By Wednesday morning, the insurance check for our totaled Chrysler 300M was on the table—and by that weekend, we owned a Honda Odyssey EL-L with a DVD system. There had been no months-long debate this time, no carefully weighed options—just a sudden need and a quick decision. The Odyssey stepped in as our family workhorse, handling carpools, soccer games, and everything in between with quiet competence, becoming exactly the car we needed for that moment in our lives.
I had started looking the Saturday after the accident, having taken the girls with me while Bobbi slept. A friend had come over with dinner for that evening and sat with Bobbi while I took the girls out so the house would be quiet. I started at the local Chevrolet/Cadillac dealer simply because it was there. Bobbi had said she did not want an SUV, as that was the type of vehicle that had flipped over in the accident. I looked at the Cadillac SRX, and the salesman wanted to show me a Tahoe. Knowing that Bobbi didn’t want that, I declined the offer. Wednesday afternoon, I went to the local Chrysler dealer. Wally didn’t work there anymore, but the salesteam were just as attentive as he was. No one approached me until I asked a passing guy if he worked there. He was the GM. Suddenly, I had a salesperson. I asked to see a Pacifica, but he tried steering me to a Town & Country. Bobbi had liked the Pacifica, but we hadn’t discussed a minivan. On Thursday, she went and looked at a Mazda CX-9. She liked it, but the dealer was half an hour away. Knowing the deadline was approaching, we ended up back at Ken Dixon Honda.
The 8th-generation Accord had just come out, and it was almost as big as the 300M. They had a black Accord V6 EX-L in the showroom, and it was nice. We took one for a test drive and really liked it. However, we also decided to look at the Pilot and the Odyssey and we wanted a DVD player and leather in the vehicle. We drove the Odyssey first and really liked it. The Pilot was next and it was equally nice. We knew we had to discuss, and we told our salesman that. He offered to pay for our lunch and gave us the Accord to drive. The key was on a security tag, and it was not going to fit in my pocket, so I placed it on the table, which our waitress saw and mentioned how her dad bought a Pilot but traded it in for an Odyssey. She said he liked his Odyssey and it was great for their family. Bobbi and I both knew at that point that we were going to get the Odyssey.
We chose a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L RES in slate green with olive interior. The RES meant it had the rear entertainment system. It was the most expensive car we had bought at just over $31,000. It had all the bells and whistles including a sunroof, keyless entry, power windows, door locks three zone climate control, homelink, heated seats, and a 6-disc CD changer. It was almost as powerful as the 300M, but it was heavier. We had decided that this was, most likely, the only minivan we would own so we should get everything we wanted in it. It was Bobbi’s first new car and she loved it. Finally, carpooling was easier and trips to Pittsburgh would fly by for the girls with a DVD player; Katie had always been a horrible passenger, so a DVD player was a nice thing to have. As an aside, we chose that color because no one else seemed to have it. Again, we were mistaken. You just didn’t know you were looking at that color when you saw it on the road. Every fourth Odyssey was that color in the area.
I didn’t mind driving the Odyssey. It was great for hauling stuff. Two weeks in, and I brought home a new gas grille. It was great when my parents came to visit, as we could now carry everyone in one vehicle and not worry when my dad would leave 28 car lengths between my car and his when we would go places. It meant beach trips were much easier to pack for since we could fit more in the van than in a car. We also had the roof rack, though we seldom used it, for additional cargo carrying capabilities. Handling was good. I had always heard the Odyssey was the more “sporting” minivan while the Toyota Sienna was the “luxury” van. That said, it weighed about 4,500 pounds, so stopping took longer than a car.
The Odyssey was the family car at this point, and it did all the family things that a family would do. It drove the girls to soccer games. It carried Bobbi’s Girl Scout troop on field trips. It was a loyal participant in the neighborhood carpool. In short, it was uneventful. I never drove it to work. Working on Capitol Hill meant driving into the city, and I found it a little too big for my comfort to drive in DC traffic. I drove it to work once when my parents and another couple, who were friends, came to DC to tour the White House. I had to pick them up from the JW Marriott and take them sightseeing, and so the van was perfect. They didn’t complain about a lack of space. Where the van really shone was traveling. In our first year, we took a trip to Williamsburg with my mother-in-law, Bobbi’s best friend, and her daughter while her husband was serving in Iraq. The following two years were trips to the Outer Banks and the many trips to Pittsburgh.
In 2010, the van spent most of the summer in Pittsburgh when Bobbi and the girls traveled up to stay with her mom when she was in hospice. After her mom passed away, we had to get the house ready to sell. The van was most useful in bringing things back to Maryland that Bobbi and her brother wanted from Mom’s home. When the house finally sold, I rented a U-Haul to carry some furniture back that would not fit in the van. Betty, the real estate agent, was a good friend of Bobbi’s mom. She was in her eighties and still sold real estate. Betty’s daughter was Mom’s attorney. They knew Bobbi well and were there to finalize paperwork. Once everything was done, we were ready to head out. We had parked behind Betty’s big Chrysler on the street. Betty got into her car and backed up, as she always did, so she could turn around in the neighbor’s driveway. Suddenly, BANG! Betty hit the Odyssey. Fortunately, neither car had damage, and we went on our way.
Once we were back in Maryland, we settled into the new normal. We still traveled to Pittsburgh as my parents were there. By this point, my parents were retired, so they were able to drive down to see us more often. I had mentioned in my Accord story that I had switched jobs and was with a new company. Since I didn’t have much vacation, I worked over Christmas. It was slow and I only had to stay a few hours. While killing time on Realtor.com, I found the house that Bobbi had fallen in love with many years ago. Still in Southern Maryland, this house was much closer to her brother and sister-in-law, and it was Bobbi’s dream home. I convinced her we should go look at it. After all, we’re just looking and were not thinking of moving. We loved the house and brought the girls over to show them before we made an offer. We put in the offer; the owners countered right where we wanted to be. Just like that, we bought a house. Things moved quickly, but the Odyssey spent its weekends hauling junk to the dump and donations to Goodwill. We had 14 years of stuff to clean out that we did not want to move.
Closing was on a Friday. That weekend, the girls and I drove over to our new house to drop some stuff off. I pulled up in the driveway and decided to pull the van into the garage, which was a side load with individual doors. Our old house, you just pulled in, and you were in; no turning. Now I had to swing in. I missed and managed to hit both front fenders on the side of the garage. The marks are still on the frame of the house. Needless to say, the girls learned a whole string of words that evening that they may not have heard before. Bobbi later mentioned that she noticed the previous owners never parked their Suburban in the garage and only backed their cars in. She didn’t think anything of it until that moment. We still back our cars into the garage today; it’s easier. I also paid out of pocket to have the van fixed, only to hit the driver’s side fender again while backing in one day.
Moving to La Plata meant we were living in a small town, as compared to a subdivision. Shopping was five minutes away, and so we drove less. Bobbi was still a Girl Scout leader, and the girls were active with activities. We joined the local swim club since it was close. The Odyssey was driven to the pool, the local high school, tennis matches, drama club, and marching band rehearsal. It was the vehicle we drove to the airport when we traveled to Germany with my parents. It was the car Emily learned how to drive on, and it became Emily’s first car when Bobbi got a new car in September of 2017.
Having a third driver made things so much easier when it came to school activities, and Emily was an eager driver. With the van relegated to a driveway space, it was so easy to send her to pick up Katie, run to the store for us, pick up carryout, and do other errands as needed. Yes, the car insurance went up, but the convenience of not having to do it ourselves more than made up for that. I know that minivan, no matter how nice it may be, is not the dream car for a teenager. We heard her grumbling one day to a friend who was complaining about his old Jeep that she “was forced to drive a minivan”. We pointed out that the van that she was “forced to drive” had a decent stereo, working air conditioning, a sunroof, and was fully paid for by her parents.
When Emily headed off to college in the fall of 2019, we used the van to move her into her dorm room. Again, it proved itself to be so convenient in moving her in and out. However, she started student teaching and needed a car on campus. Her boyfriend had a Hyundai Sonata that he was replacing with a new Civic, and his parents offered the Sonata to us. They signed the title over, and it became Emily’s car at college during and after COVID. That meant the van was sitting in the driveway. Katie was not looking to drive anytime soon, and paying insurance on four cars was expensive. Furthermore, mice started chewing the wiring on the van, and we ended up with some expensive repairs. Not needing the van, we took it to CarMax, and they gave us a fair price on our 13-year-old van with 170,000 miles on it. Part of me wonders if we did the right thing selling it, but we knew Katie wasn’t going to drive it. She wouldn’t get her license for another two years, so keeping a spare car didn’t make sense. In the end, it was a great car for that time period in our lives. I’d certainly buy another Odyssey in a heartbeat if I needed a van again.
We also had a grey 2007 Odyssey van, although – equipment wise – ours was the polar opposite of yours. I was casually looking for a new family vehicle in December 2007 and discovered that Honda was offering a ‘secret’ rebate on leftover 2007 Odysseys in dealer inventory. I was able to negotiate a price of approximately $19K before taxes for a brand new bottom-of-the-line Odyssey LX. We didn’t care that it had manual sliding doors, cloth seats, and no entertainment system. We kept the Odyssey for 12 years and 180K miles, and it was rock-solid reliable through our entire ownership period.
My wife had a tough commute and parked in a tight parking garage at work, so I became its primary driver by default. The Odyssey turned out to be the perfect car in terms of meeting our family needs. It took us (and all our stuff) on vacation every year, hauled lumber and bags of mulch and dirt, handled carpool duty with ease, brought my daughter to and from college, etc., etc. I maintained it pretty carefully, and the Odyssey still looked and ran great when I sold it at a reasonable price to a coworker whose son desperately needed a reliable family car. The photo is from 2017 — the Odyssey had just been washed and waxed, ready to be driven about 1500 miles on our annual family vacation.
People can make fun of minivans (and their drivers) — that’s fine. They can’t be beat from a utility perspective. I still miss my Odyssey.
Minivans really are so versatile. The only thing I hated was pulling the middle row seats out of the van. Those middle seats were heavy, and they had to be stored somewhere. We only removed them when necessary. Chrysler’s stow and go was a great idea.
That’s the main reason – as well as a much lower price – that we bought a Grand Caravan. We lived in an apartment at the time and had nowhere to put the middle seats if we took them out.
The second-generation Sienna (’04-’10) I used to drive sometime had 2nd row captain chairs that could be removed, but also could be folded forward by lowering the seatbacks onto the seat, then tilting the folded seat forward (with the front bottom being the piviot point), resulting in the folded seats being nestled against the front row seatbacks. This added about 18″ of length to the floor, not as much as removing the seats but it was easy to do. I’m not sure if Honda had a similar arrangement.
I know La Plata, MD quite well, as my older brother used to live there before moving to the adjacent, even smaller town of Port Tobacco. I sometimes joke that it isn’t just out in the boonies, but you have to drive for 10 minutes just to get to the boonies. But one thing’s for sure – you can buy a humongous house there for the price of a dinky condo in the more urban area of Maryland where I live. Oh, and he has a daughter named Emily too! He’s never had a Honda Odyssey though, although he briefly drove an Accord.
I gave some thought to buying a mini-van at one point; I don’t have kids, but do have friends I like to go on road trips with, and something like an Odyssey would be perfect for such occasions. I also need to move cabinets or appliances for the home-renovation work I’ve dabbled in, and I prefer the enclosed, carpeted interiors of a van to a pickup bed exposed to the weather and inaccessable from inside the vehicle.
You might recognize a couple of landmarks in next week’s photos. Port Tobacco has such an interesting history for such a small town, or perhaps village is a better term. It is a nice area, especially if you’re looking for waterfront property. You’re correct about the boonies. Head south on Route 6, and you are in the middle of nowhere.
Population only 18 people according to Wiki. My bro apparently doesn’t live in Port Tobacco proper but a bit north of it, as his relatively-new development has about 25 McMansions in it with about – I’m guessing – 75 people living there. It’s near the Thomas Stone site.
Interesting…Katie’s best friend lives over there in one of the newer developments. Her name is Emily. Is your brother’s driveway a steep hill going down to the house?
There are a couple of developments in that area. Big houses and nice lots. The builder was an advertising client when I worked at The Washington Times. The owner of the ad agency, who placed their advertising, lived in one of the new developments as well.
> Is your brother’s driveway a steep hill going down to the house?
Yes! On Hampstead Crt.
Small world….
We have a very similar car – in our case, a 2010 Odyssey EX, purchased just after we had our second kid. In our case, we realized that we could use something bigger than a sedan, and we also weren’t enamored with SUVs. My wife said that if we bought a minivan, it had to be an Odyssey, since (like you said), these were known as the most “sporting” minivan out there.
It’s proven to be a great car; we still have it, and it has 178,000 mi.., the highest mileage of any car I’ve ever had. Until 2018, when we bought a Kia Sedona, the Odyssey functioned as our primary travel vehicle and family hauler. Now it’s our around-town car. Given the cost of new vehicles, we’re hoping not to have to replace the Odyssey any time soon.
And like your car, this was the car that our kids learned to drive on – the picture here is of one of my daughters after her first driving lesson. She thought it was amusing that she learned to drive on a car that we’d owned since she was a baby.
Oh, and your garage story reminds me of why I prefer front-loading garages!
Out of curiosity, have you had any issues with the transmission in the Odyssey, or had Honda sorted those by that point?
We’ve had no transmission problems at all. From what I recall, the 3rd generation Odyssey’s transmissions were better than the 2nd generations, and the 3rd generation also received some kinds of improvements in the 2007-08 time frame, so I think the big problems were sorted out by the time ours was made.
That said, we’ve been scrupulous about having regular transmission fluid changes done.
I had a similar Odyssey when the kids were smaller, but 3 transmissions soured me. Also the downright goofy styling of the recent ones has had us in three Siennas since. I drove Suburbans much of that time, now a GX470, but the Siennas really drive great and are no penalty box. Oh speaking of your 300M- I also had a Concorde with the 24V 3.5L and LOVED that car! So did my parents, who ended up buying it from me as a 3rd “spare car” for them.
Garages- I have always avoided houses with single car doors for both the reasons you found, and the ease of pulling a car into the middle for wheel swaps, waxing, interior cleaning, etc. Even when we had a 3 car, one door was a double. Now with 2 doubles, life is good 🙂
Almost forgot! As nice as our Odyssey was, heated leather, great A/C and a surprisingly kickin stereo, I don’t think a single one of our kids ever drove it, I tried giving it to a couple of them and it was total rejection LOL
Ultimately a box is the most logical format for a car, big or small. BTW, minivan sales have been on an increase these past few years.
I saw the same thing re minivan sales. The minivan of choice in our neighborhood for young families seems to be the Toyota Sienna. The retiree crowd drives Odysseys.
We also had one of this generation, also an EXL but a 2006, and it was good, but I think I preferred the same generation Sienna we had before it (that we lost in a house fire) in most respects except visually; the Odyssey looks better (not a high bar to clear though). No transmission trouble for us, however we did buy it used (and sold it more used), so no idea if it had issues before or after. Big box on wheels, did its job, I’d happily buy another minivan but it would need far better gas mileage than either the Odyssey or Sienna delivered. The flip side of course was that neither was any kind of slouch on the road, neither wanting for more power.
You’re sort of channeling my own old COAL series with the Jetta, G20, and now Odyssey, all within one model year of ours…
Stay tuned! If I recall correctly, I have one more that you also owned. That one will publish in two weeks.
You are quite obviously a man of superior and refined tastes. 🙂
It looks like you’re the Toyota Sienna Hybrid and Kia Carnival Hybrid target buyer!
30mpg in the Sienna Hybrid makes you wonder how Honda sells any vans anymore (well, beyond the apparent Sienna waiting lists and dealer upcharges…). I did quite like the Sienna Hybrid I reviewed here (has it been 5 years already?!) but haven’t yet sampled the Carnival – it seems to get good reviews too though.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/new-car-review/curbside-review-2021-toyota-sienna-platinum-awd-hybrid-kermit-was-wrong/
Funny think about Odysseys and that they tend to last a long time and end up as the vehicle the kids drive. Our neighbor across the street has an Odyssey of this generation and three kids, and it has been the primary vehicle for each of those kids until they needed their own car. The youngest one still drives it to and from college.
I have owned 4 vans of varying sizes, and loved every one of them for all the reasons you mention. I am abou3 years into life without a minivan and still miss the last one.
I too experienced a side-load garage, and don’t miss it a bit. Mine at least had a big single door, but it was on a narrow 40 foot wide lot behind the house. I backed my cars into it too.
I heard a lot of positive comments about this generation of Odyssey, with powerful engines, double wishbone suspensions all around and vert tight steering, it feels very sporty for a minivan. However it has an ultimate sin, premature transmission failure. Over years, I know at least six Odyssey and MDX transmission failures. I was a victim on such failure. The story was about 18 years ago our family were on the way to Philadelphia International Airport for a cruise ship vacation in Miami, the car service van was the same generation of Odyssey, I was later told its then milage was 105k miles. As the van approached Philly downtown area, the van suddenly slowed down and engine racing, then smoke came out from the front engine compartment. The guy pull over. I had no time to waste, paid the fare and called for taxi service with help of my relatives. Note that was the time smart phone had not been popular, my relatives found the taxi company in the yellow page and called the taxi for us. Honda transmission with V6 engine has a reputation for transmission failure despite Honda vehicles have been enjoying an excellent reputation. Actually my co-worker once needed a large vehicle to transport his family, he found an Odyssey with failed transmission and fixed up with an aftermarket rebuilt transmission, he used that van for 150k miles before it was totaled at an accident. Someone claimed some reputable aftermarket Honda transmissions are more reliable than Honda OEM.
But in my view Odyssey is the best van on the market set aside its transmission problem, so when we looked for a larger vehicle for our growing kids 10 years ago, we bought a 2015 Odyssey.
I swore I would never drive a minivan, but I did. Not one, but two! It was truly the perfect option for a growing family and sporty kids. We could fit all the gear, a fair number of team members, and cherished memories to boot! While I don’t miss the look of the minivan, I sure do miss having all that laughter packed inside.