The lowly minivan, a vehicle that was a staple of driveways everywhere for decades has been now largely replaced with crossovers. There are few players left on the market and their consumers usually buy them with an audible sigh rather than ecstatic enthuasim like their other vehicuilar brethren. That is until you fast forward a few years down the road. The minivan and it’s three row crossover counterpart find themselves in the exact same place:
The carpets, to the seat creases to the cupholders…are all littered with the flaky remains of Goldfish crackers and Cheerios
The seats, no matter how many times you clean them, find themselves awash in old sticky liquids that maybe forming new lifeforms of their own
The doorjambs are stuffed full of old wrappers, candy bars and napkins
The windows are streaked with so many fingerprints that it would make a Crime Scene Investigator yelp in glee
Here is the difference though between the minivan and the crossover. The crossover purchase tends to be more of an aspirational buy, something you want and desire in your driveway. It also costs more than the equivalent minivan and with all of the in mind, you find yourself coddling its interior condition. So the acres of crumbs, sticky residue and children paraphernalia strewn across its cabin can be more of a traumatic event.
Rather than the aspirational purchase, the minivan is the ‘responsible’ buy and you tend to treat it more as a tool. Therefore, you expect the interior to be riddled with aforementioned layers of garbage. If it gets too much, a large shop vac can be easily bumped through its interior without a care in the world. You can scrub it’s seats with a Lysol wipe without worrying about ruining the leather, you can spray all of the Invisiglass you want on the windows and never have to worry about overspray landing on it’s trim. The minivan can handle it. It’s made to handle it. There is no thinking involved, you just ‘do.
Heck, it’s deserves the moniker of a utility vehicle more than any other ‘sport’ utility vehicle on the road. It’s a vehicle made to fit everyone and everything in actual usable, arm stretching space. It’s a vehicle that you drive around town crashing into potholes, scraping along steep driveways and loading it’s canvernous interior with mulch not because you’re vehicular sadist….but because…that’s what you do with a minivan. It’s something that is designed, engineered and made to be beaten up, kicked and scratched to all livin’ hell…just to keep on keeping on.
All of that practical goodness comes an actual fondness for it…trust me. Ask anyone who has previously owned a minivan in their life and they will all state the same: They truly do miss the darn thing.
Yes I know, you want that crossover. But look at it this way, that crossover you want looks fantastic its clean and gleaming interior. Now, think about how it would look with shoes, papers, jolly ranchers and cheese itz all over that interior. How do you feel? Now think about a minivan in the same condition. See that difference?
Get that crossover once the kids are grown and you will appreciate it all that much more. In the meantime, the minivan will be holding down the fort for you and your family.
It’s got this. It’s got you.
Let’s go ahead and break it down the 2024 Odyssey: