By: Krish Persaud
August 23, 2026
I have never needed much convincing when it comes to minivans. Years before spending a week with the 2026 Honda Odyssey Touring, I owned a 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT and liked it enough that I had it ceramic coated because I intended to keep it. Becoming a parent has only made the advantages more obvious. Sliding doors make life easier in a tight parking lot, usable third-row access matters when someone actually needs to sit back there, and cargo space becomes considerably more important when a simple trip somehow requires bringing half the house.
The timing of our week with the Odyssey was particularly interesting because we had just finished testing the Chrysler Pacifica. That van left a strong impression largely because of Stow ’n Go, one of those features that seems so obvious once you use it. Honda takes a completely different approach with Magic Slide, and after living with both vans almost back-to-back, the differences between the two became much more meaningful than they appear on a spec sheet.
Our tester was finished in Sonic Grey Pearl with a black leather and leatherette interior. The Odyssey received refreshed styling for 2025, and while nobody is going to mistake it for anything other than a minivan, the updated design has aged well. Sonic Grey Pearl works particularly well with the darker exterior details on the Touring and gives the Odyssey a cleaner, slightly more upscale appearance without trying to disguise what it is.
Under the hood is a 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V6 producing 280 horsepower and 262 lb-ft. of torque, paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Power is sent exclusively to the front wheels. The V6 remains one of the Odyssey’s strengths, with smooth and predictable power delivery and enough passing power to move the large van without much effort. The 10-speed automatic generally stayed in the background during our week and felt more settled than the transmission in the Pacifica we recently tested, which occasionally seemed unsure of which gear it wanted. There is something refreshing about a naturally aspirated V6 that simply does what is asked of it.
The lack of all-wheel drive, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Front-wheel drive with proper winter tires will work perfectly well for many Canadian families, but the Odyssey Touring is now a minivan costing more than $60,000. Toyota offers all-wheel drive in the Sienna and Chrysler offers it in the Pacifica, while Honda does not even give Odyssey buyers the option. That will not matter to everyone, but in the Canadian market it is becoming a noticeable omission at this price.
The Odyssey drives surprisingly well for its size. Steering is light but predictable, body movement is controlled and the van never feels as large from behind the wheel as it looks from outside. Ride quality is generally comfortable, although rougher roads send more vibration into the cabin than expected. It handles surprisingly well for a minivan, but most Odyssey buyers will probably care more about how composed and easy it feels during everyday driving than how much speed it can carry through a corner.
Where the Odyssey really started to make sense was behind the front seats. The Touring offers seating for eight and uses Honda’s Magic Slide second-row seats. Remove the centre seat and either outboard seat can slide laterally across the cabin, allowing the second row to be repositioned depending on who or what is travelling with you. Honda also provides five seating positions with LATCH anchors, which becomes much more relevant once child seats are actually part of the equation.
Admittedly, moving a seat sideways sounds considerably less impressive than making it disappear into the floor. With a child seat installed during our week, however, the usefulness became obvious. The entire second-row seat could still move laterally, allowing us to reposition our son without removing or reinstalling the child seat. It sounds like a small detail, but it quickly became one of the features we used most and one of those things that is difficult to fully appreciate until you live with it.
Third-row access was also easier than what we experienced in the Pacifica. This was one of our complaints with that van, particularly when carrying older passengers. The Odyssey allows the second-row seats to move out of the way and create a more usable path toward the rear. Stow ’n Go remains the better solution when maximum cargo space is needed quickly, while Magic Slide may be the smarter solution when those second-row seats are actually occupied most of the time.
CabinWatch is another feature that makes considerably more sense after living with the Odyssey. An interior camera displays the rear seating area on the infotainment screen, allowing the driver to check on passengers without constantly turning around. With a child sitting behind us, it became part of normal driving much faster than expected. CabinTalk was less useful during our week, as the system broadcasts the driver’s voice toward rear passengers and would probably make more sense with older children. Our Touring tester also included a ceiling-mounted rear entertainment screen. It works well, but tablets have changed the way passengers consume media, and when the screen is lowered it takes up a noticeable portion of the rear-view mirror.
The rest of the cabin is comfortable and practical, but it does not feel particularly luxurious. The black interior in our tester looked good and everything felt well assembled, although there are plenty of hard plastics and familiar Honda switchgear. That would be easier to overlook at a lower price, but the 2026 Honda Odyssey Touring is currently listed at $63,066 by Honda Canada, with the displayed selling price including freight, PDI, levies and fees but excluding taxes. At that price, the lack of all-wheel drive, absence of a hybrid powertrain and fairly ordinary cabin materials become considerably more noticeable.
Fuel economy is another area where the Odyssey’s naturally aspirated V6 faces a disadvantage against newer hybrid alternatives. Honda rates it at 12.2 L/100 km in the city, 8.5 L/100 km on the highway and 10.6 L/100 km combined. During our week of mixed driving, we observed 9.1 L/100 km, considerably better than the official combined figure. That does not suddenly make the Odyssey a hybrid, but it was far more efficient during our week than expected and made the traditional V6 powertrain easier to appreciate.
What we remembered most about the Odyssey had very little to do with the engine or how well it handled. It was sliding a second-row seat across the van with a child seat still installed, checking the rear seat with CabinWatch and opening a sliding door in a tight parking lot without worrying about what was parked beside us. None of those things sound particularly exciting on a spec sheet, but they are exactly the kinds of details that become important once a vehicle is being used as part of everyday family life.
The 2026 Honda Odyssey Touring is expensive, front-wheel drive only and its naturally aspirated V6 is not going to win a fuel economy argument against a hybrid. The interior could also feel considerably more special for the money. Honda has, however, clearly spent years figuring out the small things families actually deal with, and after a week those details ended up mattering more than many of the features that initially stood out.
Stow ’n Go is still the better solution for quickly maximizing cargo space, but with a child seat installed, Magic Slide proved more useful in everyday family life.
