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Vans & Minivans Honda Odyssey Honda Odyssey vs. Toyota Sienna
5138 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 11:26 PM
You are in the Honda Odyssey Forum. Your Host is Karens
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Replying to: kcdude1 (Jun 26, 2009 8:04 am) I would not buy another Honda. Why do you think your neighbour is buying the Highlander? |
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Hi all, I'm new to the group and have a few questions. My wife and I are looking for a minivan and thought we had settled on the Odyssey. However, my wife is very tall and can't get comfortable in the Odyssey; it has a "hump" where her left foot needs to rest, and the edge of this hump is not wide enough to properly support her foot. She tried adjusting the 8 way driver's seat, steering wheel, etc, and still could never get comfortable. Someone suggested putting an angled block of wood in this area and velcroing it to the floor (apparently gluing or nailing it in might void the warantee). My concern is that this may possibly slip or rotate and compromise safety. By contrast, my wife was easily able to get comfortable in the Sienna, but I am concerned over both its poor rear crash test ratings and its 4 star driver protection rating (whereas all other new vans I have read about had a 5 star rating here). Any thoughts? Thanks! Phil |
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Replying to: phil78 (Jul 09, 2009 10:12 am) I would go with what makes you and your wife more comfortable. 
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Replying to: phil78 (Jul 09, 2009 10:12 am)  Seriously it's a good van. I love my Honda, but there is nothing wrong at all with Toyota. Their safety record is nearly equal. |
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Replying to: phil78 (Jul 09, 2009 10:12 am) The rear crash test depends substantially on headrest design. To score well, many have adopted headrests that tilt forward substantially (see the new Outback / Legacy, for example). Many find these a bit uncomfortable, and some end up turning the headrest around, defeating the design. The Sienna headrest design is a bit old, and should be updated with the redesign (due early 2010). But, rear whiplash, while more common than other injuries, is also a much less significant risk than damage from front or side impact. One site I like is informedforlife.org, who takes the different safety ratings and combines them into one statistic (driver fatality risk). The Sienna scores well (63, median of 100, lower is better; this is best 10%), but Odyssey is a little better (53, best 1%). So, I'd say they're pretty close safety wise, and would go more for comfort.
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Replying to: dbt (Jul 10, 2009 8:06 am) |
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An important factor in any decision to buy is the willingness of the automaker to back their product and on this point Honda is the clear loser. We have a 2001 Odyssey with just over 95k miles and we just installed our 4th transmission!!! I have owned Honda's exclusively since 1979 and all other vechicles were fine...it seems Honda didn't think through the engineering issues related to producing a large minivan very well and have sufferred a tremendous loss of reputation as a result. Honda settled a class-action litigation against them years ago and expect another one soon...all related to this poorly-designed, poorly-made transmission. Try googling "honda odyssey transmission problems" and see what turns up. Due probably to a sour economy and mounting losses related to the Odyssey, Honda now refuses to stand behind their product. You can only assume their are trying to stop the bleeding. Their customer service people are about as rude, harsh and disrespectful as any group I've ever encountered...likely because of the constant pressure of dealing with hacked-off Odyssey customers. I can only give one piece of advice: Do not buy an Odyssey. Run, don't walk, from the dealership. Do not buy a Honda of any kind...you will be sorry. Believe me, you will be sorry. It may not be immediately, but you will be sorry. Honda has gone the way of GM - fat, complacent and now flipping the middle finger to the people that made them what they are. There are some good new crossovers that do what the minivan does....do some research and purchase one. |
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Replying to: odyssey_stinx (Jul 11, 2009 5:02 am) |
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Hi all, Hoping to provide some of my personal experiences here with Sienna (we had 2 of them 05 and 07) and why we're going for an Odyssey this time around: (reason's are in order of most agitating to least) 1) Navigation- on ALL Siennas you can't operate the nav while moving (much to our surprise all 4 of the Toyota dealers we spoke to 'didn't realize that'. I'm sure someone else has posted this here, but I'm just conveying my personal experience. So long as I or my wife sitting in the PASSENGER seat can't enter a destination while moving, its a dead deal. Our finding are that only Acura and Honda allow that. Ya'd think if safety was that much of an issue that they'd put a sensor in the passenger seat to allow use of the nav while driving IF someone was sitting there. Secondarily, many times said, the nav controls S**K vs Honda/Acura. 2) DVD controls. Even in the 2010 Sienna the ONLY way you can put a DVD in is REACH BACK and bend like a Circque du Soleil performer. Ody- right in front of you in the front. And Toyota wants to talk safetly!? Up to 2009 Sienna the remote control for DVD required us to REACH back again to control the DVD vs in Ody just hold the control and point anywhere in car. HOW CRAZY is that! 'nuff said 3) Lastly, run-flats, I'm sure many times mentioned here: BOTH of our Siennas had run flats and got about 12-15k miles per tire. That is INSANE. 4) 2010 Sienna, NO apparent solutions to ANY of our top 3 issues. Just my personal experiences. You decide. Don't hesitate to comment and I'll provide responses. thx! |
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Replying to: andy603 (Jul 13, 2009 3:09 am) We have a dual screen DVD system that works great and this way each child (we only have two) has their own screen. It also allows one or both of them to use them w/ headphones. It has a remote control, but there are also controls on the "main" screen of the player, and dd can handle them just fine. Our nav system is one we can move from car to car and doesn't require the car to be still before reprogramming. FWIW, we make our decisions on which vehicle to buy based on how reliable the engine is, the safety features and how it drives. The "extras" are just icing on the cake....and obviously can be obtained elsewhere!
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