With a tad of reluctance, we became owners of a 2008 Honda Odyssey minivan last week:

What can I say? It’s a very nice vehicle, and with two car seat-bound children, a dog, and all the requisite “equipment” (um, not the first word that came to mind as I was typing this) that comes along for the ride, we’re definitely going to enjoy the convenience and flexibility that this vehicle has to offer. But I’d be lying if I said I was really excited about it. We traded in our 5-year-old, near-top-of-the-line, beautifully-maintained Toyota Highlander — a car that served us exceptionally well while we had it, and a car that we’re both going to miss to be sure.

It was a choice between the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Practically speaking, these two vehicles regularly trade the top spots on Consumer Reports’ annual rankings, so it really came down to impressions. I think we’d both expected to like the Sienna better since both of our current vehicles were Toyotas. But after looking at and test-driving each of them last Saturday, we returned to the Honda dealer and sealed the deal on Sunday. We both felt the same way: the Odyssey just seemed more cohesive and thoughtful in its design for young families.

Jen picked out the color, and it’s the first blue car for both of us. It’s a mid-range trim level, so it’s missing a few features we appreciated on our Highlander, such as all-wheel drive, automatic headlights, a self-dimming rear-view mirror, and a moon roof. But otherwise, it’s reasonably well-featured.

I’m sure we’ll come to love and appreciate this vehicle, too. But for now, I’m still trying to get over the fact that we actually own a minivan.

As for the title of this post, Honda is running a weird TV ad for the Odyssey. It consists of hip-trippy animation of various fantasy deities backed by a retro-psychedelic rock soundtrack. It ends with the following message in pink, flower-child font:

Rejoice with the van gods — the newly designed Odyssey. Respect the van.

It’s just weird. I don’t get it. And I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.

Update: Here’s an article about the aforementioned ad that makes the whole concept perfectly clear:

“We wanted to create an ode to an era when the van was a symbol of cool and marry it to the apex product in the field, the Honda Minivan,” says RPA Art Director Tatum Cardillo. “The spot straddles the fine line of between homage and hilarious as we enter the world of ultimate van art: the airbrushed Nordic Viking God against the thumping track of Heart’s hit song Barracuda.”

Yeah, sure, right… the fine line between homage and hilarity. This all just leads me to believe that I’m either too old or too young to have bought a minivan.

Update: There is a “Respect the Van Tour” going on right now!

Update: Here’s another 70s-themed Odyssey ad on YouTube. I like this one a littler better, I think.

This entry was posted by Steve on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Family, Photo, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.