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The Honda Odyssey has long been a king of the minivan segment, but a complete cosmetic refresh for 2011 has us wondering if the emperor’s new clothes are a hit or a miss.
Mechanically speaking, there was little wrong with the outgoing Odyssey, but in an attempt to lure younger, van-phobic parents back to the minivan segment, Honda’s designers attempted to give the Odyssey a fresh, funky look. The van’s purpose hasn’t changed at all (and yes, it still sports a pair of sliding doors), but it has grown two inches in width, giving it a purposeful stance.
We noted as such in our first drive review, saying the new aesthetic feels fresh and upscale. That said, the unusual rear quarter windows, intended to infuse some personality into the exterior styling while increasing visibility for third-row passengers, may incite some debate from armchair stylists.
Today’s Snap Judgment:
Is the 2011 Odyssey Hot or Not?
Seeing the van in the flesh may be the best way to bear witness of Honda’s new look, but does the new design catch your eye? Will this redesign be enough to reignite minivan sales and counter Toyota’s own swagger wagon?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
is there a secret recall on honda van wing windows that stop operating.
It may be ugly, but at least it has some personality now.
The new Honda mini-van is horridly ugly. Honda has totally lost its way with styling. They are making the ugliest cars on the road right across the board.
YUCK!!! This thing looks like a hearse !!! WOW
It looks better than the Nissan Quest (1st or 2nd gen), but that isn’t saying much. I think Nissan, Honda, and even Toyota better watch out when Hyundai/Kia refresh their current minivan models to bring them inline with their current styling and power trains. The Kia Optima/Sorento/Sportage/new Rio models are lookers in a sea of boring autos. On the Hyundai side, the Elantra and Tucson are also good looking; the Sonata not so much – too much Lexus ES, blech. Speaking of styling, message to Acura: Take a lesson from Subaru of a few years ago, give up on that styling already – it’s broke and you can’t fix it.
Like all Honda’s and Acura’s of the past few years -the styling is hideous! Why can’t this great car company hire some design talent! Why does the Accord look like two seperate teams worked on the opposite ends of the car without consulting with the other team? Who signed off on the CrossTour!
And why did you throw away the successful and sweet former TL design for the awful current rendition…that you have “softened” in the hope of getting some of your former TL owners back. Wake up Honda-The Koreans have hired the design talent and are leaving you in the dust!
Honda “Reliability”? RU kidding me? Google “Honda Odyssey transmission problems” for a start, then work your way down to all the other things tht have gone wrong with the Odyssey over the years…(I actually own one)
But this post is about how the new Ody looks, and the comments seem to be running 90% think it’s a freak and the other 10% are Honda Fanboys who would buy it if it had 3 wheels and a garbage can for a drivers seat.
The Ody’s goofy “brokeback” body design are going to drive Chysler mini vans and Toyota Sienna sales higher.
Hideous. Ugly. Bozo styling.
It looks like a miss, but at least it doesn’t look like a jellybean. The Wheels are nice.
I would choose the Chrysler because It’s the better van overall though that van should have all-wheel-drive as an option.
I think the last generation looked better from the outside, at least the front and the side view anyway. Honda needs to call Stella up and find out how she got her groove back, so they can try to get their groove back, it certainly would help their customers notice a difference between driving their cars and driving a toyota.
Hot looking, definitely not! Best mv mechnicals and great mv, yes. Guess a truly great looking mv is just not possible. Maybe it doesn’t have to be.
I agree: repulsive.
As Sea Pea said, it looks like it’s already been rear-ended. The front & back are not too bad, but I recently saw one in person and it just looks weird.
In my opinion, the VW Routan is the bst looking van out there.
I applaud Honda for breaking with the traditional shapes and carrying it off well. It’s not a simple or comfortable design, but it is far more dynamic and cohesive than Nissan’s smirking brick. Toyota doesn’t have the hormones in place to try anything this energetic. With the exceptions of the Civic and CR-Z I haven’t been enjoying Honda’s design work for several years, but for me this is a hit.
If you’re a bad driver I suppose buying a van that ALREADY looks like it was severly REAR-ENDED distracts from all the dings you’ll be adding yourself. Aside from that, this is one erratically fugly family truckster. Just as the decent-looking Chryslers get even better, the plain-jane Honda gets homelier. Bad timing for Honda. The Sienna may have a demented dash, but from the outside it puts Oddity to shame. And so does the new Nissan, in fact, even more so. I guess my last Honda– is my LAST Honda. (It was a bit stiff and harsh on long trips anyway.)
Great Looker
Would like to see a little more power in the engine for better acceleration.
I hope they continue being capable of operating on Regular grade petrol.
The Accord list the 6 cylinder with a rating of 271 H.P. I believe the same size motor.
What we need is drive trains like the Honda Clarity throughout the whole line. Hydrogen power is the way.
Honda has it already. We need supply stations for refueling.
Definitely HOT! The Odyssey has always been a standout but now it is the Top mark of Vans. Chrysler has forfeited their development title due to bad design, poor quality and lack of direction. It has been a two vehicle race (Toyota being the other). Now that Toyota has quality issues it appears that Honda has hit the home run! Now they must do something about the unrealistic pricing structure!
It’s not so much the kink in rear that’s the problem its more because the roof line doesn’t taper downward enough to match the slope of the kink thereby making the roof look too thick and clunky. I also wish Honda had done more to the powertrain rather than just carry over the old engine as it seems to me the Siennna’s six is a better unit than the Honda as it is more powerful and gets close to the same gas mileage without resorting to cylinder deactivation (also Honda foolishly only offers its 6 speed automatic on its more expensive Touring models–when it should have the 6 speed standard on every product it offers (as well as HID lights as an option on every model).
Repulsive.
As a matter of fact, it is high time we abandoned the Greyhound bus philosophy of building minivans, where they get larger and more expensive each year. The current Mazda5 and the upcoing Focus C-Max vans, with their tidy sizes and efficient, innovative powerplants, are good reminders of what the genre is supposd to reflect.
Honda missed the boat with this one. It looks like an overcookked loaf of bread, or, a slightly shrunken Greyhound bus. Maybe this is what Americans want?
This thing looks more like a hearse than a minivan. The Toyota minivan design has everyone beat, hands down. Honda really need fresh new ideas in the design department. Having owned 3 Honda’s and 3 Acura’s, I find that each new design is getting uglier and worse than the previous model. The competition has definitely passed Honda when it comes to exterior designs.
It is a lot better in person than in pictures. Gotta love the ” I want to be me ” look that you get from honda. 2 thumbs up !!!!!
The 2011 looks sort of cool in the flesh. A dealer had one along with a Sienna so that the staff could compare the two, and I happened along at the right time. It was black, a good thing, as I suppose this minivan will look better in darker colors. But beauty is more than skin deep anyway, and the two key improvements I’m reading about are improved fuel economy and brakes. I hope the larger brake rotors translate into shorter stopping distances. The biggest flaw I find in many vehicles are longish stopping distances, so I’m hoping Honda got it right this time.
Waiting to see this one in the flesh. The last-gen Nissan Quest had some…interesting…proportions on camera, but looked noticeably different in person.
It sure is ugly in the rear, but to be honest the Infinity QX-56 is uglier all over. The designersmust have been drunk on some pretty mean sake, spicedwith Everclear.
I like this car! I like the “lightening bolt” and I like how the whole thing ties into their current line up.
I agree with other comments about the rear of the vehicle. The back looks like an Acura MDX and the front, unfortunately, looks like an Accord Crosstour (although not as hideous). The Odyssey may have the better interior features, but the new Sienna is truly the best-looking minivan I have ever seen. It may have beaten Honda in the race to capture the I-don’t-want-a-minivan crowd.
This was designed from the inside out. That explains the coke bottle dip in the glass in the third row. The new copycat design them in the auto industry is the thin connecting tail light bar. The intergrated rear spoiler is fine but look at the spacing of the sheetmetal to the 3rd row window. Still can’t intergrate the door slider below the glass. Aftermarket radio look. I forgot about the chrome, wasn’t that design theme dropped in the late 1990′s? That front end clip looks like a 1st gen Odyssey. The 5 speed transmission has got to GO. The door handles look added on, poorly. I like the joined idea but the door handles have 0 flow. Tuck the windshield wipers under the hood. Oh ok is this hot, NOT!
is this 1 vehicle or 2.it looks like the car made by the discovery channel which splits it to 2 and drive opposite directions.it just look so detached to me and whats all that crome.is honda aiming for mama’s in the hood.i would not be surprised if their top of the line might have a factory fitted spinning wheels.oops i just sold my idea to honda.
Yes, that’s it!!! The part rear of the sliding doors totally looks like it was cut and pasted on.
Beyond the odd rear side-windows, the side profile is unflatteringly hearse-like. Frankly, some photos really make it look like a last third of the van was “cut” from some other vehicle and then “pasted” onto the first two-thirds of the Odyssey. :confused:
Too bad the floor in the Quest will rot out in 100k miles. This may be unconventional, but the reliability outweighs the aesthetic design.
Not hot. The last 1/4 of the vehicle looks like it was ripped off something else and just kinda bolted to the other 3/4 of the body. Id rather have a Nissan Quest any day.
By the way, all that chrome bordering the window accentuates how imbalanced that rear window looks. You don’t see chrome outlining the Sienna, do ya’?! Its because no one wants to be reminded how minivan-tall these windows can be or actually are.
Its like Honda ran out of design money just rear of the sliding doors.Seriously… is that duct tape I see back there?!