Car pulled to right when first driven. Tires were rotated at owners insistence. This seems to have improved problem. Dealer had to be told to try to rotate tires to help pulling and resisted the suggestion vigorously. Still pulls to right on acceleration, possibly torque steer.
Dealer tried the usual "unable to duplicate" routine. (Scott Robinson Honda, Torrance CA)
Power good. Fuel mileage below EPA estimates.
Noise fairly low.
Steering dead and devoid of feel, even compared to old American cars.
Steering has torque steer.
Steering wheel position one to two inches too high. Tilt wheel does not go low enough. Driving position poor due to too high and badly shaped steering wheel. Worse than any American car or any other Honda tried. Part of speedometer hidden by steering wheel. Steering wheel slippery and easy to lose hold of due to texture and shape.
Air conditioning does not cool well enough.
Parking brake press on and press off is hard to get used to and different from old car.
Visibility to rear corners, especially right, poor due to wide pillar. Very hard to see another car at right corner.
Reliability of friends Odysseys' not up to old Honda standards.
Opinion: High price, high pressure dealer has to be told how to investigate a problem, quiet, poor driving position. May not be worth the high price.
My 2000 Odyssey had alignment problems when I bought it.
I had to take it to a second dealer to fix because the first dealer changed my tire pressure to fix the pulling problem. The second dealer did a 4 wheel alignment and it is still good after 23000 miles.
You can get this with any new car! The Honda transmissions have also been reported to be problematic. However, all of my tranny shifting and performance issues went away after I put Slick 50 A/T additive in and started using high octane gas.
This Van is great even at MSRP. Buy one. Better yet, buy mine so I can buy the 2003 model!
PS. I've owned cars and vans from every other maker. This one is a keeper!
My 2002 oddyssey wandered to the left. This was not torque steer. Dealer rotated tires 3 times with no positive results, but still insists it is a tire problem!
I have the EX, with cloth seats, on hot days the car had a funny smell as if someone smoked in the car.
There were rattles in the drivers side sliding door, dealer did nothing to repair.
Strange electrical problems: The head lights would not come on one night, all the dash warning lights would blink on every once in a long awhile, remote lock will not confirm being locked with a beep about half the time.
Ergonomic problems: The seats are not the most comfortable if you are on the tall side; very short on thigh support.
The rear vent window switch is positioned on the arm rest so you accidentally open the window all the time. I have to run out of the house and check that the rear vent windows are closed every time it rains just to make sure I didn't open it by accident while driving, so the car does not get flooded. The power outlet (for cell phones, etc.) is all the way down by the floor making the power cord for my cell phone too taught, what a pain.
Air conditioning is on the weak side!
If they were to put just a little more thought into most of these problems Honda would have a fantastic car.
Humming sound from Engine at 1500 RPM. Could it be Harmonics of the Engine Enclosure.
The writer of this original review puzzles me. I've read three Honda Odyssey reviews that are worded just like this one: Torque Steer, tire rotation, ect...
I think the van's great, IMO. Very comfortable, excellent gas mileage for such a large V6 engine (3.5 l) and with plenty of power.
To the original writer: If your car is listing to one side, why would you have the dealer perform a tire rotation? Rotation will never fix this: Alignment will. Alignment is where you adjust the front tires to correct steering deficits. Rotation (and balancing) are to keep the tires from excessive wearing.
And to the poster who commented on the first dealer adjusting the tire pressure to correct for steering imbalances: You should have this dealer arrested for screwing around with pressure; that could kill you while driving. Then again, you do sound like the original poster.
"Steering dead and devoid of feel"???
This review really puzzles me. I own a 2002 Odyssey. In fact the MAIN reason we bought it was because of its great handling compared to every other minivan out there. Turning radius is tight, steering is pinpoint - not loose at all. I am used to driving very precise handling sports cars, and the odyssey is as close as you are going to come in the handling department. I could understand if someone was not used to driving a responsive car, that they might expect steering to be looser, and might not be comfortable at first. But to say that the steering is dead and has no feel is strange. It is spot on, and has very good feel to it. To each his own I guess. Power is very good at all levels for a minivan. Can handle high speed corners much better than any minivan out there. A great handling, performing minivan.
Our 2002 odyssey had a noise at about 1500 RPM as well. It turned out that the idler pulley had fallen off (factory defect). After that was repaired, a faint noise could still be heard at certain RPMs. Dealer could not duplicate. I drove with the mechanic and duplicated the problem. The dealer finally found that the acceleration cable had fallen off of one of its pulley tracks (or something like that) and the vibration of the cable was causing the noise.
The car has ALWAYS had low mileage. Roughly 14-15 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. Low acceleration, 0-60 in 10.5 seconds. My friend thinks the timing could have slipped one tooth while the idler pulley was gone, which the dealer should have checked (but admitted they didn't).
I'm going to require the dealer to check the timing based upon the low mileage, bad acceleration.
I've noticed that after six years of driving a 2002 Odyssey it is still looking good A little Rough on the edges but that's OK with me.
Note: A Comments RSS Feed is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site