2026 Honda Odyssey Review

The 2026 Odyssey holds its ground alongside more advanced rivals thanks to its driving character and enormous, versatile interior.

Benjamin Hunting | 

Feb 11, 2026 | 8 min read

Benjamin Hunting

Minivans are no longer the family chariot of choice, a position long ceded to the overwhelming number of SUVs available on the market. The few minivan models that remain — such as the Honda Odyssey — are, by necessity, the best of the breed. After all, they have to convince customers to look beyond mainstream crossover SUVs and embrace the practicality and comfort of driving a big, roomy box.

What You Need to Know About the 2026 Honda Odyssey

The Odyssey doesn't boast all-wheel drive (AWD), a hybrid powertrain, or a tech-laden cabin like its rivals. Instead, it relies on the time-tested combination of a strong V6 engine, a cavernous interior, and plush seating that has long defined the segment.

Is the 2026 Honda Odyssey a Good Minivan?

The Odyssey isn't the most up-to-date minivan available, but it more than makes up for it in covering the critical bases that make this class of vehicle such a good fit for a family. It's still a strong choice in a small segment that is surprisingly diverse in features and equipment, and, when it comes to the Odyssey's driving experience, I think it's an even better counterpoint to most three-row SUVs.

Benjamin Hunting

About the 2026 Honda Odyssey Elite Review Vehicle

The 2026 Honda Odyssey is available in EX-L, Sport-L, Touring, and Elite trim levels, with base prices starting around $44,000 and climbing to about $53,000. That includes the destination charge levied on the minivan when shipped from its Lincoln, Alabama, assembly plant to a dealership.

For this Odyssey review, I drove a Canadian-market Touring trim, which is identical to the United States-market Elite trim, in the close confines of Montreal, Quebec, and the wide-open mountain roads of the province's southeastern quarter. With the vehicle's extra-cost Sonic Gray Pearl paint and its All-Season Protection Package — which adds rubber floor mats, a cargo tray, and mud flaps — the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) came to $54,185, including the $1,495 destination charge. Honda provided the vehicle for this Odyssey review.

Benjamin Hunting

Traditional Exterior Styling With a Practical Interior

Perhaps more than its rivals, the Odyssey's styling is unmistakably drawn like a traditional van. It's pleasing enough to look at, given the limitations associated with designing a refrigerator-shaped automobile that most families treat as an appliance.

Honda isn't afraid of splashing buttons throughout the vehicle's interior. I appreciated that when closing either of its power-sliding doors, activating its climate control system, or using its heated (and ventilated) seats — especially when wearing gloves. The push-button transmission controls at the center of the dashboard might put off some drivers, but I quickly got used to them.

Even in the Odyssey's Elite trim, most materials feel hard-wearing, and I thought the white piping on the leather seats added some flash to the fairly dark interior.

Benjamin Hunting

You Can Take a Lot With You in the Odyssey

The best part of any minivan's feature set is the cavernous cabin space that comes with its rectilinear shape, and the Odyssey is no exception. In fact, with a maximum of 140.7 cubic-feet of cargo space available behind the front seats, it can haul more gear than the Toyota Sienna, while roughly matching the Kia Carnival and the Chrysler Pacifica.

There's a deep trunk carved into the floor behind the third row, and when those seats aren't tumbled down into it, it can easily store a Costco run's worth of groceries and sundries.

All that interior space benefits passengers, too. Unlike many three-row SUVs, the Odyssey's rearmost seats don't ask larger riders to fold their legs or contort their torsos to fit — there's plenty of room, and longer trips won't be an issue for adults.

The second row is even more innovative and spacious, offering a center seat that can be folded to serve as a console or removed entirely. That drops occupancy from eight to seven, but it also lets you slide the outboard seats in and out, as well as forward and back, allowing you to customize your rolling conversation pit to your heart's desire. It's useful and easy to use thanks to Honda's big buttons and handles.

Honda calls this capability Magic Slide, and parents, in particular, will appreciate the ability to move one of the seats toward the center of the minivan for safety and easier access to a child in a child seat. The Odyssey's CabinTalk and available CabinWatch (included on Touring and Elite trims) features let you keep tabs on and, if necessary, scold rear-seat occupants using a video camera and a microphone.

In addition to being impressed by the minivan's middle- and third-row accommodations, I had no complaints about devouring many miles in the Odyssey's extremely comfortable driver's seat. I particularly want to praise the multitiered storage built into the two front doors, which includes several practical pockets. Conveniently, there's also enough room between the driver and front-passenger seats to place a purse or bag at the base of the dashboard.

Benjamin Hunting

Smartphone Mirroring Makes Infotainment Easy

The Honda Odyssey's infotainment system is straightforward, with no truly innovative features crammed into its 9.0-inch touchscreen. I liked that the Odyssey provides a volume knob and a nest of buttons to skip through music tracks or head back to the home screen without having to futz around with too many menus.

If most of your interaction with the Honda's infotainment goes through Android Auto or Apple CarPlay — both of which can connect wirelessly — it gets the job done, whether you're using voice commands or tapping the screen. Android Auto also sends turn-by-turn directions to the gauge cluster when using phone-based navigation apps, which I appreciated.

If you stick with the native Honda system, however, it may underwhelm you with its graphics and features. I don't expect a family vehicle's center display to drop a dozen apps in my lap, but some drivers may lament the lack of whizbang.

Aside from a louder stereo system, it's worth noting that going Elite nets you few tech upgrades over the next step down, the Touring trim level. Even the base EX-L trim gets wireless phone mirroring and the same-size infotainment screen.

Benjamin Hunting

Some of the Odyssey's Honda Sensing Safety Tech Is Hard to Trust

Honda groups the Odyssey's advanced driver-assistance systems under the Honda Sensing umbrella. The list of safety features is comprehensive, but I found the lane-assist tech hard to trust.

For example, the lane-keeping assistance was slow to detect painted road markings and had the unusual habit of letting the vehicle slowly drift across the leftmost boundary without intervening. At higher speeds, it was also incapable of providing enough steering input to prevent the minivan from leaving the lane, instead briefly warning me before deactivating. 

I've encountered this behavior in other Honda vehicles, with the lane-keeping fine print claiming that only "mild steering torque" is applied to avoid straying off course. I wasn't comfortable with the parameters it operated under, which kept me extra vigilant while driving.

Another complaint is that none of the Honda Sensing settings is accessible while the minivan is in motion. You have to be parked to access them, which means you can't adjust them based on changing traffic or weather conditions. It's not unusual for automakers to lock out some safety settings while underway, but I found the complete stonewalling to be a pain.

Benjamin Hunting

The Odyssey's V6 Offers Power but Not Much Fuel Efficiency

Every Honda Odyssey trim level uses a 3.5-liter V6 engine that generates 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque. That output is sent to the front wheels via a 10-speed automatic transmission. 

Unlike the Chrysler Pacifica and Toyota Sienna minivans, the Odyssey is unavailable with all-wheel drive. The Honda also can't match the Kia Carnival or the Toyota Sienna in offering a more efficient hybrid powertrain option.

As such, the EPA-estimated efficiency for the vehicle is 22 mpg in combined city and highway driving, which isn't surprising given the Odyssey's roughly 4,600-pound curb weight. Through early-onset winter conditions, I managed 18 mpg, a drop-off representative of the cold temperatures during my week with the minivan.

Benjamin Hunting

The Honda Odyssey's Better-Than-SUV Ride Is Compelling

I truly enjoyed driving the Odyssey. Acceleration from its V6 was on point, and the transmission was willing to kick down quickly and give me the speed I needed when merging from shorter ramps. Occasionally, that same transmission shifted unexpectedly at light throttle when climbing hills, but that was my only quibble with the Honda's drivetrain.  

Without the stilt-walk height of tall-riding SUVs, the van drove considerably smaller than its actual size. The Odyssey was not only more comfortable as a result, but also a better handler on the same curvy two-lane country roads that I've frequently seen flummox sport-utility vehicles.

Even without Jeep-like ground clearance or AWD, the Odyssey also proved adept at handling a snow dump that apparently caught my local road-maintenance crews napping. The traction-control system did an excellent job balancing forward momentum with wheelspin, even on slippery inclines, and braking was similarly dependable through 3 inches of accumulation.

Never once did I pine for additional drive wheels. For most people in icy climates, a good set of winter tires is all they need to get through the cold months in a vehicle as solidly engineered as the Odyssey. However, I have to dock points for the minivan's wheel design, which greedily snatched snow between the spokes, forcing me to pull over and knock it all out with a brush to end an unwelcome vibration above 55 mph.

Benjamin Hunting

Alternatives to the 2026 Honda Odyssey

"Old school" may be an unusual description for a minivan, but compared with its rivals — the Chrysler Pacifica, Kia Carnival, and Toyota Sienna — the Odyssey presents a simpler set of features and equipment. Apparently, Honda feels there's no need to overcomplicate things for buyers who prize a straightforward and incredibly practical daily driver.

Benjamin Hunting

Nearly two decades into his career as an automotive journalist, Benjamin has had his hands greasy, his hair blown back, and his heart broken by more than one project car. In addition to his work at Capital One, he has contributed features and reviews to Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Hagerty, Driving Line, Inside Hook, Super Street, European Car, Roadkill Magazine, Motor 1, The Drive, the Toronto Star, the National Post, Business Insider, NAPA, Autoblog, Automotive News Canada, and AutoGuide. He is also cohost of the Unnamed Automotive Podcast and cocreator of the Code 45 and Dead Air graphic novels. In his spare time, he's a friend to vinyl and enjoys keeping the shiny side up during track days.