2001 Honda Odyssey from North America - Comments

I just purchased this 2001 Honda Odyssey from Car Max. The car started moving forward while idling in Park. My 2 year old son and pregnant wife were in the car with me as it hit our closed garage door. Honda will not do anything for me unless one of their dealer can replicate problem, even though they have had several problems with their transmissions for this make, model, and year.

The minivan is fine, except for the glaring transmission problems that lead to safety issues.

You didn't set the parking brake, did you?

Americans erroneously call it the emergency brake.

Everyone else in the world calls it the parking brake.

Everyone in the world, but you knows they MUST set the parking brake when leaving the vehicle, for safety reasons.

Your stupidity could have killed someone.

Hey now. Yes it is called the "parking break" but it is not mandatory that it is engaged. I like to use it on steep hills and such, but other than that I don't. This transmission problem is obviously the fault of the vehicle and should have prevented movement of the car. As for putting down the Americans, America is the best country in the world.

Chill out you two. I am American and yes most American’s don’t use there parking brake. But that’s why there is a park on the transmission. If everyone just set there parking brake there would just be RND321.

The Park position isn't quite enough; if you kept parking your car on a slope without the parking brake set, it will eventually cause the parking pawl (a metal rod inside the transmission that locks up the output shaft or shafts) to break off. Unless you want to spend money on having your car's tranny rebuilt, I suggest that you should use the parking brake in conjunction with the Park position.

Never mind parking brake or emergency brake. The big reason Canadians don't set the parking brake is that in the winter it should be called the "pull on this if you want to stay here until Spring - lever". Most parking brakes don't release when the temperature goes to minus 40 (same on both F and C degree scales). If you use it all the time and oil it you can get over the worst of the winter. It's the ones that don't use it all the time who get stuck.