The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Spacious
- Second-row seats slide
- Clever storage
- Good standard features
- Lots of safety tech
Dislikes
- No optional powertrains
- Front-drive only
- Middling fuel economy
- No more HondaVac
- Elite trim is expensive
Buying tip
features & specs
A tightly-curated lineup makes the 2024 Odyssey a good value at any price point.
What kind of vehicle is the 2024 Honda Odyssey? What does it compare to?
With seating for eight passengers and more interior space than many three-row SUVs, the 2024 Honda Odyssey is a basic minivan with tons of value. It’s up against fresher minivans like the Kia Carnival, and more flexible and efficient options like the Toyota Sienna and Chrysler Pacifica.
Is the 2024 Honda Odyssey a good minivan?
Yes. The 2024 Odyssey merits great scores for value and safety, though its fuel economy falls short of hybrid competitors. We award a TCC Rating of 6.3 out of 10. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2024 Honda Odyssey?
The Odyssey carries over unchanged for 2024, following some minor changes to the trim hierarchy last year. The lineup still consists of EX, EX-L, blacked-out Sport, comfortable Touring, and loaded Elite trims for this year.
Honda fits the Odyssey with LED headlights and stacked fog lights that highlight a modern-styled front end. In Sport trim, the 19-inch wheels and other styling elements get the blackout treatment. The exterior doesn’t tell the Odyssey’s story, however. Honda’s gift for optimizing interior space is at its very best here, with clever storage tucked in the door pockets, consoles, seat backs, side panels, and beneath the load floor. It’s no more glam than rival minivans, but it’s arguably among the most practical in terms of layout.
The Odyssey seats eight passengers and doesn’t offer the second-row captain’s chair option found in rivals, or in three-row SUVs, for that matter, but the second-row bench here has charm of its own. It can squeeze a trio of child safety seats across, and the seats slide forward, back, to the side, or you can remove them entirely for various configurations.
The Odyssey comes with a basic 3.5-liter V-6 engine and 10-speed automatic transmission across the lineup. Front-wheel drive is the only configuration, and the fuel economy rating of 22 mpg combined falls far short of more modern rivals. That said, the Odyssey is smooth, quiet, and comfortable.
Honda equips the Odyssey with key safety features across the lineup, and the NHTSA and IIHS award top crash-test scores. Even the base EX gets automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control. active lane control, and blind-spot monitors.
How much does the 2024 Honda Odyssey cost?
Honda kicks off the lineup with the best value of the bunch, the EX, which costs $39,215 including a $1,375 destination fee. That money buys an 8.0-inch touchscreen, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, heated front seats, LED lighting, and power-sliding rear doors.
The Sport is a good pick for a mid-tier budget, at $43,235, and brings leather upholstery, a power tailgate, and better visuals thanks to the dark trim.
The top-tier Elite trim costs $51,345, but some of its more desirable features, a rear-seat entertainment system and CabinWatch, are available for less with the Touring.
The Odyssey is backed by a 3-year/36,000-mile new car warranty and a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty, plus two years or 24,000 miles of complimentary maintenance.
Where is the 2024 Honda Odyssey made?
Honda builds the Odyssey, along with the Ridgeline and Pilot, in Lincoln, Alabama.
2024 Honda Odyssey Styling
It’s hard to fault the 2024 Honda Odyssey for looking like what it is, a minivan.
Is the 2024 Honda Odyssey a good-looking car?
As far as slab-sided, sliding-door vehicles go, sure. The 2024 Odyssey borrows cues from Honda’s trendier vehicles, particularly the Pilot, and a Sport trim injects some life into the lineup. Overall, it’s average. It’s a 5 here.
The Odyssey Sport uses blacked-out styling elements, inspired by the SUV trend, to visually slim the blocky shape, particularly the bulbous tail end. The light surrounds, grille, side mirrors, and mid-pillars get a gloss black treatment, and black-finished 19-inch wheels complete the look.
Up front, chrome trim, integrated LED lights, and stacked fog lights are perfectly functional, and the sides get a pair of body lines that run down the profile and meet near the tail.
The inside combines clever storage areas with unfortunate gloss black and fake chrome trim.
2024 Honda Odyssey Performance
With the 2024 Honda Odyssey, you’ll get there comfortably, if not quickly.
The 2024 Honda Odyssey is driven by a 3.5-liter V-6 good for 280 hp. It’s quick off the line, but passing isn’t quite as smooth as it should be, since the 10-speed automatic sometimes takes a while to think through its shifts. The suspension setup, comprised of front struts and a multi-link rear, provide a smooth ride though handling is not a priority, and that earns a point for a 6 here.
Is the Honda Odyssey 4WD?
It’s front-wheel drive only. Rivals like the Toyota Sienna and Chrysler Pacifica offer AWD.
How fast is the Honda Odyssey?
It’s not fast, but it moves smoothly. The 10-speed automatic transmission sometimes takes a moment to think about its shifts under heavy load, but it hustles off the line and summons enough power for highway passing. There’s not much steering feedback, and it tends to heave to the sides through tight curves, but it’s a slab-sided minivan, after all. The Odyssey maxes out at 3,500 pounds of towing capacity, so it’s no weakling.
2024 Honda Odyssey Comfort & Quality
Honda works its cabin magic in the 2024 Odyssey with folding, sliding, and removable seating.
The 2024 Odyssey features second-row seats that are easily removed, and the third row bench tucks into the floor, opening up plenty of space. It’s a 9, with points awarded for the standard eight-passenger seating, spacious cabin, generous cargo space, and comfortable and versatile seating.
All but the base EX come with leather-trimmed upholstery and power-adjustable seats, and heated seats and a 12-way power-adjustable driver’s seat come standard. It’s not as luxurious as some rival minivans, but it's great for all-day comfort.
The second row doesn’t offer captain’s chairs, but Honda’s Magic Slide seat system is a nifty compromise. The middle seat is removable, and the two outboard seats can slide forward, back, or side to side.
Adults can comfortably sit in the third row, with legroom of 38.1 inches. The third row has a 60/40-split and can fold into the floor by collapsing the headrests and pulling on the straps.
The Odyssey accommodates 33 cubic feet of cargo behind the third row, better than most SUVs. With both rows of seats down, that opens up to 88.6 cubic feet, and with the second-row seats removed, there’s a maximum of 144.9 cubes.
2024 Honda Odyssey Safety
Deft at avoiding crashes, and withstanding them, the 2024 Honda Odyssey is a smart choice.
How safe is the Honda Odyssey?
Pretty safe, with the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating and the NHTSA five-star overall crash-test rating. We award points for both, as well as the menu of standard safety features, adding up to an 8.
Honda packs the Odyssey with the Honda Sensing safety bundle, with automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, advanced adaptive cruise control, active lane control, blind-spot monitors, a rear seat reminder system, and automatic high beams.
Touring and Elite models get the CabinWatch system, which uses a rear-facing camera system to give drivers a look at the rear-seat occupants on the central display.
2024 Honda Odyssey Features
Well-equipped at every level and particularly engaging in Sport trim, the Odyssey impresses in terms of features.
For 2024, Honda kicks off the Odyssey lineup with the high-value EX, $39,215 including $1,375 for destination. We award two points for value and standard equipment, and one for the user-friendly infotainment system. It’s an 8.
The Odyssey includes an 8.0-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats, remote start, and power-sliding doors.
We don’t award points for the Odyssey’s 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty, but we like the inclusion of 2-year/24,000-mile scheduled maintenance.
Which Honda Odyssey should I buy?
If you want to spend above the base model on an Odyssey, the EX-L is a good choice, and so is the Odyssey Sport. While the EX-L includes a 12-way power driver's seat, leather upholstery, and a power tailgate for $42,285, the Sport costs $43,235 and adds black leather upholstery with red contrast stitching, a back headliner, red accent lighting, black 19-inch wheels, and black exterior trim.
How much is a fully loaded 2024 Honda Odyssey?
The $51,345 Odyssey Elite seems to perceive ever-increasing new-car transaction prices as a challenge, especially since it still falls short of hybrid AWD rivals. The Elite includes key Touring fare, such as 19-inch wheels, CabinWatch, a rear-row entertainment system, and parking sensors, and adds heated and cooled front seats, power-folding side mirrors, wireless smartphone charging, ambient lighting, and a heated steering wheel.
2024 Honda Odyssey Fuel Economy
At 22 mpg combined, the 2024 Odyssey falls far short of hybrid rivals.
Is the Honda Odyssey good on gas?
The 2024 Honda Odyssey’s main drawback is its mediocre fuel economy. The EPA says it’s good for 19 mpg city, 28 highway, 22 combined, which rates a 2 on our scale.
With front-wheel drive and no hybrid offering, the Odyssey keeps pace with similarly-equipped rivals like the Chrysler Pacifica and Kia Carnival. However, the Pacifica plug-in hybrid boasts an electric range of 32 miles and achieves 30 mpg combined otherwise. The Toyota Sienna, which comes only as a hybrid, also impresses here, with front-drive versions getting 36 mpg combined and AWD models rating 35 mpg combined.
