terms of the way that it drove. This isn't quite as sporty, it sits sort of, it feels

16:48 like it sits higher up and as you sort of tip it into a corner, it has a little bit of body roll.

16:53 But at the end of the day, you're not buying this because you need a sports car, but it's good to

16:57 know that you can sort of throw it around a little if you need to. And on that part, it's sort of

17:01 confident enough. It's not going to light your world on fire, but you know, it's a little bit

17:05 of fun every now and then. Turning circle comes in at 10.8 metres, which is actually not too bad.

17:12 Most of these front wheel drive people movers are generally pretty easy to tightly manoeuvre in and

17:17 around the city. Now, if you are planning on doing any towing, this comes with a 1000 kilo brake

17:23 to towing capacity. It's not really a great deal, but it'll be enough to move a small trailer or

17:27 something like that around. Ground clearance comes in at 160 millimetres. Again, not a huge amount,

17:33 but it is more than enough to get you in and around the city. And what about visibility?

17:37 This is a big vehicle, but you have decent sized wing mirrors. They come with that blind spot

17:42 monitor that keeps an eye down the side of the car. Visibility out the rear is excellent as well.

17:47 And look, it is fairly straightforward to park. It is just a little disappointing that you don't

17:51 have any front parking assistance. So because it's so hard to see the front of the car, you really

17:56 just have to guess how close you are to things as opposed to just fitting front parking sensors to

18:00 make life easier. So the Honda Odyssey. Look, to be honest, I thought the Kia Carnival was going to

18:06 walk all over this in terms of just, I don't know, everything. But I think this actually stands its

18:11 own ground. You can see why people buy this over a Carnival. It feels a little bit more special and

18:16 premium inside. It feels a bit more luxurious, but ultimately it's let down by the engine. It

18:21 just lacks punch. You can imagine this with seven people on board plus luggage. It is really going

18:26 to struggle to move. Whereas with the Carnival, as an example, you can get it in a petrol V6 or

18:30 a turbo diesel four cylinders. So I think it is just a little let down by that. I'd also love to

18:35 see bigger infotainment system compared to some of the other cars in this segment. So I think

18:39 Honda has a little bit of catching up to do. But look, in terms of pricing, it's quite sharply

18:43 priced and I think it is just a nice place to be seated. So let me know in the comments section

18:48 below, did you buy an Odyssey over a Carnival or some of the other competitors? And if so,

18:52 why did you do it? I'm keen to get your feedback. And what's the Odyssey like as a long-term

18:57 ownership proposition? Let me know down there. Now, if you did enjoy this video, make sure you

19:01 share it and also hit the like button. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel

19:05 and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we publish a new video. But until next

19:10 time, take it easy.

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