Great Car!! Buy One!!
Rear Struts went at 105K.
Car is awesome! Great Gas Mileage! We use one for our business and it is an awesome all around vehicle.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 8th April, 2008
Great Minivan
Radiator changed at 75,000 miles.
Front A/C stopped blowing cold air at 80,000 miles.
Changed Balancer Shaft Seal at 200,000 miles.
Extremely reliable car with no major maintenance costs.
Car has never refused to start and has never stopped on the road.
Design well thought out. 4 doors make easy access even to third row. Second row seats easily removable and installed. Third row seat folds downs extremely easily and still draws wows from those who have never seen it fold down before. Large cargo space with all seats removed. Minivan has doubled up as a pickup truck on many occasions.
Interior has held very well apart from normal wear and tear.
Engine and road noise a little high compared to later model minivans. Good gas mileage, but slightly underpowered with the 4 cyl.
One of the best minivans ever built. Still runs extremely well at 205,000 miles. I will keep mine until it stops running.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 4th June, 2005
The best in reliability, comfort, fuel mileage and looks great
This minivan handles and rides like a car. I have the 4 cylinder model. It has the umph for highway passing without any problems. This was the first car with the fold down third seat. On long trips it comfortably fits my family of 4 plus my Irish Setter in the back. Our second car is a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Jeep is a 2002 model with 100,000 thousand less miles on it. The Jeep is the one in the shop for this and that the Honda is never in the shop except for brakes and oil changes. The Jeep back seats don't have the leg room of the Honda and they are uncomfortable, even on a short ride. The Irish Setter doesn't have the head room or body room in the back of the Jeep for a short ride.
Honda why did you go to a larger Odyssey. I would buy a new version of the model I have immediately. I would not buy the larger model, not ever.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 31st January, 2004
What sort of miles per gallon do you get?
I just purchased a 96 Odyssey LX with 189,000 KM on the odometer. It's in beautiful condition, runs perfectly and we love the van (family of four). On my first 400 KM trip I was able to achieve just over 29 MPG (canadian imperial gallon). This was 25% city driving and 75% highway. This also included hilly and twisty terrain, and the A/C was on most of time. This is incredible fuel economy! My second tank full is just over half consumed with 350 KM on the tripometer... all highway. This may be over 30 MPG, but I have yet to re-fill and calculate. Excellent vehicle.
I don't think it is anywhere near the first car with a fold flat third row set. My family had an 80ish Chevy Impala station wagon with a fold flush third row set.
There were wagons back in the day that had the fold-down back seat, but this was the first minivan with this feature in NA.
Dodge/Chrysler always took credit for being the first to include it, as well as the dual sliding doors. But even Nissan Axxess (also a very good minivan) had dual sliding doors before the Caravan.
Simply a better minivan too bad Honda went to larger vans
Automatic door lock relay sticks sometimes. Annoying, but auto-lock still works.
Remote key-less entry keys quit working in 2001. Replaced batteries, but no luck.
Perfect car for our family. We have 3 young children (only had 1 when we got car) so smaller size much better. Wife couldn't stand the larger "tank-like" US minivans and is disappointed Honda switched over.
Drives more like a car than a minivan.
Rear folding seat is great, can't begin to understand why all manufacturers don't go this route. I've messed with other removable seats & will NEVER own a minivan without fold down seat.
Solid gas mileage, 20-24 mpg with mixed driving. Better than the big minivans.
Engine is peppier than most give it credit for being. Punch it getting on the Interstate & engine does whine, but it also accelerates reasonably well even with 5 passengers & luggage, better than comparable V6 minivans of same year. Won't win any races, but fine for family driving.
Biggest key for us is reliability. Friends with Caravan have had theirs in shop more each year than we have in 7 years (actually we've never had a serious problems with the Odyssey).
Negatives:
A/C is adequate for Southern heat, but not great.
A little noisy on interstate, but not too bad.
"EX" only seats 6. We wanted "LX" (7 seater) but got a lot better deal on the "EX" (actually a higher priced model) by buying year-old model.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 21st October, 2002
I wish I could buy a couple more '95-'97's and keep them for the future
Glove compartment plastic latch broke, but it can still be opened. Other than that, nothing but normal maintenance has been done (oil changes, tune-up). The car seems to burn a little more oil than I would expect so I keep a close watch on it. However, I see no leaks anywhere and no unusual smoke from the exhaust.
The car is perfect for our needs. It is a small mini-van, yet seats up to seven people. The rear fold down seat results in plenty of storage space when needed. Having rear opening doors on both sides is OK and not having a sliding door is not a problem. The car handles extremely well, similar to a sedan. I think Honda made a mistake by redesigning the post '97 Odyssey's into a behemoth mini-van - many people prefer a smaller, more maneuverable mini-van and the '95-'97 models are the only ones that fit that description. Drawbacks: road noise is higher than I would like. Mileage is not great, averaging about 20 mpg in mixed driving, but is better than the Windstar we traded in. Engine power is not great either, but adequate: I'd like to see a US made 4 cylinder 2 litre engine that would be able to do the job as well.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 10th February, 2002
2nd Jan 2009, 23:56
Currently at 246,000. Stopped driving it when I bought a 2008 Pilot. Will continue when we give our CRV to our son turning 16.