One of the Odyssey's many strengths has always been the driving experience, a compelling combination of competent ride and handling dynamics, coupled with a refined drivetrain. The new Odyssey continues this tradition, and takes refinement to new levels.

While our driving experience was limited to several dozen miles on a mixture of winding back roads, local highways, battered freeways, and a handful of parade laps around the amazing Barber Motorsports road course, it didn't take long to sense a tremendous improvement in NVH. This has always been one of the '99-'04 Odyssey's weaker points, but everything's changed now. The tranquility of the cabin is quite astonishing - quiet conversation between front seat and 2nd, and even 3rd row passengers is now a reality, even at elevated freeway speeds. Honda has done this using a combination of a stiffer chassis, class leading aerodynamics, lightweight acoustic material, strategic sound absorption and reflection, improved door and tailgate seals, and (on models with the i-VTEC motor) even active noise cancellation. The refinement is pervasive. The J35's engine note still bears its signature growl, but it never sounds intrusive or thrashy. Surprisingly, the brand new 2004 Sienna that was on hand for competitive benchmarking was notably louder, particularly as its motor labored under full throttle. Kudos to Honda.

With all the added safety hardware, sound deadening material, and additional features, the 2005 Odyssey has put on a few lbs. If you scan the spec sheets on the pages that follow, you'll see that the EX is now a little more than 100lbs heavier than last year's model, while the Touring model tips the scales at a whopping 4634 lbs, nearly 300lbs heavier than last year's EX model(!). To offset this weight penalty, all '05 Odysseys run a slightly shorter final drive ratio. According to Honda, this, coupled with the extra pony count, should result in a 0.2 second improvement in 0-60 time. Behind the wheel, it's a tough call. Perhaps the vastly improved NVH dulled the sensation of speed a bit, but from the seat of the pants, acceleration didn't feel quite as urgent as our 2004 Odyssey EX. But our Odyssey currently has over 6000 miles on it, while these pre-production 2005 Odysseys only showed a few hundred clicks on the odometer. Certainly they will loosen up with a few thousand miles. We'll know more when we do some instrumented testing later this fall.

Concerning the chassis dynamics, my first impressions of this Odyssey were quite favorable. While the current Odyssey set the standard for minivan dynamics, a drive in the 2005 clearly demonstrates the benefits of the stiffened platform and reconfigured rear suspension. The bogey for the '05 was BMW's flagship 745, and I'll be damned - the new Odyssey really does have the feel of a large European sedan. Honda used the words "Confident" and "Secure" to describe their targeted driving experience, and there's no reason to question the use of those adjectives. The Odyssey glides over broken pavement with remarkable stability and poise, and again, very little NVH. When the roads get twisty, the Odyssey keeps a firm grip on ride motions. Through steady state cornering, there is certainly some body roll, but it moves with such fluidity you almost have to think about it to even notice it. Lateral grip seems pretty decent as well - there's plenty available to have your passengers cinching their seatbelts and reaching for the nearest grab handle. Keeping in mind this is a 2+ ton vehicle, it handles transients better than it probably should. The '04 also dealt with transients better than most of its competitors, but the '04's rear suspension generally feels like it's reacting a half beat behind your steering inputs. With the '05, the reaction from the rear suspension is almost immediate. This makes for quite a satisfying drive, at least up to around 7/10ths, which is about as hard as I was able to push it. To my dismay, even though we took a number of laps around Barber Motorsports Park's road course, we didn't really get to see much beyond even 6/10ths on the track.The only thing I might complain about here is the steering. And my complaint may have more to do with the PAX tires on the Touring model I was driving, but the steering felt a little too numb. While the PAX tires are slightly larger than the normal all-season radials, their intent is not to improve performance. In fact, it was mentioned to me several times that the standard 16" tires provide better all-around performance than the run-flats. Unfortunately, during this event I didn't have enough wheel time in the EX models to draw any conclusions on that front.