The 2025 Honda Odyssey Minivan Is Fantastic - Do You Have the Courage and Self-Confidence to Drive It or Will You Opt For the SUV Instead?

We enjoy outstanding support from Honda here at the New England Motor Press Association. Not only does Honda keep the media loaner vehicles coming, but the brand also has one of the most robust media support teams in the industry. Because of this support, we are able to keep abreast of the brand’s model line changes. One big change is that Honda is increasing the capabilities of its TrailSport SUV line. We love the Pilot and Passport TrailSports. They have outstanding capabilities, but are very livable when used as daily drivers. The thing is, if you don’t need to go off pavement, or you only travel groomed dirt roads when you do, you don’t need a TrailSport. In fact, you really don’t need an SUV.

Enter Honda’s Odyssey. It’s a minivan. And it is fantastic. The Odyssey has received a snappy-looking front and rear end for 2025, and the vehicle remains one of the best-driving three-row vehicles we have ever tested at any price point.

2025 Honda Odyssey Elite - What Are Some of Our Favorite Things?
The Odyssey is great, partly in ways that minivans are great. Its sliding side doors are the easiest way to manage a large vehicle in a parking lot with kids. The van has gobs of room in every seating position. The cargo capacity with all three rows deployed is huge. With the seats folded, it is huge-er. Honda found a place for a compact spare, so you don’t need to be towed if you damage a tire (like this guy did). The audio is the best we’ve heard in a non-premium brand. You can drop all the glass with the keyfob. It even opens the sunroof.

Why Drive a Minivan Instead of an SUV?
The Odyssey’s drive is why we say it’s better than an SUV. It has a very similar powertrain to the Pilot and Passport, and it feels just as quick when merging on the highway. The on-road handling of the minivan is better. Much better. It’s not really even close. Its driving comfort is better. Its visibility is better. The Odyssey returned 25 MPG in our testing. Does your three-row SUV get 25 MPG? The doors are better, and the layout for a full vehicle works better. What else could we add? As a vehicle you use every day, it is just superior to SUVs.

2025 Honda Odyssey Elite - The Price
Including Honda’s Destination & Handling Fees, the price of the Odyssey Elite is $52,630. Add dealer doc fees to this, and you have the consumer cost before discounting.

2025 Honda Odyssey - Do You Have the Self-Confidence to Drive It?
The Odyssey is so good it’s hard to overstate it. For every daily driving use, we cannot name a better three-row vehicle. The thing is, it’s a minivan. Not every shopper is man enough, or woman enough, to opt for the non-SUV. There’s style to consider. I guess it all boils down to whether you have the self-confidence to drive a minivan. 
 

John Goreham is a long-standing member of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.