2005 Honda Odyssey minivan is a very large vehicle, especially for one with a Honda tag. At over 77 inches wide and 201 inches long, it’s sizeable enough to make you feel as if you’re piloting a hallway.
Luckily, Honda stuffs a single-overhead-cam V6 under this vehicle’s hood, matching it to a five-speed automatic that’s remarkably smooth for a Honda automatic unit.
The engine revs nicely, lending this vehicle decent acceleration, but you’ll always be aware of the domicile-like size and weight of this van.
Considering how easily it moves, it’s ride and handling are benign enough to please any parental units. The ride feels a bit firmer than the class-leading Toyota Sienna minivan, with ample body lean dialed into cornering to discourage any crazy thoughts, such as driving with gusto. After all, we wouldn’t want to tip over those drink boxes, now would we?
Let me just stop right here and mention that this vehicle had decent build quality, but I didn’t feel it was much better than many others.
It had quite a few rattles, and some the dashboard controls, particularly the radio knob, felt very cheap.
While wagon-like vehicles tend to rattle, it’s been a long time since I drove one with as many rattles as this one.
Luckily the radio helped cover up the noise from the rattly components. (Of course, if my niece and nephew were in the car, the rattles would probably be drowned out by the two of them fighting, but I digress.)
Overall, I found refinement pretty good, while fit and finish were just average.