Honda Odyssey review: the minivan Bahraini families pretend they do not want
4/5motorssouq Editorial Team
Buy the Odyssey if you have already admitted to yourself that a minivan does the job better than an SUV and you do not care what the neighbours think. The 3.5-litre V6 and 10-speed automatic are shared with the Pilot, so there is no performance sacrifice, and the sliding doors alone are worth it the first time you load three car seats in a Manama parking garage.
Pros
- Sliding rear doors avoid door-ding risk in tight Bahrain parking
- Same 280 hp V6 and 10-speed automatic as the Pilot, no performance sacrifice
- Deepest cargo well behind the third row in Honda's Gulf range
- CabinWatch and CabinTalk genuinely useful with young children on long drives
- Softer resale demand makes a used example good relative value
Cons
- Minivan body style carries a resale-softening image problem in Bahrain
- Larger footprint than the Pilot makes tight multi-storey parking harder
- Fuel consumption is comparable to the heavier Pilot despite the lower body
The Odyssey shares its 3.5-litre V6 and 10-speed automatic with the Pilot, which means there is no performance penalty for choosing the minivan body over the SUV — 280 hp is enough to keep up with highway traffic fully loaded, and the lower centre of gravity actually makes the Odyssey feel more settled through a roundabout than its taller sibling.
The features that actually matter with kids
Sliding rear doors are the single biggest advantage a minivan has over any SUV, and it is one Bahraini parents underrate until they experience it: no worrying about a door swinging into a car parked too close in a tight Seef Mall or hospital car park. CabinWatch, Honda's built-in rear-seat camera system, and CabinTalk, its intercom to the back rows, are the kind of feature that sounds gimmicky until a parent actually uses them on a long causeway drive with a carsick toddler.
The third row folds flat into the floor rather than needing to be removed, and the resulting cargo well behind it is deeper than anything in the Pilot or CR-V — genuinely useful for sports equipment, luggage for a full family flight, or furniture from a weekend furniture-store run.
Why nobody admits to wanting one
The image problem is real and has nothing to do with the car's competence. Resale in Bahrain is softer than the Pilot's purely because fewer buyers shop for minivans on principle, which paradoxically makes a well-kept used Odyssey a genuinely good value purchase for a family willing to ignore what a minivan is supposed to say about them.