That’s on par with its rivals, all of which also employ a similarly-sized six-cylinder powerplant except for the Sienna, which uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid setup. Powered by the same 3.5-liter V6 across the board, the Odyssey’s engine is good for 280 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque.

The Odyssey is surprisingly agile for a minivan and hits all the marks with one exception: no currently available hybrid powertrain. Depending on your aesthetic preference, each minivan has a unique look and feel, especially in the top trims. Still, it also loses some points on utility compared to its rivals. Equipped with a standard hybrid powertrain, the Sienna smokes the rest of them in the fuel economy category with an impressive 36 mpg (with front-wheel drive) and 35 mpg (with all-wheel drive). The minivan segment is small but fierce, including the Chrysler Pacifica, Toyota Sienna and the newest rival in the bunch, the Kia Carnival. The Elite’s Acura-like equipment levels are nice, but even the Odyssey EX comes well-equipped right out of the box with quite a few amenities. The Elite trim brings niceties like a heated steering wheel, ambient blue lighting, heated and ventilated seats, and the in-car PA speaker system Honda calls CabinTalk.

Now the Odyssey kicks things off with the EX ($38,835, including the $1,345 destination fee) steps up to the EX-L ($41,705), the new Sport ($42,505), Touring $45,745) and Elite ($50,965). Honda has discontinued the old base LX trim for 2023, making room for a new mid-level Sport variant. And yet, this humble vehicle, now in its fifth generation, is capable of laying the groundwork for an epic adventure in a comfortable cocoon of cloth and steel. Encyclopedia Britannica calls it, “An everyman’s tale and a romance…filled with adventure, longing and temptation, the struggle between good and evil, and hard-won triumph.” That sets a lofty bar for its namesake eight-passenger minivan, the Honda Odyssey. At high schools across the country, teachers annually introduce Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, to a new generation of students.

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