10 Things to Know about the 2019 Honda Odyssey

In case you didn’t notice the far more energetic styling-a bit too energetic, perhaps-the Honda Odyssey was completely redesigned for its fifth generation for the 2018 model year, moving to the platform shared with the latest Pilot and Ridgeline. There are new family-friendly features plus more side-to-side second-row seat adjustability and an all-new Android-based infotainment system. The biggest dimensional change is an ever so slight (0.7 inch) narrowing of overall width, done for the purposes of reducing frontal area and improving aerodynamics. Total interior volume shrinks slightly as a result, but cargo volume remains consistent, and all three rows are still habitable by adults and children alike. The 2019 Odyssey comes in five familiar trim levels, ranging from the $31, 235 LX to the $48,115 Elite.

Flip through this gallery to learn even more about the latest Odyssey's newness.

Honda’s next-generation, Android-based infotainment system debuts in the 2018 Odyssey, an 8.0-inch-touchscreen setup that will eventually replace the laggy and generally unsatisfying systems in the rest of the current Honda lineup. Its layout is, not surprisingly, tablet-like, with substantially quicker response time and the ability to customize the icon layout as well as three on-screen persistent shortcuts. It features a volume knob-a groundbreaking innovation unearthed for use in the latest CR-V-as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity and the ability to receive software updates wirelessly.

A new app launching in conjunction with the Odyssey-Honda calls it CabinControl-allows a phone or another device to control the rear-seat entertainment and climate control and also send navigation directions to the car. It has the capability for occupants to collaborate on creating a music playlist, too, even if that sounds like an activity fraught with peril.

Honda introduced its HondaVac-a built-in Shop-Vac vacuum-in the 2014 Odyssey (read our review of the vacuum here). It continues in the new Odyssey, once again tucked into the rear cargo area on Touring and Elite trims. The vacuum can operate continuously with the engine running or for up to eight minutes with the V-6 off, and its hoses are long enough to enable sucking up crumbs from the farthest reaches of the van’s interior.

Honda is offering 4G LTE Wi-Fi for the first time in this Odyssey, although only on the Touring and Elite. The rear-seat entertainment is set to take advantage of it, however, with a preloaded streaming app-never miss a Wild Kratts again!-and it’s also possible to tether a device to the entertainment system for more streaming options.

The Odyssey’s latest seating innovation is what Honda calls Magic Slide second-row seats, an evolution of a feature that launched with the second-gen Odyssey in 1999, where the passenger-side second-row bucket seat had limited side-to-side adjustability. Today, each center-row bucket can slide 13 inches laterally with five latching locations while retaining fore-aft adjustability. Shifting the seats creates a larger pathway to the rear seat without requiring scampering through the middle aisle. It also enables many configurations, including seats together, seats apart, and one seat tucked up close between the front seats within close reach of a doting parent. Regular haulers of large items, take note: Although these seats are removable, the bulkiness that makes them comfortable, along with their limited folding ability, means they’re heavy and awkward to extract. And the Magic Slide mechanism remains behind, leaving a not quite flat load floor.

An available camera mounted above the second row sends a wide-angle feed of what’s going on back there to the front seat center screen. This feature, called CabinWatch, includes the ability to zoom in on individual seating positions in the second or third rows and infrared-light capability for nighttime viewing. Another new feature, CabinTalk, is the airplane-like ability to broadcast an announcement through the headphones, which also pauses what’s playing on the screen.

The 2018 Odyssey adds a full complement of driver-assist technologies to EX and higher trims (Honda says that covers 95 percent of its minivan sales), including automated emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, auto high-beams, rear cross-traffic alert, and adaptive cruise control. However, like its platform mates, the Odyssey’s cruise control can’t manage stop-and-go traffic, giving up at speeds below about 20 mph.

The top two trim levels, Touring and Elite, debut the first ever front-drive 10-speed automatic transmission. It also represents the first Honda-designed automatic to feature planetary gearsets, and it has one of the widest ratio spreads in transmission-dom. The ultratall 10th gear can’t even be selected until about 65 mph, where the engine is lugging along at barely 1500 rpm. The rest of the lineup sticks with the ZF-engineered nine-speed transmission familiar from the Pilot. Even with the new grille shutters, engine upgrades, and nine- and 10-speed automatics, all Odysseys are rated at 19 mpg city/28 mpg highway, the same as the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica and just 1 highway mpg better than last year.

Honda’s 3.5-liter V-6 has been a constant in the Odyssey minivan since it was installed in the second-generation 1999 model; however, output has increased from the initial 210 horsepower to 280 for 2018. The latest version adds direct injection, enabling a full-point increase to the compression ratio and a boost of 32 horsepower, 12 lb-ft of torque, and a 500-rpm-higher redline.

Next to the V-6's ability to switch between running on three or all six cylinders, depending on driving conditions, active shutters behind its grille can close off that opening to air at higher speeds and when cooling needs fall off to improve the van's aerodynamics and, by extension, its fuel economy on the highway.