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"&amp;quot;Hello, my name is John and I&amp;#039;m a minivan lover.&amp;quot;   So begins another meeting of Minivans Anonymous. Members love fast cars, race cars, open roadsters, vintage automobiles...and minivans. No apologies, no SUVs and you know what you can do with your soccer mom wisecracks. In fact, I&amp;#039;m such a minivan fan, I have fond memories of my early Ford Aerostar and that&amp;#039;s not easy.   Compared to today&amp;#039;s minivans, many of those in the Aerostar&amp;#039;s first years were crude as Conestoga wagons. Now minivans are all so well done\u2014some even luxo wagons\u2014which gets us to the new .   This is the fourth-generation minivan from . Maker&amp;#039;s name aside, the Odyssey has become such an American institution\u2014this one was designed in California, developed in Ohio and is built in Georgia.   Honda has done little to change the front and rear styling of the Odyssey\u2014you won&amp;#039;t mistake who makes it\u2014but the side view has a new stripe, a lightning-bolt waistline.   The good news is that it is undeniably different, an arguably welcome change.   The bad news is this: From some angles it looks odd, as though one minivan rear-ended another so violently it buried itself deeply inside the other. Maybe sometimes a breadbox should look like a breadbox.   The shape also prevents Honda from hiding each side&amp;#039;s sliding door track in a window&amp;#039;s lower edge.   More good news: The dipping line at the back provides larger windows for the third-row passengers. Better yet, when you get to that last seat, it provides honest seating for adults.   Naturally, there are numerous permutations for seating up to eight passengers in the various models, and the list of options can take the Odyssey from an already well-equipped base LX model to a leather-upholstered Touring Elite. Of particular note\u2014remembering this is a family-toting machine\u2014is the video screen that will display two movies at once (you provide one DVD player) with RCA and HDMI inputs and a rear seat 110-volt outlet. There are up to 15 cupholders, cool box storage for drinks, places to hang trash bags, plenty of cubbyholes for stuff...and the flexibility to haul 2x4 studs that are 10-ft. long. The list goes on and on...   Add, too, the Odyssey&amp;#039;s easy flexibility: one-latch drop-and-fold seats, easy-adjust seats and consoles...a design form at which most minivan-makers seem to excel. By contrast, I&amp;#039;m embarrassed to admit how much profanity my son Chris must have learned as I wrestled with the Aerostar&amp;#039;s. Sorry.   On the matter of minivan interiors, Odysseys have been toting so many growing families for so many years, it makes one wonder just how many Cheerios, Corn Flakes and Lucky Charms are hiding under the seats, crushed in cupholders and wedged in the seat rails of the tens of thousands of this country&amp;#039;s Honda minivans.   Far more important to parents, Honda has paid much attention the safety structure of the Odyssey and its safety ratings, plus the number of LATCH points to anchor little kid car seats.   Honda&amp;#039;s proven 3.5-liter V-6 with variable displacement is on duty under the hood, and it propels the Odyssey to 60 mph in 8.8 seconds and provides EPA mileage of 18 mpg city/27 mpg hwy (5-speed automatic) or 19 mpg city/28 mpg hwy (6-speed automatic).   What&amp;#039;s more, Honda has now developed the ride and handling of its front-drive minivan to such a high level that I speculate how far back in history we have to go to find sports cars that didn&amp;#039;t handle this well. Probably not all that far.   No prices have been announced for the new Odyssey, but we suspect that costs will start around $27,000 and climb to perhaps the mid-$40,000 range when the van is fully optioned. Pricey, perhaps, but Honda Odysseys tend to be keepers. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a16474/2011-honda-odyssey/>